Re: Converting data to Informix from PICK!

Nick Nobbe wrote: > > On Thu, 27 Jun 1996, Mike Segel wrote: [SNIP] > Mikey, > I stand corrected. But here's where I take exception. If the > flavor is Unix, why in heaven's name would you want to write, > lint, compile, debug, etc., etc. a C program, when you can do > it quick and dirty with the Unix toolset? I'm assuming you mean > format the data for loading, not reading the tape, which task is > done by dd (assuming your tape drive does its thing and handles > the physical details of reading). > Forgive me if I'm being over-literal. Just hoping to throw > some light, not flame on the matter. I answered this in e-mail but since you posted it here .... PICK sits on top of UNIX in its own little world. From UNIX you do not have access to the database. The only way to get to the data is to either read an archieve tape, or to write a program to dump the records. Dumping records work fine until you hit a record >= 64K. Also remember that each record could have sub records. (Multi value columns ...) Since I havent disected a backup tape, I can't say for sure what you will find. But C is probably the fasted way to write a generic program to disect the tape and generate tables. The same techniques could be used to disect Informix Level 0 archieves. (so the individual who has an old archieve for one system could get the data from the tape.) BTW you could use dd to give you a starting point, or open the tape directly. In either event you would still need the blocking factor unless it is automatically stored in the first block. -Mikey