HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: richard@ariel.ucs.unimelb.EDU.AU (Richard Begg)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
Subject: Re: Problem installing Ingres 6.4/02 under SunOS 4.1.3
Date: 16 Nov 1992 11:02:14 +1100
Organization: University of Melbourne
NNTP-Posting-Host: ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au

jstewart@alfred.carleton.ca (John Stewart) writes:

|I just installed Ingres 6.4/02 on a Sparcstation 10 running SunOS 4.1.3 but
|when it tries to start up it fails with the following error

|---------------------- RESOURCE CHECKING COMPLETE -----------------------


|Allocating 401408 bytes of shared memory...

|!shmat for id 201 at address F4000000 fails
|!errno = 22
|!Can't map locking segment into memory at address FFFFFFFF
|!Check or adjust the value of II_LG_MAP_ADDR
|Could not create the system segment, does your kernel have enough
|shared memory or has this program already been run?

|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

|Has anyone seen this problem before?  I'm not entirely surprised since
|the release notes only guarantee that it works under 4.1.1 or 4.1.2.

This problem is due to a lack of shared memory configured in the Kernel
rather than a OS version problem.  The fix is to add more shared memory
with a line something like this in your kernel config file.  e.g.

options         SHMSIZE=2000	# allocate 2MB of shared memory

I trust you have all the sysV IPC stuff turned on as well (semaphores etc).

--
-- 
Richard Begg (richard@asis.unimelb.edu.au)
Programmer ASIS/ITS - University of Melbourne
From: salnick@dejavu.spk.wa.us (There is no substitute for displacement...)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
Subject: Re: Q: slooow access to FE catalogs (ABF,VIFRED)
Date: 21 Nov 92 14:43:55 GMT
Organization: Not Organized

In article <00963E7D.8D984880.30414@hal.hahnemann.edu> rzepela@hal.hahnemann.edu (Anthony J. Rzepela) writes:
>Hi - 
>
>If anyone is assembling a FAQ, I'm sure this one will make it, 
>but I ask anyway: 
>
>Our development database is fairly heavily populated with applications, 
>frames, forms, and the like. To battle the EXTREMELY sluggish ABF startup, 
>I have run SYSMOD with the INGRES flag (which supposedly optimizes the 
>base product's catalogs for VIFRED, ABF, etc.), but still, ABF starts 
>up like a tortoise...   Also, choosing 'RUN' from ABF took 
>so long just to compare the dates, I could not do it without going insane...
>
>This was with ONE developer on a MVax 3500 on VMS 5.4-2; 
>
>Am I missing something...? 
>What can I do...?

It may not be Ingres...  when was the last time you de-fragged your disk?

bob
--
RW Salnick, Spokane,WA  |  Home: salnick@dejavu.spk.wa.us
  Amiga 1000, WB 1.3    |  Work: mfgsys!salnick@kaiser.spk.wa.us
      WA9BVE            |
From: COR@sunvax.sun.ac.za
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
Subject: Please add me to your mail list
Date: 19 Nov 92 02:19:00 GMT
Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Please would you add me to your Ingres info mail list.
If this is the wrong address, please could you give the right 
one.

Many thanks,
Colin
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
From: bbrown@gandalf.ca (Bruce Brown)
Subject: Subscription
Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 22:04:40 GMT


  Please add me to the subscription list.

  bbrown@gandalf.ca

  Much appreciated!

  Bruce
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
From: drcoles@somnet.sandia.gov (Dwight R Coles)
Subject: Re: Problem installing Ingres 6.4/02 under SunOS 4.1.3 (fwd)
Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 19:18:23 GMT

