ok thanks for that syntax help. I have checked and i'm pretty sure our charset is set to NONE as this is what is indicated in my connection to the database in IBexpert. i tried your example command replacing -fix_fss_metadata UTF8 with -fix_fss_metadata NONE
but looks like supplying NONE cuts the whole -fix switch out of the command

--- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, Paul Vinkenoog <paul@...> wrote:
>
> You wrote:
>
> > ok i ran the command
> > gbak -fix_fss_metadata -r -user sysdba -password pass /opt/firebird/fbbackup/stock.fbk /ibdata/stock.fdb
> >
> > got the following error
> > gbak: ERROR:file /opt/firebird/stock.fbk is not a valid database
>
> Please look at the documents in misc/upgrade/metadata, especially metadata_charset.txt.
> The syntax for the special gbak switches is:
>
> -FIX_FSS_METADATA <charset>
> and/or
> -FIX_FSS_DATA <charset>
>
> So you have to supply the character set that your (meta)data are currently in. In the backup file, that is.
> Gbak will then transliterate them to well-formed UNICODE_FSS.
>
> Notice that these switches only affect table columns that are (supposed to be) in UNICODE_FSS.
>
> Also, use -c rather than -r when restoring, and choose a file name that doesn't exist yet in the directory.
>
> *Supposing* the metadata in your backup (made under 1.5, very good) are in UTF8, you would invoke gbak like this:
>
> gbak -user sysdba -password pass -c -fix_fss_metadata utf8 /opt/firebird/fbbackup/stock.fbk /ibdata/stock_test_from_utf8.fdb
>
> And if they are in (possibly broken) UNICODE_FSS:
>
> gbak -user sysdba -password pass -c -fix_fss_metadata unicode_fss /opt/firebird/fbbackup/stock.fbk /ibdata/stock_test_from_fss.fdb
>
> (not sure of this last one makes any difference compared with omitting the switch, btw)
>
> etc.
>
> I've never had to do this myself, so after this I haven't got any more tips for you. But maybe this is enough to get you going. If not, somebody else will have to step in.
>
>
> Good luck,
> Paul Vinkenoog
>