Firebird 2.0 and 2.1 Quick Start Guide

1 Firebird and Quick Start GuideIBPhoenix EditorsFirebird Project members11 July 2011, document version Firebird and of ContentsAbout this Guide .. 3 The Firebird licenses .. 4 Classic or Superserver? .. 5 Embedded Server for Windows .. 6 What is in the kit? .. 6 Default disk locations .. 7 Linux .. 7 Windows .. 8 Installing Firebird .. 9 Installing the Firebird server .. 9 Installing multiple servers .. 11 Testing your installation .. 11 Performing a client-only install .. 14 Server configuration and management.

2 15 User management: gsec .. 15 Security .. 17 Windows Control Panel applets .. 19 Administration tools .. 20 Working with databases .. 20 Connection strings .. 20 Connecting to an existing database .. 22 Creating a database using isql .. 23 Firebird SQL .. 24 Protecting your data .. 28 Backup .. 28 How to corrupt a database .. 29 How to get help .. 31 How to give help .. 31 The Firebird Project .. 31 Appendix A: Document History .. 33 Appendix B: License notice.

3 38 Alphabetical index .. 393 About this guideThe Firebird Quick Start Guide is an introduction for the complete newcomer to a few essentials for gettingoff to a Quick Start with a Firebird binary kit. The Guide first saw the light as Chapter 1 of the Using Firebirdmanual, sold on CD by IBPhoenix. Later it was published separately on the Internet. In June 2004, IBPhoenixdonated it to the Firebird Project. Since then it is maintained, and regularly updated, by members of the Firebirddocumentation you read on, verify that this Guide matches your Firebird version.

4 This Guide covers versions and For all other Firebird versions, get the corresponding Quick Start Guide at warnings before you Start Firebird was recalled due to a regression; if you use it, upgrade to or higher ASAP and makesure to read your new version's Release Notes. If you want to rely on Linux forced writes to work correctly, upgrade to at least and Quick Start4 The Firebird licensesFirebird is a free, open-source database management system, but free does not mean that everything is per-mitted. The use of Firebird is governed by two licenses: the IPL (InterBase Public License) and the IDPL (InitialDeveloper's Public License).

5 The first one covers the parts of the source code that were inherited from InterBase;the second applies to the additions and improvements made by the Firebird Project. Both licenses offer similarrights and restrictions. In short: Use of the software is free, even for commercial purposes. You may also redistribute the software, separatelyor with a product of your own, but you may not claim ownership or credit for it. Any license notices includedwith Firebird must remain intact. You may modify and recompile the Firebird source code or parts of it. You may distribute such modifiedversions, but if you do so, you must document your modifications and make them publicly available, at nocost, under the same license as the original code.

6 You may include Firebird source code (modified or not) in a larger work and distribute that larger work,in source and/or compiled form, under a license of your own choosing. You need not publicize the sourcecode for the entire larger work, but you must fulfill the license conditions for the parts that were taken fromFirebird, whether they were modified or notice that the above is a simplified overview. Only the original license texts are legally binding. Youcan find them here: (IPL) (IDPL) Firebird and Quick Start5 Classic or Superserver? Firebird comes in two flavours, called architectures: Classic Server and Superserver.

7 Which one should youinstall? That depends on your situation. A short overview of the most important differences 1. Firebird 2 Classic Server vs. SuperserverClassic ServerSuperserverProcessesCreates a separate process for every clientconnection, each with its own cache. Lessresource use if the number of connectionsis single process serves all connections,using threads to handle requests. Sharedcache space. More efficient if the numberof simultaneous connections fast, direct I/O to database filesfor local connections on Linux. The clientprocess must have filesystem-level accessrights to the database for this to Linux, all local connections are madevia the network layer, using localhost(often implicitly).

8 Only the server processneeds access rights to the database connectionsOn Windows, both architectures now support safe and reliable local connec-tions, with only the server process requiring access rights to the database (symmetrical multi-processor) sup-port. Better performance in case of a smallnumber of connections that do not influ-ence each SMP support. On multi-processor Win-dows machines, performance can evendrop dramatically as the OS switches theprocess between CPUs. To prevent this, setthe CpuAffinityMask parameter in theconfiguration file run as a Windows application (asopposed to a service) you can't use the Fire-bird Guardian.

9 Note that running Firebirdas an application is the only option on Win-dows 9x be used with the Guardian on Win-dows, whether run as an application or asa 't use Fiebird events if the server is be-hind a firewall or if connections are madethrough a secure use Fiebird events under all circum-stances. If the server is behind a firewall orif connections are made through a securetunnel, a specific events port has to be as-signed to the RemoteAuxPort variable , and the firewall or tun-nel configured you can see, neither of the architectures is better in all respects.

10 This is hardly surprising: we wouldn't maintaintwo separate architectures if one of them was an all-fronts you're still not sure what to choose (maybe you find all this tech talk a little overwhelming), use this ruleof thumb: On Windows, choose and Quick Start6 On Linux, just pick one or the other (unless you use events with a firewall or tunnel). In most circumstances,chances are that you won't notice a performance that you can always switch to the other architecture later; your applications and databases will keep func-tioning like Linux, Superserver download packages Start with FirebirdSS, Classic packages with FirebirdCS.