4-64 IBM Informix OnLine Database Server Administrator’s Guide
Using tbunload and tbloadtbunload
The tbunload utility can unload data more quickly than eitherdbexport or
theUNLOAD command because it copies the data in binary and in page-sized
units. However, this places some constraints on its use:
■tbunload writes data to tape only.
■Youmust load the tape written by tbunload onto a machine with the
same page size as the original machine.
■Youmust load the data on the tbunload tape into a database or table
managed by OnLine.
■When you unload a complete database, ownership of all database
objects(such as tables, indexes, and views) cannot be modified until
after the database is unloaded.
■tbunload unloads page images. If you load the pages to another
machinethat stores numeric data types differently than your current
machine (for example, with the most significant byte last instead of
first), the contents of the data page could be misinterpreted.
■tbunload does not carry over access privileges or synonyms that
were defined on the original tables.
tbload
The tbload utility performs faster than thedbimport,dbload, or LOAD
options. In exchange for this higher performance, the following five
constraints exist:
■tbload can only create a new database or table; you must drop or
renamean existing database or table of the same name before tbload
isrun. (tbload prompts you to rename blobspaces during execution,
if desired.)
■tbload locks the database or table exclusively during the load.
■When you load a complete database, the user executingtbload
becomes the owner of the database.