Firebird News

Monday, October 31, 2005

firebird vs mysql vs postresql

Some benchmarks with above databases

In general they claim that Firebird is much more faster and scales beter than MySQL
and PostgreSQL.

http://noldor.iglu.cz/root_cz_firebird_article.pdf


original article is in slovak on root.cz

Feel free to comment the article (for wich is linked an PDF translation) at
http://www.root.cz/clanky/mysql-vs-postgresql-vs-firebird/nazory/pridat/
In default settings, you can write your name in the third text field
from top and the post title into the fourth one. Leave the radio button
as it is, as most of you probably aren't registered root.cz readers. ;-)

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Thursday, October 27, 2005

Most valuable new features in Firebird 2.0


Ann:
"Fixing indexes so garbage collecting records that participate in long
index duplicate chains is fast."
Thomas Steinmaurer:"Beside the ODS change in general (new index structures,
max. index length much higher, expression index, raised exception
message length, RDB$DESCRIPTION fields for other database objects, ...),
the following are on top of my "most valuable" list:

- Non-exclusive access when creating FOREIGN KEYs
- New database shutdown modes
- Sequence and new cursor syntax
- User-definable context variables (way cool!!!)
- Optimizer and buffer cache improvements
- Derived tables (how did I missed them when coming from Oracle)
- New INTL interface"
Frank:
"not to forget nbak"
Zaher:
"- EXECUTE BLOCK, it is like on the fly procedure
- Default paremeters in stored procedures"
Simon Carter:
"EXECUTE BLOCK
Get/Set Context - Because it paves the way for easily adding new built in
functions in future releases :-)
IIF
SUBSTRING enhancements
NEXT VALUE FOR
User can modify own passwords
Extending CREATE OR ALTER syntax to more objects."





..::::..

Nice feature request for firebird 2.0, firebird 3.0

Submitted By: Valdir Marcos da Silva

Initial Comment:
Using FB 1.5.2, via Delphi or C/C++ programming, I just
can retrieve from the server:
- name of users conected;
- DBFileName opended in my conection;
- Fetches
- CurrentMemory (in bytes) used by FB

Could I suggest here (or should I address it where to?)
in FB 2.0 or 3.0 about this subject?
The information available could be:
- the DBFileNames opened;
- memory (in MB) used by each FDB;
- fetches used by each FDB;
- locks [Is it possible to show who user(s) is locking
which table(s)/record(s)?] used by each FDB;
- users (name, IP, memory used, fetches, id of the
transactions being used, locks) in each FDB;
- log of when the FB server were started/stoped;
- log of commands sent to the server, like SQL monitors
collect;

Could we get this information via select against
special system tables?

Obtaining this information from select would be much
more ease than by developing programs via API.

Best regards,

Valdir Marcos

..::::..

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Fyracle 0.8.9 released

Changes:

- Added support for stored functions & procedures
in other languages than PL/SQL
- Added plugin for Java stored functions & procedures
- Added support for external C stored functions

Support for external stored procedures has been
contributed by Eugeney Putilin, Vlad Horsun and
Roman Rokytskyy.

The Linux builds are expected to be available during
the coming week.

Download:

The installers are available through the Janus
Software website and ftp servers. See:
http://www.janus-software.com/runtime_dl.html
for the free runtime & developer demo
and see:
http://www.janus-software.com/fb_buy.html
for the full developer version.


Upgrade:

The recommended upgrade procedure is to first
uninstall any previous versions of Fyracle and only
then to install the new 0.8.9 release. Remember
to save your configuration files (firebird.conf
and aliases.conf) if you changed them!

The uninstaller has a start menu entry on Windows
and can be found at the top of the install
directory on Linux and Windows.

If you want to use the new Java stored procedures,
please review your java configuration file (jvm.conf)
after installation. The first non-comment line should
contain a path to your java virtual machine (jvm.dll).

Roadmap/Outlook:

The Linux build and an updated version of Compiere
will be available soon.


..::::..::::..

Friday, October 21, 2005

Building debian package part2 - including svn hackery with added bonus that changes are tracked

marius popa wrote:
> An small guide for building it from sources (tested it
> on etch and should work on others :unstable, ubuntu breezy)

Thanks. Here's another one, including svn hackery with added bonus that
changes are tracked :-)

get upstream source (.tar.bz2) and repack it:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/firebird/firebird-1.5.2.4731.tar.bz2?download

$ bzcat firebird-1.5.2.4731.tar.bz2 | gzip > firebird2_1.5.2.orig.tar.gz

untar

$ tar xzf firebird2_1.5.2.orig.tar.gz
$ cd firebird-1.5.2.4731

get debian/

$ svn co svn://svn.debian.org/pkg-firebird/trunk/debian

ready... steady... go!