>> jstewart@alfred.carleton.ca (John Stewart) writes:
>> 
>> |I just installed Ingres 6.4/02 on a Sparcstation 10 running SunOS 4.1.3 but
>> |when it tries to start up it fails with the following error
>> 
>> |!shmat for id 201 at address F4000000 fails
>> |!errno = 22
>> |!Can't map locking segment into memory at address FFFFFFFF
>> |!Check or adjust the value of II_LG_MAP_ADDR
>> |Could not create the system segment, does your kernel have enough
>> |shared memory or has this program already been run?
>> 
> Richard Berg replied:
> This problem is due to a lack of shared memory configured in the Kernel
> rather than a OS version problem.  The fix is to add more shared memory
> with a line something like this in your kernel config file.  e.g.
> 
> options         SHMSIZE=2000	# allocate 2MB of shared memory
> 
> I trust you have all the sysV IPC stuff turned on as well (semaphores etc).
> 
I would add: make sure that you are not trying to run on the small kernel
model of SUN OS.  Make your kernel the "generic" rather than "generic_small",
and that will get you the Semaphores and Shared Memory hooks you need 
(IPCMESSAGE, IPCSEMAPHOE, and IPCSHMEM).

Dwight Coles         drcoles@sandia.gov
> --
> -- 
> Richard Begg (richard@asis.unimelb.edu.au)
> Programmer ASIS/ITS - University of Melbourne
> 

Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
From: cs_mj@gsbacd.uchicago.edu (Mark Jaeger)
Subject: Re: Ingres Advisor 
Organization: 
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 20:42:55 GMT

In article <BxvJpK.D0r@umassd.edu>, ctremblay@UMASSD.EDU
(Claire Tremblay) writes:

> I've tried to access  "telnet advisor.ingres.com", but LO and BEHOLD a
> dreaded 'logon and password' was required.  How did you get access to this
> database?  Any help will be appreciated.  Just knowing that this is
> available is helpful.

Call Ingres Tech Support and ask how to get access to Advisor.  They
can set you up with an account and password.  You can only get this if
you already pay for support.

--Mark Jaeger				internet: cs_mj@gsbvax.uchicago.edu
Graduate School of Business		yellnet:  (312) 702-0328
University of Chicago			faxnet:   (312) 702-0233
Disclaimer: My opinions are my own and not those of my employer.
Ich bin ein Virus.  Mach' mit und kopiere mich in Deine .signature.

Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
From: cs_mj@gsbacd.uchicago.edu (Mark Jaeger)
Subject: Re: Frequently Used Procedures
Organization: 
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 19:46:28 GMT

In article <3400@peking.gdwb.oz.au>, mjm@gdwb.oz.au (Michael McGarrigle) writes:
> Does anybody out there know of a way that commonly used
> routines can be stored in one place but accessed by
> several databases.
>
> i.e. We have an error handling routine that is called after
> every database access (To check for deadlock, etc) but it
> seems cumbersome to have to recreate this procedure for
> every database that we create.

You don't say exactly what kind of "procedure" you're talking about:
database, 4GL, or 3GL.

It seems to me that this kind of error handling is best done with 3GL
code.  Maybe there are things you could do with a database procedure,
but it seems like they would have to be limited to recording the
occurrence of certain errors in a problem table.

For 4GL or 3GL code, your question doesn't quite make sense because the
procedure (i.e., its source) is not stored in the database.

We have found that writing deadlock-handling code in 4GL is very
tedious.  It can be done, but it's a kluge, requiring not one, but _two_
"while" loops.  I believe that there are examples in the 4GL reference
manual.  You can put the source code in a standard directory and then
refer to it in your ABF, Vision, and W4GL applications (at least in VMS,
where the source for an ABF application can be a pathed logical).

We have chosen to embody this boilerplate code in a general tool that
all our programmers incorporate in their applications at link time. 
This tool happens to be written in C, but any 3GL would do.

--Mark Jaeger				internet: cs_mj@gsbvax.uchicago.edu
Graduate School of Business		yellnet:  (312) 702-0328
University of Chicago			faxnet:   (312) 702-0233
Disclaimer: My opinions are my own and not those of my employer.
Ich bin ein Virus.  Mach' mit und kopiere mich in Deine .signature.
From: rhody@remus.rutgers.edu (Sean Rhody)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
Subject: System slowdown
Keywords: iislave
Date: 18 Nov 92 19:14:58 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.


