>
> I don't want to argue whether fragmentation will cause or not

performance

> issues because it definitely will and the larger the database the
> bigger the penalty.

Alex,

I think you are wasting your time. Firebird works with pages and could
not care less as to how fragmented the database file is. It doesn't
even care if it is in 1 file or 10. If you observed any benefit, it
would have been due to the removal of garbage and rebuilding of the index.

If however you are convinced you can see the difference, defragment
your hard drive, install your database and create a temporary table.
Fill the temporary table with more data than your database will ever
hold. Drop the temporary table and sweep. Firebird should then reuse
the empty pages rather than requesting more from the OS, and this file
should not be affected by fragmentation.

Adam