<div>Not sure if I am on the same page as you John, are you still working this through only just saw it?</div>
<div> </div>
<div>One OS safe method - if you are using fixed record sizes, then instead of removing a record (and repacking the file in situ) re-enter/alter the record with a key field saying "deleted" or something.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Then periodically when there is no file access going on run a maintanence routine to rewrite the file to a copy not writing the deleted records accross, then delete/backup original and rename your newly written maintenece file as the original.</div>
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<div>Paul</div>
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<div class="gmail_quote">2009/8/26 Peter Hyde <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:peter@webcentre.co.nz">peter@webcentre.co.nz</a>></span><br>
<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex" class="gmail_quote">John asked:<br>
<div class="im"><br>> Is there a simple way to alter the size of an existing file -<br>> particularly to decrease the size?<br><br></div>Unless TFileStream has changed since I last looked in detail, you<br>won't find it easy.<br>
<br>I know that in similar cases I ended up adopting the "write to temp<br>file/rename-after" approach; I don't know if that would suit your<br>conditions adequately.<br><br><br>cheers,<br>peter<br><br>===========================================<br>
Peter Hyde, Development Director<br>* <a href="http://turbonote.com/" target="_blank">http://TurboNote.com</a> -- top-rated onscreen sticky notes<br>* Web development and automation: <a href="http://webcentre.co.nz/" target="_blank">http://webcentre.co.nz</a><br>
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