At 05:24 AM 27/10/2007, you wrote:

>Thank you Helen, as you say the connection strings are not exactly the
>same.
>
>In non-English Windows Vista Microsoft has changed the rules for
>naming program files path. In older versions there always was
>"C:\Archivos de Programa", nows it is "C:\Program Files", leaving a
>kind of symlink for "C:\Archivos de Programa".
>
>I was having two different connection strings to access the same
>database :
>
>computer 1 -> "192.168.0.4:C:\Program Files\Almacen\Database\DDBB.fdb"
>computer 2 -> "192.168.0.4:C:\Archivos de
>Programa\Almacen\Database\DDBB.fdb"
>
>Both connection strings seems valids local paths, so do you still
>think there is a risk of corruption here ?. I must choose one ?

YES!! These little hidden Windows tricks with paths cause the condition that the Firebird server regards itself as two (or more) distinct servers. When more than one server controls the resources for a single database, corruption occurs.

To protect databases under Superserver (which threads client connections) the server takes a read-write lock when the database is opened, i.e., when the first attachment is made. The path used by that first connection then becomes the only valid path for any connection.

Classic server (which creates a separate process for each connection) cannot be protected this way, since each process opens the database on its own account.

-- Decide **one and only one path** that is to be used always, and create an alias for it in aliases.conf.
-- Then, use ONLY the database alias in your connection strings for all applications (including utility programs).
-- Always be certain that the path that is used is a "hard" path as seen by the host machine (no share names or mapped drives) and is in a directory that is not shared.

./heLen