What is ODS version and how to retrieve it?

ODS (on-disk structure) is a number representing version of the database physical layout structure. When a new feature is added to the Firebird it might or might not require the structure of system tables (database metadata) to change. If it does, the ODS number must increase.

This number is checked upon connection, so that server makes sure it can 'understand' the database structure. For example, when you try to connect with 1.0 server to a database created with Firebird 2.0, you'll get the error as 1.0 server is not able to handle that ODS - simply because there are fields whose meaning it does not understand.

To retrieve it you can use the Firebird API, or simply use the tool that reads it for you (it's on properties page of each database in FlameRobin).

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