Informix - dbexport/dbimport.. silly question

Ben Hart
Ben Hart used Ask the Experts™
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Say you have DB1.. if you successfull run dbexport on that database.  And let's say you lose the exported file(s).. is the data still contained within DB1 and in a current state that you could fire up the instance and access the data like nothing happened?
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Jim P.
Most Valuable Expert 2014

Commented:
You should be able to. About 99.9% of the databases don't actually delete the data during the export process, they just make a copy of it in some sort text readable file.
Ben Hart

Author

Commented:
I had hoped there'd be more than one reply.  Maybe someone whose done it before?
Gary PattersonVP Technology / Senior Consultant

Commented:
dbexport is nondestructive.  It basically generates a bunch of SELECT statements, so you'll want to disable SELECT triggers before you run an export.

- Gary Patterson
Ben Hart

Author

Commented:
Thanks so much Gray.  Last thing.. once you dbimport into the new db on the new server.. does this new db need to already be as big as the old one or will it dynamically increase?
VP Technology / Senior Consultant
Commented:
When you run dbimport, you specify the name of an existing dbspace (the default rootdbs dbspace is used if you don't specify a dbspace).

A dbspace is just a logical collection of chunks of disk space used to hold the database.

The dbspace you specify needs to exist, and be large enough to hold the new database being imported.  

All of this is covered in much better detail than you'll get here in the Informix documentation.  You'll find information on creating dbspaces, adding chunks to an existing dbspace, importing/exporting, and more:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/ifxhelp/v0/index.jsp

- Gary Patterson

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