I have exp'd several tables using the exp defaults, which appears to
include GRANTS INDEXES ROWS CONSTRAINTS TRIGGERS.

Now I am about to imp those table just to check I can do that before doing
other things.

I understand perfectly well that imp fails if the data still exists in the
table (primary key constraint). To reload the data I must "empty" or
"replace" the table being reloaded, and imp appears to provide the DESTROY
option to do that.

My question(s) is this. If I use "imp DESTROY=Y ..." then can the import
have side effects involving other tables due to relations between other
tables and the ones I am restoring?

In the first test I am restoring the original data and nothing has been
altered in the database.

Later, lets assume that some other table had been altered without my
knowledge, and that table had a relation with one I am restoring. What
would happen when I try to import the original data? Would the entire imp
fail, or just certain rows fail, or what?

thanks for any feedback.