Hi,
We are running ingres on an hp710 with 32MB of ram.  After several
days of uptime, our system becomes very sluggish and needs to be
rebooted.  We have noticed the large amounts of time the iislave 
processes seem to be getting ( there are two ).  Does aanyone else
hvae this kind of problem.  I am not definite that this is to blame
but it is the only application that we run and so is the most likely
culprit.  Please send me suggestions at rhody@remus.rutgers.edu.

Thanks

       Sean Rhody
From: corey@amiganet.chi.il.us (Corey Sweeney)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
Subject: faq
Date: 15 Nov 92 22:27:20 GMT
Organization: Amiga Network Information Systems

would somebody send me a FAQ?

Thanks,
        Corey

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Corey Sweeney
corey@amiganet.chi.il.us
I do not own a amiga!
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
From: myoung@force.ssd.lmsc.lockheed.com
Subject: Sorting
Reply-To: myoung@force.ssd.lmsc.lockheed.com
Organization: LMSC, Sunnyvale, California
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 92 22:37:42 GMT

HI:

  I am talking to a group of researchers in data base, and they
have a system which can sort extremely large data base files over
multiple workstations in a LAN environment.  They claim that the
sort time is proportional to (N Log N)/number of work stations 
involved.

  Is any one familiar with a similar utility in the Ingress world?

                          Matt
                          Lockheed
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
From: copler@moose.cs.indiana.edu (judith copler)
Subject: WORKSHOP ON CURRENT & FUTURE TRENDS IN DATABASE TECHNOLOGY
Organization: Computer Science, Indiana University
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 14:39:33 EST
X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (7.2.3 5/22/91)


WORKSHOP TITLE:

CURRENT AND FUTURE TRENDS IN DATABASE TECHNOLOGY

Friday, Dec 4, 1992 

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

Objective:  All participants should gain an understanding of the
trends in database architectures, the trends in both general and
specialized database systems, and how the most popular of these
trends are being incorporated into commercial relational database
systems.

Who Should Attend:  Analysts, database applications programmers,
database designers and administrators, MIS managers, technology
consultants

Instructors:  Ed Robertson and Dirk Van Gucht

Session I -  Introduction:  How Trends Are Born 9:00-9:30
A.  Sources of Change
B.  The Change Time Line
C.  The Politics of Change

Session 2 - Trends in Information System Architecture 9:30-10:30

A.  Client/Server Database Architectures
B.  Distributed Database Architectures
C.  Parallel Database Architectures
D.  Heterogeneous Database Architectures
E.  Example:  A Parallel Distributed Decision Support System

Session 3 - Trends in Database Systems 10:45-12:15

A.  Expert Systems and Deductive Database Systems
B.  Object-Oriented Database Systems
C.  Heterogeneous Database Systems
D.  Extensible Database Systems
E.  Example:  An Expert System

Session 4 - Trends in Specialized Database Systems 1:15-2:15

A.  Text Databases
B.  Temporal Databases
C.  Large Object Database 
D.  Scientific Databases
E.  Example:  A Biomedical Database System

Session 5 - Trends in Commercial RDBMS Products 2:30-4:00

A.  Supporting Client/Server Architectures
B.  Supporting Distributed Architectures
C.  Supporting Constraints
D.  Supporting Object Identity
E.  Supporting Procedures and Triggers
F.  Supporting Various Types of Indexes and File Organizations
G.  Offering More and Better Tools

Session 6 - How Trends are Adopted 4:00-4:30

A.  Gaining a Competitive Advantage
B.  Evaluating Products
C.  Developing In-house Expertise
D.  Selecting a Methodology and Tools which Support It

For registration and other information please contact

Ms. Hallie Rose
812-855-2490
 
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
From: shhong@dbserver.kaist.ac.kr (Seok-Hee Hong)
Subject: HELP : INGRES STAR
Organization: KAIST in Seoul, Korea
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 23:57:16 GMT

Hi, INGRESers

	I need some papers and documents for INGRES STAR which is the
	distributed INGRES.
	Dose anyone know how can i get the papers and documents ?
	Is there anonymous FTP sites for INGRES STAR documents ?
	Please, Inform me !!!

