At 09:35 AM 24/04/2005 +0000, you wrote:

>Hi,
>
>Does Firebird support file compatibility across platforms?

If the OS platform is running on the same hardware platform then yes ---
with warnings.

>Can we easily perform (100%) cross platforms operations:
>- copy firebird data files

Copying Firebird data files in a production environment is never wise, even
across 100% equivalent platforms. It is always safest to make a
transportable gbak and restore it.

>- backup from one platform (i.e. Linux, or Windows) to other platforms
>(i.e. Windows, Linux, or Solaris)

You can gbak backup from any platform and gbak recreate to any other
platform (OS or hardware). Even if some people tell you they did it by
file-copying, the wise thing to do is make a transportable backup.

You can't, for example, file-copy from Solaris Sparc to Solaris Intel
without encountering what will become logically corrupt numeric data on
Intel (because of Endianness differences). The same applies with copying a
database from MacOSX to Linux, etc. I believe FreeBSD and Debian have some
little quirks of incompatibility at the OS level, though I don't know the
details.

>My requirement for "easily perform cross platforms operation" is that
>the file can be transport across platform without changes (as it is
>from original platform).

No changes are required. Gbak lays down metadata definitions followed by
data in a standard platform-neutral text data format. Gbak backup from the
old platform and restore on the new is all that is required. It's just
important for some people to understand that you can't "downgrade" a
database by backing it up in a higher version and restoring it into a lower
one.

./hb