FIREBIRD/INTERBASE DRIVER:
--------------------------

This driver allows libdbi-enabled applications to use Firebird or Interbase  as a database
backend. 

Eventually there will be a documentation worth its name, so we'll be
able to proudly say:

"See the included driver documentation for installation instructions, usage,
and information about driver-specific peculiarities."

For the time being, this README will have to do.

Driver status
=============

The firebird driver still has some rough edges:

- On Linux only the superserver was found to cooperate well with
libdbi. The classic architecture was less encouraging.

- On FreeBSD there is no superserver. The classic server dumps core
  when libdbi tries to connect to a database.


Common pitfalls
===============

- In order to work with the firebird driver at all, you'll need an
  existing database to connect to. Virtually anything will do. Either
  create a database with the isql command-line tool (which is called
  isql-fb on Debian to make things a little more challenging), or use
  the database which is created when running "make check"

- The permission stuff is quite tricky to get used to. First of all
  you need a database user which is allowed to use firebird at
  all. Use the gsec command-line tool to add or manage users. Next you
  need to make sure the firebird process has sufficient permissions to
  create or change database files. It is recommended anyway to put all
  firebird databases managed by libdbi into a single directory. Make
  sure this directory is owned by and has write and traverse access for
  the account that runs the firebird server. On most systems firebird
  runs in the "firebird" user account. chown the database directory to
  firebird:firebird and set the permissions to 744


CONTACT INFO:
-------------

libdbi-drivers-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
http://libdbi-drivers.sourceforge.net
Christian Stamgren <christian@stamgren.com>