$ debuild -i
or
$ dpkg-buildpackage -i

this shall complain if some build-depends package is missing. install
what needed

build result is in ../
"-i" to debuild/dpkg-buildpackage tells dpkg-source to ignore .svn/ dirs
when generating diff.gz


Now is the funny part. You have something to contribute!
1. Ask to be included to pkg-firebird project on alioth.
2. in the checkout command above replace svn://svn.debian.org with
svn+ssh://svn.debian.org/svn

firebird2 uses dpatch for patch management.

3. read debian/README.dpatch and follow instructions there
4. commit your changes in debian/
5. Nice work!

If stuck, ask on pkg-firebird for a hint :-)
--
Damyan Ivanov


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Thursday, October 20, 2005

Building debian package - nano howto

An small guide for building it from sources (tested it
on etch and should work on others :unstable, ubuntu breezy)

Install all packages required for building it

http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/ch-start.en.html

add [optional]

deb ftp://www.creditreform.bg/public sid main
deb-src ftp://www.creditreform.bg/public sid main

in file
/etc/apt/sources.list

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

apt-get source firebird2

cd firebird2-1.5.2

debbuild

[wait until DONE]
cd ../

dpkg -i *.deb
where * is package you need {superserver,classic}

..::::..::::..::::..

Firebird V1.5.2 Classic Server for HPUX11 is available

Firebird V1.5.2 Classic Server for HPUX11 is available for download.
..::::..::::..::::..
Fyracle 0.8.9pre2 released

A second pre-release is available for beta testers. The full public release may shift into next week, to enable including the final release of JayBird 2.0.0


Source for news: fyracle.org




..::::..::::..

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

1.5.2-9 is ready to be uploaded to debian archive.

Changelog since last upload (1.5.2-7) can be seen below my signature.

Source/binary packages are on
deb ftp://www.creditreform.bg/public sid main
deb-src ftp://www.creditreform.bg/public sid main

Package builds in pbuilder, has no new lintian warnings[1] and my tests show it
is OK.

Francesco, may I ask you to upload it in the archive? In case you rebuild the
source package (and .changes), please remember to use "-v1.5.2-7" to make
.changes get -8 and -9 changelogs and the "Closes: xyz" correctly.


Thanks in advance
dam

[1] there is one lintian warning about unknown archtectures. This warning is
because type-handling is used to set package architectures and `type-handling
i386,amd64 any' returns much too optimistic set of architectures like
freebsd-i386, hurd-amd64 and similar. I am not yet certain if this is a bad thing.

--
Damyan Ivanov Creditreform Bulgaria
divanov@creditreform.bg http://www.creditreform.bg/
phone: +359(2)928-2611, 929-3993 fax: +359(2)920-0994
mob. +359(88)856-6067 dam@jabber.minus273.org/Gaim


firebird2 (1.5.2-9) unstable; urgency=low
.
* Added README.dpatch in debian/ to help further maintainers/QA team in
handling this package if such need araises.
Thaks to Florian Ernst.
* Added README.Debian to /usr/share/doc/firebird2-examples, explaining how
to prepare employee sample database for usage.
Thanks to Marius Popa.
* Corrected firebird2-{super,classic}-server.{postinst,preinst,prerm} to put
correct data in SYSDBA.password. s/PASSWD/PASSWORD/
.
firebird2 (1.5.2-8) unstable; urgency=low
.
* "Cleaning up the house"
.
* debian/control.in: Fix short description of firebird2-super-server.
Closes: #299983
* Make editline to not rely on system vis.h and always use its own.
Fixes FTBFS with kerberos4kth-dev 1.2.2-11: undefined reference to
`strunvis' (Closes: #283911)
Reported and fix suggested by Kalle Olavi Niemitalo
* Improve long descriptions of libfbembed1 and libfbclient1.
Closes: #329330 "libfbclient1: long description lacks everything"
Gerfried Fuchs spotted this. Thanks.
* Corrected sections:
- libfbclient1, libfbembed1 -> libs
- firebird2-utils-* -> utils
- firebird2-dev -> libdevel
- firebird2-examples -> doc
Gerfried Fuchs spotted this too. Thanks again.
* debian/README.64bit: add note about 64/32-bit incompatibility of
on-disk-structure of databases
* Fix typo in debian/make_packages.sh, causing UDF definition .sql files to
be installed in -classic-server. Now they go in -server-common.
Closes: #322199 firebird2-classic-server: Missing sql for functions of
ib_udf and fbudf
* firebird2-classic-server: xinetd configuration file is now installed
regardless of xinetd presense. Provided xinetd configuration is disabled,
however.
* fmbgr.bin fixed to point to /var/log/firebird.log when a problem occurs.
Prevoiusly pointed to $FIREBIRD/log/firebird.log
+ debian/patches/fbmgr_correct_log_path.dpatch
* Turn off echo when asking for sysdba password
* Ask for sysdba password only on one is not yet set (very first install)
* Move SYSDBA.password from /usr/lib/firebird2 to /etc/firebird2
* /etc/init.d/firebird2: source /etc/firebird2/SYSDBA.password to get sysdba
password.
* pre-boot autotools
+ debian/patches/autoboot.dpatch
+ remove autoconf and libtool from Build-Depends
* update src/extern/editline/config.{guess,sub} to those from 2005-09-13
+ fixes two lintian warnings
* aliases.conf: use /var/lib/firebird2/data for employee.fdb
* firebird-classic-server.prerm: detect active connections using
fb_lock_print



