Creating Databases and Using Alternate Locations

This chapter describes database files and the process of creating and dropping databases. It also explains the default storage locations that are established during installation for database files, and how to create and use alternate locations.

Types of Files in an Ingres Database

An Ingres database consists of several types of files:

• Data

  Data files contain the following:

  • User tables and indexes created by an authorized user. These are referred to as user data files. For details, see the chapter "Managing Tables and Views."
  • The system catalogs. These are dictionary tables that contain information about the database, such as descriptions of its tables, columns, and views. For a complete description of the system catalogs, see the appendix "System Catalogs."
• Checkpoint

  Checkpoint files contain a static copy of your entire database. A checkpoint file is created each time you take a checkpoint of your database.

• Journal

  Journal files contain dynamic records of changes made to the journaled tables in your database.

• Dump

  Dump files contain records of changes to the database that occurred during the checkpoint process. These files are used to recover a database that was checkpointed online.

  For additional information about checkpoint, journal, and dump files, see the chapter "Backing Up and Recovering Databases."

• Work

  Work files are used for system work, such as sorting and creating temporary tables.