table backup/restore question

I tried to post this article yesterday however I doubt it made it outside our site since our news system is flakey. Sorry if this is a re-post. I would like to be able to backup/restore a database table to/from a tarfile (actually any type of file but a tarfile is preferred). Informix provides the utilities 'dbexport' (which unloads a database into an ASCII file) and 'dbimport' (which creates a database from ASCII files). These programs read/write directly to a tape device but down/up-load the whole database (not an individual table). Is there an Informix mechanism that will allow me to backup/restore an individual table? I could do something like the following but I would rather have the database system do it for me: Backup: select * from <table> > <tmpFile> tar cfv <devName> <tmpFile> Restore: tar xfv <devName> insert into <table> values < <tmpFile> Any advice as to what I could use would be appreciated. ADVthanksANCE, ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- John Koper | jrk@tcs.com Software Engineer | 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA 94704 Teknekron Communications Systems, Inc. | (510) 649-3592