..::::..

Firebird Conference Ad on debcentral.org


"I am pleased to inform you that your banner ad is now active on
DebCentral.org. I apologize for the delay in getting it published. If
there is any more we can do for you, please don't hesitate to contact
us. Thank you.

Best Regards,
Josh King"

[ED:Thank you Josh]

..::::..::::..

Monday, October 17, 2005

Fyracle 0.8.9pre released

Fyracle 0.8.9pre released
==============================

Changes:

- Added support for stored functions & procedures
in other languages than PL/SQL
- Added plugin for Java stored functions & procedures
- Added support for external C stored functions

Support for external stored procedures has been
contributed by Eugeney Putilin, Vlad Horsun and
Roman Rokytskyy.

Download:

This pre-release is available to beta testers only.
Only a Win32 version is available at this point in
time.


Upgrade:

The recommended upgrade procedure is to first
uninstall any previous versions of Fyracle and only
then to install the new 0.8.9 release. Remember
to save your configuration files (firebird.conf
and aliases.conf) if you changed them!

The uninstaller has a start menu entry on Windows
and can be found at the top of the install
directory on Linux and Windows.

Please review your java configuration file after
installation. The first non-comment line should
contain a path to your java virtual machine (jvm.dll),
the second non-comment line should contain a path
to the plugin jdbc driver.


Roadmap/Outlook:

Full public releases of Fyracle 0.8.9 should be available
in the course of the week commencing 17 October.

..::::..::::..

Second issue of “The InterBase and Firebird Developer Magazine” is published.

It is available for downloading on http://www.ibdeveloper.com. Also you may find a lot of information there: articles from previous issues, bonus articles, recent news and events, advertising articles.

We invite you to participate in blog discussions – place your comments, ask questions and do not hesitate to contact us (readers@ibdeveloper.com)!

Looking forward for your feedback!

Sincerely yours,
Alexey Kovyazin
Chief Editor
The InterBase and Firebird Developer Magazine
www.ibdeveloper.com


..::::..

Friday, October 14, 2005

MDO Team announce a new version of Mercury Database Objects

Artur Anjos and the MDO Team announce a new version of Mercury Database Objects, an open source data-access component suite, providing direct access to Firebird from Borland Delphi applications. MDO is a descendant of FreeIBComponents by Greg Deatz, so IBX users looking for a migration path to Firebird can have a look at these. Download MDO here.
..::::..::::..::::..

Firebird JDBC Driver V1.5.6 Final and V2.0 Release Candidate 3 are now available for download

Jaybird (Firebird Class 4 JCA-JDBC Driver) V1.5.6 and V2.0 Release Candidate 3 are now available for download.
..::::..::::..::::..

Firebird .NET Data Provider V1.7.1 Release CaFirebird .NET Data Provider V1.7.1 Release Candidate 3

Carlos Guzmán Álvarez has announced the availability of the Firebird .NET Data Provider V1.7.1 Release Candidate 3 for download with improved input parameter handling.

..::::..::::..::::..

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Results of the Race to Linux

"CodeProject today announced the winners. In one case an application
was rewritten line-by-line with PHP, which took twenty three hours."

"The Reports Starter Kit and TimeTracker were ported to Linux using
Mono and the database replaced with Firebird SQL."

http://www.mono-project.com/news/archive/2005/Oct-11.html
..::::..

