Sophie: freetds-doc-0.91-8.mga5 x86

freetds-doc-0.91-8.mga5.x86_64.rpm

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><SPAN
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>FreeTDS</SPAN
> User Guide: A Guide to Installing, Configuring, and Running <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>FreeTDS</SPAN
></TH
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><TD
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><A
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><TD
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>Chapter 1. What is <SPAN
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>FreeTDS</SPAN
>?</TD
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><H1
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><A
NAME="PROJECTS"
>Current Projects, Language Bindings, and Alternatives</A
></H1
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="CURRENT"
>Current Projects</A
></H2
><P
><SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>FreeTDS</SPAN
> consists of two projects.  The <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>FreeTDS</SPAN
> C libraries and <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>FreeTDS</SPAN
>/ <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>JDBC</ACRONYM
>.</P
><P
></P
><UL
><LI
STYLE="list-style-type: opencircle"
><P
>The <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>FreeTDS</SPAN
> C libraries support three separate <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>API</ACRONYM
>s: <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>DB-Library</SPAN
>, <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>CT-Library</SPAN
>, and <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>ODBC</SPAN
>.  Underlying these three is libtds, which handles the low-level details of the <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>TDS</ACRONYM
> protocol, such as sending, receiving, and datatype conversion.  This document and the <A
HREF="http://www.freetds.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>FreeTDS</A
> website are dedicated to these libraries.</P
></LI
><LI
STYLE="list-style-type: opencircle"
><P
>If Java is your game, we refer you to the
						<A
HREF="http://sourceforge.net/projects/jtds/"
TARGET="_top"
>jTDS</A
>
						project on SourceForge.  It is a fork of the
						<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>FreeTDS/JDBC</SPAN
> project, by Craig Spannring, and is a free, native 100% Java implementation of a Type 4  <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>JDBC</ACRONYM
> driver.</P
></LI
></UL
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="STATUS"
>Status</A
></H2
><P
>The libraries are portable, mature, and stable.  They're expected to compile readily and normally do not crash or corrupt data.  Extensive logging  aids in diagnosing problems.  While they do not include every feature provided by the vendors' libraries, they do faithfully implement a useful &mdash; and widely used &mdash; subset of their <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>API</ACRONYM
>s.</P
><P
>The <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>DB-Library</SPAN
> and <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>CT-Library</SPAN
> <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>API</ACRONYM
>s have been usable for several years.  They have been successfully  substituted for Sybase's own libraries in a variety of venues, including <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>Perl</SPAN
> and <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PHP</SPAN
>.</P
><P
>The <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>ODBC</SPAN
> driver should be fully ODBC 3.0 compliant.</P
><P
>Basic <A
HREF="apireference.htm"
>API coverage</A
> information for all libraries may be found in this manual.  It is maintained in <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>doc/api_status.txt</TT
>, included in the source distribution.</P
><P
><DIV
CLASS="NOTE"
><P
></P
><TABLE
CLASS="NOTE"
WIDTH="100%"
BORDER="0"
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="25"
ALIGN="CENTER"
VALIGN="TOP"
><IMG
SRC="../images/note.gif"
HSPACE="5"
ALT="Note"></TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
VALIGN="TOP"
><P
>For Microsoft servers, <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>FreeTDS</SPAN
> now offers the best <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>DB-Library</SPAN
> for any OS on the planet (including Windows!) thanks not only to the hard work of its contributors, but also to Microsoft's<A
NAME="AEN250"
HREF="#FTN.AEN250"
><SPAN
CLASS="footnote"
>[1]</SPAN
></A
> strategy.   It is the only Win64 implementation of <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>DB-Library</SPAN
>, and the only  Win32 implementation to support modern versions of the protocol.  (SQL Server 2008 still accepts the TDS 4.2 connections that Microsoft's old library uses, but rejects BCP uploads with a spurious permission-denied message.) </P
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
></DIV
></P
><P
>In addition to the core <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>DB-Library</SPAN
> <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>API</ACRONYM
>, <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>FreeTDS</SPAN
>  includes a full implementation of <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>DB-Library</SPAN
>'s <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>bcp</ACRONYM
> functions, as well as <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>freebcp</B
>, a replacement for Sybase's <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>bcp</SPAN
> utility.</P
><P
>How big is it?  <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>FreeTDS</SPAN
> has over 100,000 lines of C code, maintained by a handful of developers.  Patches arrive irregularly, varying in size from one-liners to thousand-line monsters.  Almost all are applied or used in some way.  The mailing list has some 700 or so subscribers at this writing.  Safe to say, <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>FreeTDS</SPAN
>'s success so far lies somewhere between the Beetle and the Edsel.</P
