NAME

       gbak -- backup /restore Firebird database

SYNOPSIS

       gbak -b [backup option...] [common option...] source target

       gbak -c|-r [restore option...] [common option...] source target

DESCRIPTION

       gbak is the tool for managing Firebird database logical backup and restore.

       In backup mode source is the path to an existing database and target is the backup file name. If target
       is "stdout", the backup is sent to the standard output.

       In restore mode source is an existing backup file and target is the path to a firebird database. If
       source is "stdin", the backup data is expected on the standard input.

COMMON OPTIONS

       Most options can be abbreviated. Below are given the shortest abbreviations as well as the full versions.

       -user string
           User name to use when connecting to the database.

       -ro string
       -role string
           SQL role to use when connecting to theh database.

       -pas string
       -password string
           Password to use when connecting to the database.

       -se
       -service
           Use services manager when talking to the database.

       -v
       -verify
           Report each action.

           Displays verbose information about what metadata is being processed, what table is being backed
           up/restored and how many records are processed.

       -y string
           Redirects status/error messages to the given path.

       -z  Prints full program version number before doing anything else. Prints server and database version
           information after connecting to the database.

BACKUP OPTIONS

       -b
       -backup_database
           Turns on backup mode.

       -co
       -convert
           Converts external tables into tables.

           Normally external tables are ignored during backup and restore. With the -convert option external
           tables are included in the backup as any other regular table. When such a backup is restored, these
           previously external tables are created as regular tables.

       -fa number
       -factor number
           Blocking factor. Output is written in block of number bytes. Useful when backing up to a tape.

       -g
       -garbage_collect
           Inhibits garbage collection.

           Normally Firebird runs a garbage collector when reading through the tables.  Since the backup process
           reads all the tables, this forces garbage collection of the whole database. Using this switch speeds
           up the backup process and also can help in some cases of backing up damaged databases.

       -ig
       -ignore
           Ignores records with bad checksums.

           This option should be used only when backing up damaged databases.

       -l
       -limbo
           Ignores transactions in limbo.

       -m
       -metadata_only
           Backs up metadata only. No table content is included in the backup.

       -nt Uses non-transportable backup format.

           Non-transportable backups can be restored only on machines using the same byte order.

       -o
       -old_descriptions
           Saves old-style metadata descriptions.

RESTORE OPTIONS

       -c
       -create
           Turns on restore mode.

           target database will be created and must not exist.

       -r [o]
       -recreate_database [overwrite]
           Like -create_database, but by adding "overwrite" any existing database is overwritten.

       -rep
       -replace_database
           Turns on restore mode. Target database is overwritten if it exists.

       -bu number
       -buffers number
           When creating target database, ignore information about database buffers stored in the backup and use
           specified number.

       -e
       -expand
           Normally, Firebird uses RLE compression for strings when storing them on disk. This option turns this
           compression off.

       -i
       -inactive
           Restore indexes in inactive state. This can be used to restore a backup, containing data inconsistent
           with foreign key/unique constraints.

           Note that since version 3.0 gbak leaves any problematic indices in inactive state automatically.

       -k
       -kill
           Does not restore database shadow files.

       -mo access
       -mode access
           Restores the database with given access.

           Valid values for access are "read_only" and "read_write". The default is to restore the database with
           its original access mode.

       -n
       -no_validity
           Restores the database without its validity constraints. This includes foreign key, unique and check
           constraints. Useful for restoring a backup, containing inconsistent data.

       -o
       -one_at_a_time
           Commits restoring transaction after each table.

       -p number
       -page_size number
           Override page size stored in the backup. Valid values are 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384 and 32768.

       -use_
       -use_all_space
           Normally, Fireburd reserves some space on each data page for further use.  This reserved space is
           used for newly inserted data and for keeping older versions of the data. Having space reserved for
           this purpose "near" to the data speeds up modifications. If the database will be used mainly for read
           operations, specifying this option will save disk space.

       -fix_fss_metadata string
           When restoring metadata, in case it is not valid UTF8, try to convert it from the specified character
           set. Useful when table descriptions are given in some national non-UTF8 encoding, which was possible
           with Firebird before version 2.5.

       -fix_fss_data string
           When restoring table data, in case a column defined with UNICODE_FSS character set contains no valid
           UTF8 (which was possible with versions of Firebird prior to 2.5), try to convert the data from the
           specified character set.

   RESTORING TO MULTIPLE-FILE DATABASE
       When the target argument is in the form file_1 pages_1 ... file_N, the restored database is written in
       several files with file_i not bigger than pages_i pages. This may be useful if the file system that holds
       the database file can't handle files above certain size.

       Note 1: the file size limit is in pages.

       Note 1: there is no limit on the size of the last file.

ENVIRONMENT

       ISC_USER
           Default value for the -user option.

       ISC_ROLE
           Default value for the -role option.

       ISC_PASSWORD
           Default value for the -password option.

EXAMPLES

   Backup a database into a compressed format
       gbak -b srv:/database.fdb stdout | gzip > database.fbk.gz

   Restore a database from a compressed backup
       zcat database.fbk.gz | gbak -c stdin srv:/new-database.fdb

SEE ALSO

       isql-fb(1), gfix(1), fbstat(1).

       Additional documentation about Firebird can be found on the Firebird Project website,
       <http://www.firebirdsql.org>.

AUTHOR

       This manual page was written by Damyan Ivanov dmn@debian.org for the Debian project. Permission is
       granted to use this document, with or without modifications, provided that this notice is retained. If we
       meet some day, and you think this stuff is worth it, you can buy me a beer in return.