Thanx
--

      +----------------------------------------------------+
      | Hong, Seok Hee - shhong                            |-+
      | Database Lab.                                      |||
      | Computer Science Department                        |||
      | Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology |||
      | K     A        I            S           T          |||
      +----------------------------------------------------++|
      | E-Mail : shhong@dbserver.kaist.ac.kr               |||
      | Phone  : 042-869-3570                              |||
      +----------------------------------------------------+||
        ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
        +----------------------------------------------------+
From: mliu@ucsb.edu (Mei-Ling Liu)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
Subject: Detecting Failure by Timeout
Date: 16 Nov 92 16:55:13 GMT
Organization: University of California, Santa Barbara

In a distributed DBMS, if you are worried about site failures and communication
failures, you are supposed to detect these failures by using timeouts: Site
A sends a message to Site B and waits for a reply within a predetermined
period of time t called the timeout period.  This timeout period is a
function of many, many things, including the system load at each site, 
the message propagation time, and clock skews, all of which are pretty
hard to quantify.  As far as I know, no analytical study has been made
on how one would arrive at a value for the timeout period.  

My question is, how is such a quantity determined in practice?  
If you have implemented such a system, I would appreciate hearing 
from you.  Thanks in advance.

Mei-Ling Liu
Distributed Systems Lab
Computer Science Department, UCSB
mliu@cs.ucsb.edu
From: mcsmijq@dct.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
Subject: Gnu C++ and INGRES
Date: 17 Nov 92 13:37:46 GMT
Reply-To: mctjq@dct
Followup-To: gcc.help
Organization: Dundee Institute of Technology

Gnu C++ with INGRES

Does anyone know how to link gnu C++ to INGRES on a VAX cluster. It,s easy 
enough using the link command with a vaxc obj file but what's the syntax using
cxshare?

Thanks in advance for any help.
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
From: ctremblay@UMASSD.EDU
Subject: Re: Ingres Advisor 
Reply-To: ctremblay@UMASSD.EDU
Organization: UMASS DARTMOUTH, NO. DARTMOUTH, MA.
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 19:05:43 GMT

In article <ASH.92Nov12100700@ulysses.mr.ams.com>, ash@ulysses.mr.ams.com (Alan Harder) writes:
>
>I have had some good experiences with Advisor lately that I'd like to
>share.  First, Ingres has entered the 20th century by making Internet
>access available.  Just "telnet advisor.ingres.com".  This is much
>easier (for me) than dialing the 800 number or even using Compuserve
>for access.  It was not published in the last Advisor document that
>was sent out.
>
>-Alan Harder

 I've tried to access  "telnet advisor.ingres.com", but LO and BEHOLD a
dreaded 'logon and password' was required.  How did you get access to this
database?  Any help will be appreciated.  Just knowing that this is 
available is helpful.
   
Thanks Claire Tremblay
EMAIL address: IN%"CTREMBLAY@UMASSD.BITNET" or CTREMBLAY@UMASSD.EDU
From: dz@sei.cmu.edu (David Zubrow)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
Subject: Tab Char from ReportWriter
Date: 17 Nov 92 01:00:00 GMT
Organization: Software Engineering Institute

How can I get ReportWriter to output a tab (\011) char?  I want a report where
the lines print out tab delineated fields.  The file will subsequently be
imported into a Mac application.  I tried setting a variable, mytab, to octal
11 but the output file seems to have spaces instead of the tab char.  This is
on a Sun 3 running Unix.

