On 2019-03-04 17:52, Fletcher Johnson wrote:
Mike,
I am assuming that the backup has to happen while the tables are in use (or you would just copy over the data folder via windows.) \ Creating the DBC programmatically should be easy (I seem to remember there is an option in VFP that generates the code to do so - which includes all the rules, RI, structures, etc. ) Just no data. You could use this to create a destination with no data and then append the source data to the empty backup tables.
This would create a very clean, packed, set of data.
Of course, it's not that simple if anyone is using it at the time.
You probably want to lock the source tables (and related) before appending. Or if you have a last modified record in the tables, use that to check for any changes since the data was copied. Or you might use cursors/views so that changes made by others don't affect you while copying. In fact, if you use a view or have buffering on, once the append is complete, you can check for changes.
Anyway, I am sure you will find something that works best for you,
Yeah, needs to happen while folks are still in it. I think GENDBC was the utility you were thinking of. This is all a moot point though; I'm gonna recommend Frank Perez and Rick Schummer's CleverFox Backup. It's the bomb. ;-)