>
> not sure if you are aware that the server manages all this for you. Why are
> you intent on trying to manage this yourself manually. I might still be
> missing your intent.
> Alan
>

Alan -

Thanks for your reply. It has been my understanding that when records are continually inserted & later deleted that the space doesn't get automatically reclaimed, rather a backup and restore is required using gbak.

Unfortunately you can't restore a db that is in use. In critical systems where there is no time window in which the database can be taken offline a method to 'pack' the database, for lack of a better term, while the database is in use can become necessary.

Otherwise, as time passes and the db allocates more pages and develops more 'unused space' the performance of the db degrades.

I have read in older threads on other sites that versions of Firebird prior to the 2.1.x series had no way of 'packing' the database pages without restoring from a backup file. I was hoping that perhaps with the addition of the nbackup utility or by any other means this shortcoming may have been overcome.

Are you saying that this is no longer an issue? Can a Firebird db be used in an OLTP scenario without performance degradation due to db page 'fragmentation' (again, for lack of a better term)?

Thanks again.