Installation
I've successfully installed Interbase 6.0.1 on Linux. I've never tried to install it on any other platform or any other version on Linux.
You can download binary distributions of Interbase 6.0.1 in tar.gz or RPM formats from the Borland web site for Linux and Solaris. The tar.gz distribution comes with an install script. The RPM distribution can be installed using rpm -i. Source code distributions are also available.
There are 2 versions of Interbase: Classic and Super Server. Classic only allows a single connection while Super Server allows multiple connections. I recommend using Super Server and this document describes it's installation.
Starting the Database at Boot TimeYou can use the following script to start/stop the database at boot/shutdown time.
#!/bin/sh
case "$1" in
start)
/opt/interbase/bin/ibserver &
;;
stop)
kill `ps -efa | grep ibserver | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}'`
;;
*)
echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop}"
exit 1
esac
exit 0
Install this script and run it with the "start" option to start up the database. Running it with the "stop" option shuts the database down. To access a database, it must be running.
Creating a DatabaseAfter installation, Interbase is ready to use but to do any useful work, you'll have to create a database.
The installation process creates a security database named isc4.gdb containing host and user privileges and an administrative user named SYSDBA who's password is changeme.
Interbase user names are case insensitive and can be up to 31 characters long. Interbase passwords are case sensitive and can be up to 32 characters long, but only the first 8 characters are actually used.
Use the gsec utility to change the SYSDBA password to newpass and create a new user named testuser with password testpass. gsec must be run as root, from the directory containing isc4.gdb. A gsec session follows.
[root@localhost root]# cd /opt/interbase [root@localhost interbase]# ls -l isc4.gdb -rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 618496 Feb 18 14:29 isc4.gdb [root@localhost interbase]# /opt/interbase/bin/gsec GSEC> modify sysdba -pw newpass GSEC> add testuser GSEC> modify testuser -pw testpass GSEC> quit
Though you can create tables in the isc4.gdb database using the SYSDBA user, it's not a good idea. You should create a new database using a regular user. The following sequence of commands creates a database called /home/user/testdb.gdb which is owned by testuser.
[user@localhost user]$ /opt/interbase/bin/isql -u testuser -p testpass Use CONNECT or CREATE DATABASE to specify a database SQL> create database '/home/user/testdb.gdb'; SQL> commit; SQL> quit;
Interbase databases are referenced by the pathname of the database file. If you try to create a database using a file name that already exists or if you forget to enclose the file name in single quotes, you'll get a cryptic error indicating that the 'database' token is unknown. So, if you get a message like that, make sure that you enclosed the file name in single quotes and make sure that the database file that you're trying to create doesn't already exist.
Now you can log into the /home/user/testdb.gdb database as testuser with the following command.
/opt/interbase/bin/isql -u testuser -p testpass /home/user/test.gdb
The only users that can drop a database are the user that owns the database and the SYSDBA user. If you want to drop the database, you can do so using isql as follows.
[user@localhost user]$ /opt/interbase/bin/isql -u testuser -p testpass /home/user/testdb.gdb Database: /home/user/testdb.gdb, User: testuser SQL> drop database; SQL> commit; SQL> quit;
To delete a user, use the gsec utility as the root user and delete the appropriate user as follows.
[root@localhost root]# cd /opt/interbase [root@localhost interbase]# ls -l isc4.gdb -rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 626688 Feb 18 20:43 isc4.gdb [root@localhost interbase]# /opt/interbase/bin/gsec GSEC> delete testuser GSEC> quit
This should be enough to get you started. To set up more complex configurations, consult the Interbase documentation.
Accessing a DatabaseThe first step in accessing an Interbase database is setting up your environment. The Interbase client is called isql. Note that unixODBC and Sybase have a client called isql as well which could be installed in /usr/bin, /usr/local/bin or /opt/sybase*/bin. If you have unixODBC or Sybase installed, you'll have to decide which client you want the isql command to run. If you want it to run the Interbase client, follow the instructions below. Otherwise, you'll have to run the Interbase isql client by it's full pathname.
In the configuration script for your shell, add /opt/interbase/bin to your PATH environment variable as follows.
For Bourne shells:
PATH=$PATH:/opt/interbase/bin export PATH
For C-shells:
setenv PATH ${PATH}:/opt/interbase/bin
Now log out and log back in and you can access the database using the isql client. For example, to access a database called /home/user/testdb.gdb on the local machine as the testuser user with password testpassword, use the following command.
isql -u testuser -p testpassword /home/user/testdb.gdb
To connect to an interbase database on a remote machine, prepend the database filename with the remote hostname, followed by a colon. For example, to access a database called /home/user/testdb.gdb on the remote machine testhost as the testuser user with password testpassword, use the following command.
isql -u testuser -p testpassword testhost:/home/user/testdb.gdb
Once you're connected to the database, the isql client prompts you to enter a query. Queries may be split across multiple lines. To run a query, end it with a semicolon. To exit, type quit;.
A sample isql session follows.
[user@localhost user]$ /opt/interbase/bin/isql -u testuser -p testpass /home/user/testdb.gdb
Database: /home/user/testdb.gdb, User: testuser
SQL> create table testtable (
CON> col1 char(40),
CON> col2 integer
CON> );
SQL> show table testtable;
COL1 CHAR(40) Nullable
COL2 INTEGER Nullable
SQL> insert into testtable values ('hello',50);
SQL> insert into testtable values ('hi',60);
SQL> insert into testtable values ('bye',70);
SQL> select * from testtable;
COL1 COL2
======================================== ============
hello 50
hi 60
bye 70
SQL> update testtable set col2=0 where col1='hi';
SQL> select * from testtable;
COL1 COL2
======================================== ============
hello 50
hi 0
bye 70
SQL> delete from testtable where col2=50;
SQL> select * from testtable;
COL1 COL2
======================================== ============
hi 0
bye 70
SQL> commit;
SQL> drop table testtable;
SQL> quit;
Accessing a Database With SQL RelayAccessing Interbase from SQL Relay requires an instance entry in your sqlrelay.conf file for the database that you want to access. Here is an example sqlrelay.conf which defines an SQL Relay instance called interbasetest. This instance connects to the /home/user/testdb database as the user testuser with password testpassword.
<!DOCTYPE instances SYSTEM "sqlrelay.dtd">
<instances>
<instance id="interbasetest" port="9000" socket="/tmp/interbasetest.socket" dbase="interbase" connections="3" maxconnections="5" maxqueuelength="0" growby="1" ttl="60" endofsession="commit" sessiontimeout="600" runasuser="nobody" runasgroup="nobody" cursors="5" authtier="listener" handoff="pass">
<users>
<user user="interbasetest" password="interbasetest"/>
</users>
<connections>
<connection connectionid="interbasetest" string="user=testuser;password=testpass;database=/home/user/testdb.gdb;dialect=3" metric="1"/>
</connections>
</instance>
</instances>
Note that in this example, the database parameter of the string attribute in the connection tag references the local database /home/user/testdb.gdb. If you want to access a remote database, prepend the database filename with the remote hostname followed by a colon. For example: testhost:/home/user/testdb.gdb.
Now you can start up this instance with the following command.
sqlr-start -id interbasetest
To connect to the instance and run queries, use the following command.
sqlrsh -id interbasetest
The following command shuts down the SQL Relay instance.
sqlr-stop interbasetest