I’m presuming RootsMagic’s Compact Database button is the equivalent of a Vacuum command in SQLite and , as I understand it, that operation entails copying entire rows without trying to extract any column values. This means that it can’t detect when rows are malformed or out of order and thusly, there’s a minute chance for data corruption that would be better served by offering those options in the order shown via the Command Pallette path.
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I cannot speak to if the assumption that the compact database is equivalent to the SQL vacuum command. I was told during testing of the Tools page that the order did not matter.
Not going to dispute your source …then… but changing the order to match makes sense.
“…you could run the CREATE INDEXes after VACUUM, but do so before ANALYZE…”
Dr. Hipp creator of SQLite
It’s unclear to me how your citation from the father of sqlite bears on the sequence of tools. In earlier versions of RM, the order presented was certainly reliable. Integrity Check could be done any time but if it failed, Rebuild Indexes might correct the fault. If there is a fault that Rebuild Indexes could fix, you wouldn’t know there had been one if you had not run Integrity Check first. And you might want to run Rebuild Indexes anyway because it not only runs the sqlite REINDEX to rebuild the table indexes but also regenerates the Birth and Death Years used in the RM sidebar index of names and elsewhere. If you had run IC before RI and got a fault report, then you might repeat it after RI to confirm that it’s fixed.
Delete Phantoms is a purely RM procedure that cleans out unused rows from some tables. It’s probably advisable to get an OK from an IC before doing so, and that might entail a RI.
RM’s Compact is an alias for sqlite VACUUM so it’s logical that it should be done after the others but it is really only beneficial if there has been a lot of deletions or merges. And, typically, iirc, it fails if IC reports faulty indexes so a RI might clear that problem. And, iirc I’ve seen VACUUM clear up the occasional IC error but I do not know what the root cause was.
Dr. Hipp’s mention of ANALYZE seems unrelated to this topic as it is not among RM’s database tools.
That’s obviously a reply to the OP in that thread (a programmer by trade). Other than that, my citation was merely to hint that some sort of order IS recommended. Do you have a quibble with the reqeust that the menus should match (irrespective of the safety of the sequence)?
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I meant to add that the order as it is/was in File>Database Tools is logical and practical and should be duplicated in Tools>Database Tools but I had to meet a deplaning passenger before completing my comments. Integrity Check should be the most frequently used tool so it should be the first. Compact is the most seldom needed and should be last in the list, setting aside Compare Files which is in a different category from these maintenance utilities. And because Rebuild Indexes has a remedial role to play when Integrity Check fails, it should immediately follow IC.
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