Re: data export from old unisys/informix system

Marcel You can use dbexport to get the information into pipe-delimited flat data files from an Informix database. The command syntax is dbexport database_name, and it will create a subdirectory database_name.exp which will contain the database_name.sql (the schema) and *.unl files. If you dont know the database_name, run dbaccess (or isql) to find out. Another way could be to UNLOAD all data from the tables and dbschema to get the schema. HTH Sujit Marcel Gsteiger <milprog@csi.com> on 07/28/99 01:05:56 AM Please respond to Marcel Gsteiger <milprog@csi.com> To: informix-list@iiug.org cc: (bcc: Sujit Pal) Subject: data export from old unisys/informix system One of my customers has a 10-year-old unisys unix system with a informix application, but no documentation whatsoever. They would like to just export the database in some form to be re-imported on a new, different system. Their database is not large, the biggest table occupies about 100'000 records. For data exchange, there are two possibilities: 1) 5 1/4 inch floppy disks 2) serial terminal connections My idea was to connect a PC to the serial line and "download" the data in some form. Is there a source for informix/PC export utilities that could help to perform this task? Thanks for any suggestions. -- Marcel

thanks for your helpful tips, this gives me an idea on how I could proceed. I still have a "beginner question": I think that these exported files can only be re-imported into informix again. But my new system will be oracle 8. How could I convert the data to something very common, e.g. CSV format? Can dbexport perform this? Thank you for responding and greetings from switzerland -- Marcel

Marcel Gsteiger wrote: > I still have a "beginner question": I think that these exported > files can only be re-imported into informix again. But my new > system will be oracle 8. How could I convert the data to something > very common, e.g. CSV format? Can dbexport perform this? Poor you. DB-Export cannot unload data in any format other than the Informix UNLOAD format. If you have no other Informix systems available, you are reduced to reformatting the UNLOAD format files into CSV -- which wouldn't be too bad if it weren't for the fact numbers must not be enclosed in quotes but most other types must. If you have ESQL/C on your system, you might be able to get SQLCMD to compile, and it has a CSV unload format. Check the IIUG web site. Also, the latest version might not be most appropriate for a 10-year old system; you might need an old version. Contact me if that is a serious option. -- Jonathan Leffler (jleffler@informix.com, jleffler@earthlink.net) Guardian of DBD::Informix v0.60 -- see http://www.perl.com/CPAN #include <disclaimer.h>