hi,

why does

Parent p = session.load(...);
Child c = new Child();
c.setParent(p);
session.save(c);
session.flush();

works without putting a "p.getChildren().add(c)" statement (as shown in
Chapter16 of the Reference Documentation)?

what's the difference ?

many thanks

Read it again. One works for uni-, the other for bidirectional associations.

This is still unclear to me.
If the relationship has been mapped in both Parent and Child,
the following code is not supposed to be consistent in both directions, isn't it?:
Parent p = ...
Child c = new Child();
c.setParent(p);
// p.getChildren().add(c);
session.save(c);
session.flush();

However, if i load the same parent later, the formerly added child appears in the collection.