I am working on a Hibernate application where compile, and deploy on Tomcat is done through eclipse.
In the hibernate.cfg.xml the hbm2ddl.auto property is set to update.

What I would like to ask is the following:

If I change the name of a column in an hbm.xml file shouldn't this change automatically be done in the database also?

Since now I was using a build.xml where I used the hibernate tools to update or create schema. But now I have to use the previous mentioned way with eclipse. But when I change something in a hbm.xml I do not see any change in the database.

Any suggestions???

The hbm2ddl.auto update works for me.
If I add new fields, the new columns appear next time I start my web server.
If I change a field name, the old column remains, but the new column appears.

I use hibernate annotations (simpler than hbm.xml!) and spring as well.

Are you restarting your application?

John.

My personal opinion is:

1)when you developing, and do not have any real data to save, use the create-drop option and reload the test data (using DBUnit or a specific code) before every test;

2)when you are in production do not use any hbm2ddl.auto option, not even the update, as it will not really work as you would like in a production environment (it is stated even in Java Persistence book). New fields and table are added, but old one are not deleted. If you change the dimension of a field the modification is not applied. In other term, it does 90% of the job, but usually it is not enough.

In production you can use the Hibernate Tools to download the current schema in a text file, while you are mantainin the current (in production) schema in another file. There are many products/tools that can determine the "ALTER TABLE" to apply to a specific database having the old and the new schema. Choose the best for you and mantain the schema in a professional way.

Anycase, as John pointed out, any action of the hbm2ddl is executed when the SessionFactory is build, so if you do not restart the application nothing happens. Restart the application and the hbm2ddl action will be executed.

Marco