I think this is actually the fix I need. I can get things to work
properly if I run the appropriate gfix command to enable forced
writes, from a command line, before starting the Java app. I guess
that the database was initially set up without forced writes (it is a
pretty old database - set up during FB 1.5.3 or older - and I was not
involved in creating it so maybe it was set explicitly by the creator).

Once I can get this fix incorporated in the Java code or in the patch
installer I'll be set.

Thanks a lot to both of you!
Matt

> In terms of a database cache, it does not quite work the way you are
> expecting. There is a forced writes setting on each database you will
> want to set to true (if you care about the data inside ;) ). This is
> the default setting for new databases in Firebird, but databases
> created in ancient history may have defaulted false.
>
> See notes on gfix (or any admin tool) to change setting.