RedGate makes a tool for Microsoft SQL Server that allows you to snapshot the difference between two databases. It generates the scripts needed to update the database schema while preserving the data.
I need to find a tool like this for the Firebird database. We use Firebird in an embedded fashion, and would like to push out schema updates to remote machines with as little hassle as possible.
I don't know of a tool for Firebird that does exactly the same.
However, FlameRobin allows you to extract the metadata for single database objects or the complete database. It can also create scripts to recreate a certain database object including its dependencies. So you could either diff two database creation scripts and save the differences as the starting point (which may still need some changes), or you could use the recreation scripts for a single object and its dependencies.
As @devio suggsted, I took a look at the large list of administration tools listed on the IBPhoenix site. Of the tools on the list, the only two that generate scripts to migrate schema and data changes are XCase and Database Workbench.
Does anyone have experience with these tools? Are there others that I may have missed?
Embarcadero Change Manager will add support for InterBase and Firebird in the fall. Read all about it here. Change Manager includes schema archive compare and synchronizations, data compare, sync, and masking, and configuration management.
see IBExpert, it have a command line tool too where you can run scripts in a propietary language. You can compare two db and get the script to update the target db, it does a great job with dependecies, like views, it drops every dependency where the view is used, alter the view and then recreate the dropped objects. This can be done in GUI too, and a lot of other nice things
Migration tools for Firebird on IBPhoenix site are on a separate link Contributed Downloads - Migration Tools
Try SchemaCrawler link
SchemaCrawler is an open-source Java API that makes working with database metadata as easy as working with plain old Java objects.
SchemaCrawler is also a command-line tool to output your database schema and data in a readable form. The output is designed to be diff-ed with previous versions of your database schema.
As it requires a JDBC driver, you would also need the following: Firebird JDBC Driver