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Article #25618: Why doesn't the database file get bigger when I do an insert?

Problem:
I notice that the size of my database that holds my InterBase database is not
growing like I expect it to when I do inserts.  Do you know why it is doing this?

Solution:

The database file not  growing in size could be perfectly normal behavior. If the inserts occurred on
a database that had had lots of deletes before, the database would first fill up empty pages
 with the new data.  When you do a delete, the empty pages are not removed from the database.
 As a result, the database file will not shrink until you back it up and restore it. 

Another possibility is that there could be a big database cache and the database
file size is not increasing until the cache gets flushed out.  That could explain
situations when the file size in the directory listing stays the same until the end of 
a long insert.

If there is a lot of concern about the possibility of the individual database file growing beyond
the operating system's limit for file size, it might be helpful to spread the database out
over multiple files.  This would help to avoid difficulties caused by operating system
limits on file size. 










Last Modified: 25-OCT-00