Maury Markowitz wrote:

> No, sorry, I meant to say that every reference I have ever found has suggested the "correct" way to move a FB database from one machine to another is to simply copy the FDB file while the server is down.

Oops, that's not good advice. Although this may be safe, it may also not be (depending on platform, possibility of embedded connections, etc.)

It also requires you to stop the server, which may be a nuisance if there are also other databases in use.

Did you find this advice in any docs that came from the Firebird project itself?

> However, in my case, the presence of the failed nbackup meant that the delta file it left behind also had to be copied. I'm actually surprised that simply copying both files actually solved the problem, but I suppose it did so because the original FDB had some sort of pointer to the existence of the delta. This is definitely *not* something that the documentation covers.

No, but it doesn't really need to. First, it is an implementation detail, and second, it goes without saying that if all modifications are sent to the delta, Firebird knows that if the main database is in nbak state, it also needs the delta. The default name is <database file name>.delta, but you can set another path + name in the database itself (and this is something that the manual *does* cover).

> Actually, from your post it would seem that the whole concept of simply coping the FDB is a bad idea anyway, and the proper solution would be to always use gbak?

If in any doubt, use gbak. But as you can tell from Sean's post, there are situations where a straight file copy/move is just as safe. Just make sure you know what you are doing.


Cheers,
Paul Vinkenoog