><P
>Who uses it?  Oh, pretty much everyone.  <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>FreeTDS</SPAN
> users number in the tens of thousands.  It's used by large corporations, by the U.S. federal government (e.g. <A
HREF="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=toolkit.chapter.ch_dbapi"
TARGET="_top"
>Database Access Library</A
> at the National Center for Biotechnology Information) and, judging by the mailing list, by many webservers running Apache and PHP.  Sybase recommends <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>FreeTDS</SPAN
> for their EAServer product.  Microsoft recommends <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>FreeTDS</SPAN
> to their customers who want access to Microsoft SQL Server from non-Win32 clients.  So do we.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="LANGUAGES"
>Languages besides C and Java</A
></H2
><P
>You may be wondering how these libraries fit with Perl, PHP, TCL, Python, or other popular scripting languages.  Most of these languages have bindings to Sybase that use either the <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>DB-Library</SPAN
> or <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>CT-Library</SPAN
> <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>API</ACRONYM
>, for which <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>FreeTDS</SPAN
> is intended as a drop-in replacement.  For instance, Michael Peppler's <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>DBD::Sybase</SPAN
> works very well using <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>FreeTDS</SPAN
> to access Sybase or Microsoft <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>SQL Server</SPAN
>s.  <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PHP</SPAN
> has options for <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>sybase</TT
> (<SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>DB-Library</SPAN
>) and <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>sybase-ct</TT
> (<SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>CT-Library</SPAN
>) <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>API</ACRONYM
>s.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="ALTERNATIVES"
>Alternatives</A
></H2
><P
></P
><DIV
CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
><P
><B
>Should <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>FreeTDS</SPAN
> not suit your needs, some alternatives</B
></P
><DL
><DT
>Sybase OpenClient</DT
><DD
><P
>In the time since <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>FreeTDS</SPAN
> was started, Sybase (as well as most major <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>DBMS</ACRONYM
> vendors) has released its database for the Intel <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
><ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>GNU</ACRONYM
>/Linux</SPAN
> platform.  The good: it is a solid product and supports <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>TDS</ACRONYM
> 4.2 and <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>TDS</ACRONYM
> 5.0.  The bad: it doesn't support <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>TDS 7.0</ACRONYM
> or Linux/*BSD on non-Intel platforms.  The ugly: Microsoft broke date handling for big endian Sybase clients.</P
><P
>Depending on platform, it may cost something.</P
></DD
><DT
><SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>ODBC</SPAN
> bridge products</DT
><DD
><P
>They use the <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>ODBC</SPAN
> driver on the NT box where your <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>SQL Server</SPAN
> runs so you'll never have trouble with new protocols and the like.  On the downside, they can be costly and may be inefficient.  We know of <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>EasySoft ODBC-ODBC Bridge</SPAN
> from <A
HREF="http://www.easysoft.com"
TARGET="_top"
>EasySoft</A
>, <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>Universal Data Access Driver</SPAN
> from <A
HREF="http://www.openlinksw.com"
TARGET="_top"
>OpenLink Software</A
>, <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>SequeLink</SPAN
> from <A
HREF="http://www.merant.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>Merant</A
>, and
							<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
><SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>ODBC</SPAN
> Router</SPAN
> from <A
HREF="http://www.augsoft.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>August Software</A
> Corporation.</P
></DD
><DT
>Inline <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>ODBC</SPAN
> driver</DT
><DD
><P
>Based on <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>libtds</SPAN
>, this is a native <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>ODBC</SPAN
> driver for i386 *nix. It is free in price, but comes only as a binary at the present time.</P
></DD
><DT
>DBD::Proxy</DT
><DD
><P
>We have no direct experience with this Perl-only option.  It has the same caveats as an <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>ODBC</SPAN
> bridge except it's free.</P
></DD
></DL
></DIV
></DIV
></DIV
><H3
CLASS="FOOTNOTES"
>Notes</H3
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
CLASS="FOOTNOTES"
WIDTH="100%"
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
VALIGN="TOP"
WIDTH="5%"
><A
NAME="FTN.AEN250"
HREF="projects.htm#AEN250"
><SPAN
CLASS="footnote"
>[1]</SPAN
></A
></TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
VALIGN="TOP"
WIDTH="95%"
><P
>Microsoft ceased enhancing <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>DB-Library</SPAN
> in 2001, advising customers to <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"avoid using <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>DB-Library</SPAN
>"</SPAN
>.  For Microsoft's unmaintained product, that's good advice.  But if the <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>DB-Library</SPAN
> specification meets your needs, <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>FreeTDS</SPAN
> permits you to keep using it with little loss (and some gain) of functionality. </P
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