Thanks in advance,
David Zubrow					Office:    412/268-5243
3118 Software Engineering Institute		Fax:       412/268-5758
Carnegie Mellon University			Internet:  dz@sei.cmu.edu
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
From: pampel@hitkw09.pki-nbg.philips.de (Holger Pampel)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
Subject: Re: Ingres errors
Date: 17 Nov 92 06:37:46 GMT

cs_mj@gsbacd.uchicago.edu (Mark Jaeger) writes:

>In article <9211121815.AA08359@csd.hku.hk>, chou@csd.hku.hk (Chou Sui Lin)
>writes:

>> Lately, we've seen quite a lot of these error messages in errlog.log.
>> But the RDBMS server seems to be running alright all but a bit sluggish.
>> We've configured two Ingres DBMS servers with following parameters on
>> a Sun 670MP with 128MB RAM and over 400MB swap space running SunOS 4.1.2
>> and Ingres 6.4.2.
>>
>>	::[3400		, 00562040]: Thu Nov 12 11:58:24 1992
>>	E_SC022F_BAD_GCA_READ	SCF was unable to read a GCF block.
>>	::[3400		, 00562040]: Thu Nov 12 11:59:09 1992
>>	E_CLFE07_BS_READ_ERR	Read from peer process failed;
>>	it may have exited.System communication error: Connection reset by peer.

>We've seen a lot of these messages, too.  I think it's an INGRES bug. 
>I'm not aware of any problems that it might cause.

We have a lot of such error messages too. We made some experiments and found
out, that this error messages could be forced by killing (terminating) a
ESQLC application (^C works "fine" too). We suppose, that INGRES tries to
read from a socket already closed on the client side ...

After that we recommended to all our users to leave ESQLC applications only
by the normal way. Nevertheless nothing changes (I could not define until
now, whether the users haven't changed their behaviour or if these error
messages simply come from another place).

Mit freundlichen Gruessen / With kind regards
Holger Pampel
_________________________________________________________________________
Philips Kommunikations Industrie AG	Telefon / Phone: +49-911-526-6043
Abteilung / Departement LN		Fax:		 +49-911-526-3678
Thurn-und-Taxis-Strasse 10		E-Mail: pampel@pki-nbg.philips.de
D-W 8500 Nuernberg
From: salnick@dejavu.spk.wa.us (There is no substitute for displacement...)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
Subject: Re: What is the best method to backup Ingres DataBase ?
Date: 19 Nov 92 12:32:54 GMT
Organization: Not Organized

In article <C324A32A7A7F2003B9@ichcmns.cmns.mnegri.it> OLIVIERI@ICHCMNS.CMNS.MNEGRI.IT (Marco Olivieri) writes:
>Hi, 
>
>  I have a question for you.
>
>  1) What is the best method to backup Ingres DataBase ?
>
>We  work with  microVax 3600,  VMS 5.5-1  & 6.4/01  (vax.vms/01) and SUN/UNIX.
>Now the System Manager of the VAX does not BACKUP ingres DataBase,and I do the 
>CHECKPOINT on tape (TK70 - I checkpoint only 3 small DataBase) but not for all
>DataBase, now I would like  to change the Backup Method, in  order to obtain a 
>total security for data.
>
>What do you suggest ?
>
>Thanks in advance
>
>  Marco Olivieri

I would suggest that you checkpoint all the databases, and keep 
several generations of the tapes.  You're doing fine IMHO.

Oh, be sure that you get the dump files and journal files on the tape 
too... a backup isn't worth much without them.

bob
--
RW Salnick, Spokane,WA  |  Home: salnick@dejavu.spk.wa.us
  Amiga 1000, WB 1.3    |  Work: mfgsys!salnick@kaiser.spk.wa.us
      WA9BVE            |
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
From: MOTAKIS@hra.cc.ucr.gr (Giorgos Motakns)
Subject: ADD MY NAME TO YOUR LIST
Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 18:08:02 GMT

ADD MY NAME TO YOUR LIST
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
From: Tom Blythe <TJB@MATH.AMS.ORG>
Subject: Re:  Please add me to your mail list
Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 13:43:19 GMT

                            WELCOME TO INFO-INGRES

INFO-INGRES is the mailing list devoted to ASK's INGRES Computer
Proudcts Division's relational DBMS, Ingres. Please feel free to ask
questions, make comments, and offer suggestions about Ingres and its
use. 

