Hello Maury,

> When I tried to re-attach the FDB file on the new server I got a "file not found" error. But looking in some of the logging files I found...
>
> Reason: I/O error for file CreateFile (open) "D:\FISHBOWL\DATABASE\DATA\ASSOLAR.FDB.delta"
> Error while trying to open file
> null
>
> Ahhhh. Notice *which* file it can't find?
>
> Well then, perhaps if I copy BOTH files over... and it works!
>
> So basically it seems that the FDB file contains some sort of information that points to the delta. When you attempt to connect to a FDB in this state, it also looks for that delta file, and if it's not there, you get "file not found". Makes sense in retrospect!

Of course it needs the delta. As long as the "backup" state lasts, the
main database file is frozen and all changes are written to the delta.
That is, the .fdb and the .fdb.delta *together* form the database.

> I then used isql to ALTER DATABASE END BACKUP. This took about 15 seconds to run (impressive!), and successfully merged the delta back into the FDB. Everything is back to normal. Yay!

Great!

> This is definitely something that should be mentioned in the documentation!

What exactly are you missing in the documentation? Notice that delta
files are normally very short-lived. If you use nbackup -b, the delta
has disappeared when the command completes (and if something went wrong,
there'll be an error message). And if you use nbackup -l, you are
supposed to know what you are doing ;-)

I daresay that if you had read the nbackup manual from beginning to end,
you could have solved this problem yourself. (This is not criticism,
BTW; this group is called firebird-SUPPORT for a reason.)

> Is there a method for me to do the documentation change? I'm pretty good at that sort of thing.

If you want to propose changes to a manual, the preferred way is to
submit them to the firebird-docs list (to subscribe, mail to
firebird-docs-request@...)

People who write or update documentation regularly can get CVS access.


Kind regards,
Paul Vinkenoog