To copy an application from one database to another, use the copyapp command. The copyapp command copies information about an application as stored in the Ingres system catalogs. If the -s flag is specified, copyapp also copies the source code files for the application. For Vision applications, copyapp -s only copies source code files for Custom frames, not Vision-generated frames.

The copy process involves two steps:

The copyapp command notifies you if components in the new and old databases have the same names. By default, copyapp does not copy the component if there is a name conflict. If you use the -r flag, copyapp replaces the component in the new database with the same-named component from the old database.

Similarly, you cannot use the copyapp command to merge applications. You can replace an existing application by using the -r flag. By default, the copyapp in operation does not copy the application if an application with the same name exists in the database.

The copyapp command does not transfer any other database components, such as rules, reports, or tables. In order for your application to work correctly, you must be sure that the database contains the correct components.

You can copy individual components of an application—such as forms and reports—from one database to another using copyform, copyrep, and similar utilities. To copy database tables, you can use the copydb and unloaddb utilities. See the System Administrator's Guide for more information about any of these utilities.

The following sections describe the syntax of the two steps of the copyapp operation.