Svein Erling Tysvær wrote:

> gfix has a -sh[ut] switch that can be used for shutting down one
> particular database. It's described on page 840 of The Firebird Book.
> A shutdown database can only be accessed by SYSDBA or the owner.

Or alternatively (if you're not the only one with SYSDBA password), you could
rename the database file temporarily and work on it.

> IB_SQL (freeware, www.ibobjects.com) is capable of showing who is
> connected to the database. I guess other tools can do the same thing.

Yes, via services API. You can even use tools like FBExport if you need this
info inside shell script or .bat file. But, it would only work for
SuperServer. For Classic, you could check if some process is using the file.
On Linux, for example, you can do it with "lsof" or "luser" command.

--
Milan Babuskov
http://fbexport.sourceforge.net
http://www.flamerobin.org