Database compact

[Henry Gibbons]

Stupidly I pressed this without knowing precisely what it would do. Subsequently I read the previous thread on the topic, but my experience was not so good. I got an error message that one of the tables could not be compacted, and, when I tried to run the database again, several crucial forms had been trashed. Fortunately I have a backup. Why would this routine wreak such havoc?

Henry Gibbons

[William Kohlnstein]

RE: Database compact

when you do a compact, and you have left a table open, somewhere, typically in a custom script or form opened as a dialog - you get the message because Alpha cannot lock the file.

it usually asks - "drop the table from the database" - and if you inadvertently answered "yes," then layouts based on the existence of that table will no longer appear when you reopen the database; or, if the table is a child in a form - you will get errors from the system wnen you open it.

if this is the case, you need to find what's leaving a table or dialog form open.

[William Kohlnstein]

RE: Database compact

PS: a "database compact" compacts(removes deleted records from all tables,) rebuilds indexes, and rebuilds the dictionaries for the tables and sets. You typically run a compact periodically when you are making a lot of changes in development mode.

[Henry Gibbons]

RE: Database compact

William -

Thanks for the explanation. I answered no, and it didn't drop the table, but it dropped some of the forms based on the table. I'm pretty sure nothing was open, but next time I'll do it from a cold start.

Henry Gibbons

[William Kohlnstein]

RE: Database compact

here is a little script you can paste into a custom script in the code section of the control panel (like maybe "filesopen") - you can run your app through its paces, exit to the control panel and run this script. If there is a table open it will give you a hint of where to look. The line "tbl=table.open(table_name, file_rw_exclusive)" will return an error if a file is open as it asks for exclusive access to the file.


on error goto tabletest
files=filefind.first(A_DB_CURRENT_PATH+"*.dbf")
WHILE .not. files.eof()
table_name=files.name()
tbl=table.open(table_name,file_rw_exclusive)
name=tbl.name_get()
tbl.close()
loop:
files.next()
end while
end
tabletest:
ui_msg_box("FILE OPEN",upper(table_name)+" is open.")
goto loop
end

[Henry Gibbons]

RE: Database compact

William -

Thanks for the help. I'll try it.

Henry