I'm writing a backup utility that will need to back up tables that may be in use by others, as well as DBC-related files that may also be in use by others.


Question 1:

Is there a way, before actually opening a table, to determine if it's a free table, or if it's part of a DBC database?

One general approach is to:

* Make sure there is no database open
* Open the table
* See if DBC() returns an empty string

The table may be in use by someone else (non-exclusively), don't know if that would have any effect on LLFF-based approaches.


Question 2:

To copy an open DBC and related files, I'm planning to open it non-exclusively as a table, then use VFP COPY... or APPEND commands to build another one elsewhere.

Although with all my applications the DBC resides in the same folder as its member tables, that may not always be the case. Are there any special considerations or gotchas regarding backlinks?