Sorry to continue an off-topic discussion but...

> But it looks as if you are using an old (known buggy)
> distribution of IBConsole. Later versions have fixed the
> bug you report but IBConsole is still considered unreliable
> for backups and restores. Use the command-line GBAK.

Helen, you imply that GBAK is reliable. I would beg to differ, and
recommend everyone thoroughly test their backup routines after any DDL
changes to a database. Make SURE it works for you before relying on
it to save you from disaster.

Somewhere in my 100,000+ lines of SQL there is something that causes
GBAK to create consistently corrupt backups. (IB v5.6 and v6)

I am not trying to cause a panic, it would seem that GBAK works for
most people and databases. This is just a warning to test your
backups. Of course this warning is superfluous, people always test
their backup regimes dont they? ;-)


I have been trying to create a demonstration of the problem to send to
those that might be able to fix it, but so far no luck in pinning down
the specific cause of the problem. At one point I thought I had found
it (by moving one constraint definition up above a previous one), but
that only partly fixed it for a greatly cutdown version. So I am
still looking, when I find it (them?) I will pass it on to the gurus.

At the moment the only backups that I can rely upon are offline
backups by a separate utility.

Geoff Worboys
Telesis Computing