Monday, October 10, 2005

firebird2_1.5.2-8 ready for testing in Debian Unstable (aka sid)

I've prepared the next upload of firebird2-1.5.2.

Source and binary packages are in ftp://www.creditreform.bg/public/dists/sid/main

It would be nice if any of you wishes to help by installing/upgrading the packages.

All packages and the Release files are signed by me, so you can verify the
signatures with apt 0.6.

Revision history is available on
http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/pkg-firebird/trunk/debian/?rev=0&sc=0

I'll wait a week for bugreports and then ask Francesco for an upload.

Changelog follows:

firebird2 (1.5.2-8) unstable; urgency=low

* "Cleaning up the house"

* debian/control.in: Fix short description of firebird2-super-server.
Closes: #299983
* Make editline to not rely on system vis.h and always use its own.
Fixes FTBFS with kerberos4kth-dev 1.2.2-11: undefined reference to
`strunvis' (Closes: #283911)
Reported and fix suggested by Kalle Olavi Niemitalo
* Improve long descriptions of libfbembed1 and libfbclient1.
Closes: #329330 "libfbclient1: long description lacks everything"
Gerfried Fuchs spotted this. Thanks.
* Corrected sections:
- libfbclient1, libfbembed1 -> libs
- firebird2-utils-* -> utils
- firebird2-dev -> libdevel
- firebird2-examples -> doc
Gerfried Fuchs spotted this too. Thanks again.
* debian/README.64bit: add note about 64/32-bit incompatibility of
on-disk-structure of databases
* Fix typo in debian/make_packages.sh, causing UDF definition .sql files to
be installed in -classic-server. Now they go in -server-common.
Closes: #322199 firebird2-classic-server: Missing sql for functions of
ib_udf and fbudf
* firebird2-classic-server: xinetd configuration file is now installed
regardless of xinetd presense. Provided xinetd configuration is disabled,
however.
* fmbgr.bin fixed to point to /var/log/firebird.log when a problem occurs.
Prevoiusly pointed to $FIREBIRD/log/firebird.log
+ debian/patches/fbmgr_correct_log_path.dpatch
* Turn off echo when asking for sysdba password
* Ask for sysdba password only on one is not yet set (very first install)
* Move SYSDBA.password from /usr/lib/firebird2 to /etc/firebird2
* /etc/init.d/firebird2: source /etc/firebird2/SYSDBA.password to get sysdba
password.
* pre-boot autotools
+ debian/patches/autoboot.dpatch
+ remove autoconf and libtool from Build-Depends
* update src/extern/editline/config.{guess,sub} to those from 2005-09-13
+ fixes two lintian warnings
* aliases.conf: use /var/lib/firebird2/data for employee.fdb
* firebird-classic-server.prerm: detect active connections using
fb_lock_print

-- Damyan Ivanov Sat, 8 Oct 2005 20:47:51 +0300

-- Damyan Ivanov Creditreform Bulgaria
divanov at creditreform.bg
..::::..::::..::::..

Thursday, October 06, 2005

quote of the day - claudio valderama

This what I found in firebird check-ins archive

"Trying to constify Vulcan from pure source code inspection. Now Jim's turn to try to compile."

and Jim's response

"From time to time it becomes appropriate to elect project members to
semi-honorary office. I, for example, am the Project Wolf.
Accordingly, it gives me great pleasure to nominate Claudio to the
official Firebird Const-able."


..::::..

c't Magazine Database Contest

Thanks to Heiko Tappe, we now have the specs and links for the database
programming contest translated to English and hosted at our own website.

URL:

http://firebird.sourceforge.net/connect/ct-dbContest.html

Take a look and have a go!
Good luck!

cheers,
Helen

..::::..

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Firebird and Postfix

Is there any interest at all in getting Firebird support within Postfix?

I have been working on implementing this for my own use and am willing to make it generally available once it is complete if there is interest.

Regards,

Dan Wilson

[ed:Sure we are interested about it , maybe we can write an howto for
postfix to be added on http://www.postfix.org (watch Database support
area)]

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

firebird slackware 10.2 package on the way

Hugo Bernier wrote on support list:
"I'm creating a slackware 10.2 package for my own use of
Firebird-1.5.3-RC1. When Firebird 1.5.3 goes public, I'll probably
submit the package for public consumption.

I will undoubtedly do the same for firebird 2.0.x

I would like to use part of the description of firebird on the main
website for the package description, and part of it in a file that
details the licensing scheme of firebird. I was curious who I should
be asking permission.
"


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