This mailing list is intended to offer an easy way for Ingres users to
communicate on any subject pertinent to Ingres. Users of this mailing list
should remain courteous to other users, refraining from insults and "flames".
INFO-INGRES is cross-posted to the newsgroup comp.databases.ingres. At this
time INFO-INGRES is manually maintained so there may be some delay in requests
for new subscriptions and/or removal from the list. As this is a relatively new
list we have not yet created an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions list) nor do we
have any archive available. We hope to address both of these issues in 1992.

Receipt of this message is your confirmation of addition to the list. To cancel
your subscription to the list, send mail to INFO-INGRES-REQUEST@MATH.AMS.ORG
requesting removal of your address from the mailing list. 

To send mail to the mailing list, send mail to:		

	INFO-INGRES@MATH.AMS.ORG

The INFO-INGRES mailing list is open to all users and no charge is
made for posting or retrieving information. The American Mathematical
Society, the North American Ingres Users Association and ASK assume no
liability for the accuracy or appropriateness of any information
posted here, or for any injury or loss which any user may sustain as a
result of reading or using any such information, all of which is used
at the reader's own risk.

Ingres is a trademark of ASK Corporation.
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
From: cs_mj@gsbacd.uchicago.edu (Mark Jaeger)
Subject: Re: What is the best method to backup Ingres DataBase ?
Organization: 
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 19:58:31 GMT

In article <C324A32A7A7F2003B9@ichcmns.cmns.mnegri.it>,
OLIVIERI@ICHCMNS.CMNS.MNEGRI.IT (Marco Olivieri) writes:

>> What is the best method to backup Ingres DataBase ?
>>
>> We work with microVax 3600, VMS 5.5-1 & 6.4/01 (vax.vms/01) and SUN/UNIX.
>> Now the System Manager of the VAX does not BACKUP ingres DataBase,and I do the
>> CHECKPOINT on tape (TK70 - I checkpoint only 3 small DataBase) but not for all
>> DataBase, now I would like to change the Backup Method, in order to obtain a
>> total security for data.

In article <Bxyx9r.LtA@umassd.edu>, ctremblay@UMASSD.EDU (Claire
Tremblay) writes:

> I've been using the COPYDB instruction.  This instuction produces 2 SQL
> scripts: 1) to copy the data out, 2) to allow the data to be copied back
> into the database along with the supporting views and grants.

If you do it this way, then you'll probably want to invoke the copy.out
script with the "-l" switch on the "sql" command.  This will ensure that
you have a an exclusive lock on the database before you start copying
the data, and hence that no one will be changing it while you're
copying.

Unfortunately this does not give you the journaling capability that
"ckpdb" does.  With journaling, you can recover a database to the state
it was in right up to the time that something awful happened to it (disk
failed, some dodo dropped a critical table or deleted all the data in
it, etc.).  If you have a lot of update activity on the database (we
do), then this can save your users a _lot_ of work.

Also, "ckpdb" gives you much faster recovery since it uses standard OS
backup commands (tar, cpio, VMS backup, etc.) to do the work.  Using
a copy.in script to repopulate a database can take orders of magnitude
longer.

--Mark Jaeger				internet: cs_mj@gsbvax.uchicago.edu
Graduate School of Business		yellnet:  (312) 702-0328
University of Chicago			faxnet:   (312) 702-0233
Disclaimer: My opinions are my own and not those of my employer.
Ich bin ein Virus.  Mach' mit und kopiere mich in Deine .signature.

Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres
From: Marco Olivieri <OLIVIERI@ICHCMNS.CMNS.MNEGRI.IT>
Subject: Is it possible to get the first "n" records of a table or view ?
Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 16:11:00 GMT

Hello,

Is it possible to get the first "n" records of a table or view ?

I have a table with about 230000 records, through query, I want
to read only the first 50 records, ignoring the other ones.
Does any SQL function exist ? (I don't thinks, but I'm not sure)

Thanks

  Marco Olivieri
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ingres