At 11:24 PM 15/03/2008, you wrote:

>Hi!
>
>I remember reading somewhere that IB6 allowed only one single database file.

Not true.

>Now am I mistaken or were having the option to have multiple DB files introduced only in Firebird?

You are mistaken. Multi-file databases go a long way back in InterBase. They used to be essential when filesystems had relatively small file size limits. You can still have them but you only *need* them if you are storing databases on a filesystem with limits that are too low to accommodate your database or for some reason you need to split a database across multiple partitions/drives.

>The other question is:
>Are multiple files created automatically or do I have to set some switch for it?

You have to supply parameters (filenames and sizes in bytes) in the CREATE DATABASE or gbak command. You don't specify the file size for the last file in the chain.

>I remember reading somewhere that the max file size on XP is 4GB.

Only if your filesystem is FAT32 or NTFS 4. Windows 2K and above NTFS partitions have virtually no file size limit other than the maximum capacity of the partition.

>What happens when the DB becomes bigger than this size?

Around 16 Terabytes: time to buy a new disk. ;-)

If you have databases on a limited-size partition you should keep a watch on database growth and add more files as necessary. Fb 2.1 onward, new disk pages will be pre-allocated and you can configure how many pages, to some degree.

./hb