Updating a Remote Database?

My need is to update a remote database each day. I would like to export the data from my local database to ASCII flat files using the SQL unload statement and then make it available for downloading (using Zmodem, Kermit, or some other modem protocol) by the remote site. At the opposite end a script will run which will use a SQL load statement to load the data into the remote database. My problem is that some of the records that are exported from my local database will update existing records in the remote database. The SQL load command only allows an insert clause for records being loaded from a flat file. I've thought about writing shell scripts which will basically load the flat file a record at a time, doing a select first to see if the record exists in the remote database and performing an update instead if necessary. These shell scripts would rely on dbaccess to run the SQL commands and a very twisted series of awk, sed, and grep statements would follow (through Unix pipes) to determine if the record already existed in the database. I've also thought about using isqlperl which will simplify the process a bit. I do have ESQL but I would like to keep the solution to this problem script based. I'm running Online 5.04 on Solaris 2.4. Any (and all) other suggestions greatly appreciated. Sal. --- Salvatore Saieva PRINCIPIA Partners, LLC E-Mail: uunet!merccap!saieva Harborside Financial Center Phone: (201) 946-0300 902 Plaza II, 9th Floor Fax: (201) 946-0320 Jersey City, NJ 07311 Exhortation: ``Aesthetics are more important than efficiency.'' -DEK