msdblib (Re: Troubles upgrading to freetds-0.82)

[Mikhail Teterin]

= > 	http://www.freshports.org/databases/libgda3-freetds
= > 	http://www.freshports.org/databases/php5-sybase_ct

= I don't understand these pages... are there some kind of automatic
= build system??

Yes, all software ported to FreeBSD is periodically autobuilt, so as to 
verify "buildability" and provide fresh binary packages to users. There is a 
freshports-page for ever port, showing the port's history, dependencies (such 
as on freetds) and other details.

= > So, will there be a 0.83 sime time soon?
 
= no, a 0.82.1 probably

Ok, awaiting :-)

= Mmmm... yes, try to use version 4.2 to detect protocol version, however
= every time you'll have 2 connections instead of one

Strange -- does not the server identify itself at the initial "handshake" or 
something? Nothing similar to SMTP's "HELO", for example?

= Mmm.... I think you are confusing server with client needs... msdblib means
= that client wants some msdblib thing, not that you are connecting to
= mssql...

Yes, I may well be confusing things. My information comes from simply 
searching through the freetds code looking for what exactly is affected by 
specifying the --enable-msdblib configure-flag.

The only thing I found is the default value of msdblib-field a DBPROCESS 
struct (tds_dblib_dbprocess).

It appears to me, that in order for a freetds-build configured with the 
msdblib-flag to be usable against a Sybase server the application needs to 
change the connection's setting explicitly at run-time.

What I'd like to be possible is for the same application (or a higher-level 
toolkit such as Sybtcl) using the same FreeTDS-library to be usable against 
servers of different types... In addition to automatically figuring out the 
actual server's type, the fields of dbdaterec need to be aliased...

For example, where I work, I have to connect to a SQL Server for some data and 
to a Sybase for other. I'd rather implement that in TCL, but I can't mix 
server-types in Sybtcl due to this problem and so am forced to use Java...

Bottom line: I'd like the "--enable-msdblib" to turn from a build-time to a 
run-time (per connection) option. Preferably -- autoinitialized based on the 
type of the server as detected during establishment of each connection.

There are plenty of heterogenious environments and having to decide (per 
computer), whether to enable only Sybase or only MS SQL connectivity at 
build-time is too restricting...

Yours,

	-mi