Appendix D. System Tables

When you create a database, the Firebird engine creates a lot of system tables. Metadata — the descriptions and attributes of all database objects — are stored in these system tables.

System table identifiers all begin with the prefix RDB$.

List of System Tables

Section D.1, RDB$AUTH_MAPPING

Stores authentication and other security mappings

Section D.2, RDB$BACKUP_HISTORY

History of backups performed using nBackup

Section D.3, RDB$CHARACTER_SETS

Names and describes the character sets available in the database

Section D.4, RDB$CHECK_CONSTRAINTS

Cross references between the names of constraints (NOT NULL constraints, CHECK constraints and ON UPDATE and ON DELETE clauses in foreign key constraints) and their associated system-generated triggers

Section D.5, RDB$COLLATIONS

Collation sequences for all character sets

Section D.6, RDB$CONFIG

Virtual table with configuration settings applied for the current database

Section D.7, RDB$DATABASE

Basic information about the database

Section D.8, RDB$DB_CREATORS

A list of users granted the CREATE DATABASE privilege when using the specified database as a security database

Section D.9, RDB$DEPENDENCIES

Information about dependencies between database objects

Section D.10, RDB$EXCEPTIONS

Custom database exceptions

Section D.11, RDB$FIELDS

Column and domain definitions, both system and custom

Section D.12, RDB$FIELD_DIMENSIONS

Dimensions of array columns

Section D.13, RDB$FILES

Information about secondary files and shadow files

Section D.14, RDB$FILTERS

Information about BLOB filters

Section D.15, RDB$FORMATS

Information about changes in the formats of tables

Section D.16, RDB$FUNCTIONS

Information about external functions

Section D.17, RDB$FUNCTION_ARGUMENTS

Attributes of the parameters of external functions

Section D.18, RDB$GENERATORS

Information about generators (sequences)

Section D.20, RDB$INDEX_SEGMENTS

Segments and index positions

Section D.19, RDB$INDICES

Definitions of all indexes in the database (system- or user-defined)

Section D.21, RDB$LOG_FILES

Not used in the current version

Section D.22, RDB$PACKAGES

Stores the definition (header and body) of SQL packages

Section D.23, RDB$PAGES

Information about database pages

Section D.24, RDB$PROCEDURES

Definitions of stored procedures

Section D.25, RDB$PROCEDURE_PARAMETERS

Parameters of stored procedures

Section D.28, RDB$REF_CONSTRAINTS

Definitions of referential constraints (foreign keys)

Section D.29, RDB$RELATIONS

Headers of tables and views

Section D.30, RDB$RELATION_CONSTRAINTS

Definitions of all table-level constraints

Section D.31, RDB$RELATION_FIELDS

Top-level definitions of table columns

Section D.32, RDB$ROLES

Role definitions

Section D.33, RDB$SECURITY_CLASSES

Access control lists

Section D.34, RDB$TIME_ZONES

Time zones

Section D.35, RDB$TRANSACTIONS

State of multi-database transactions

Section D.36, RDB$TRIGGERS

Trigger definitions

Section D.37, RDB$TRIGGER_MESSAGES

Trigger messages

Section D.38, RDB$TYPES

Definitions of enumerated data types

Section D.39, RDB$USER_PRIVILEGES

SQL privileges granted to system users

Section D.40, RDB$VIEW_RELATIONS

Tables that are referred to in view definitions: one record for each table in a view

D.1 RDB$AUTH_MAPPING

RDB$AUTH_MAPPING stores authentication and other security mappings.