NBACKUP does not work with aliases?

[topcodesoft]

Firebird 3.0.11 64bit, Windows 11 Pro.
When use nbackup for doing backup, using db alias, I get error:

nbackup.exe -BACKUP 0 localhost/3055:myDBalias "F:\Temp\backup.nbk" -user XXX-password xxx
Error opening database file: c:\FB\bin\MYDBALIAS 
-The system cannot find the file specified.

nbackup tries to find a database file in the location from where we are running this command (c:\FB\bin) with the same name as alias (MYDBALIAS ).
The same command with a direct path and database name instead of alias does the job.

The nbackup documentation says that db aliases can be used. What am I doing wrong?

[hvlad]

Works for me. Do you able to connect by alias with isql ?

[topcodesoft]

If I start nbackup from FB server/bin then it works. I tried to run it from folder with minimum fb client files, gbak works from that folder. Does NBACKUP try to find firebird.conf or is there some other file dependencies?

[aafemt]

Aliases are configured in databases.conf. nbackup has no other way to get them.

[hvlad]

nbackup requires direct access to the database file, thus it must have access to the databases.conf to resolve full database file name.

Next time you have a question, please, use support list not a bug tracker.
Or create discussion, not issue.

[topcodesoft]

Thanks for clarification! Sorry, I thought this was a bug.
Gbak find aliases even if it is not in same folder with databases.conf. Maybe this could be noted somewhere in Nbackup documentation.

[hvlad]

gbak doesn't look for aliases by itself. The difference is that gbak does not need to directly access the database file, while nbackup does. When gbak or nbackup or any other application connects to the database, alias is resoved by the engine which opens database file directly. But nbackup also needs to open database file for own needs. And nbackup docs explicitly specified this requirement:

https://www.firebirdsql.org/file/documentation/html/en/firebirddocs/nbackup/firebird-nbackup.html#nbackup-limitations

Except when the Services Manager is used (in Firebird 2.5+) backing up with nbackup requires direct access to the database file. With gbak this is not the case.

Hope it is clear now ;)

[mrotteveel]

I created FirebirdSQL/firebird-documentation#215 to see if things need to be improved in the nbackup docs.