Firebird 2 Quick Start Guide

IBPhoenix Editors
Firebird Project members
18 January 2009, document version 3.8 — covers Firebird 2.0–2.0.5 and 2.1–2.1.2
Table of Contents
About this guide .................................................................................................................................... 3
What is in the kit? ................................................................................................................................. 3
Classic or Superserver? .......................................................................................................................... 3
Embedded Server for Windows ...................................................................................................... 4
Default disk locations ............................................................................................................................. 5
Linux ............................................................................................................................................. 5
Windows ....................................................................................................................................... 6
Installing Firebird ................................................................................................................................... 7
Installing the Firebird server ........................................................................................................... 7
Installing multiple servers ............................................................................................................... 9
Testing your installation ................................................................................................................. 9
Performing a client-only install ..................................................................................................... 12
Server configuration and management ................................................................................................... 13
User management: gsec ................................................................................................................ 13
Security ....................................................................................................................................... 15
Windows Control Panel applets .................................................................................................... 16
Administration tools ..................................................................................................................... 18
Working with databases ........................................................................................................................ 18
Connection strings ........................................................................................................................ 18
Connecting to an existing database ................................................................................................ 20
Creating a database using isql ....................................................................................................... 21
Firebird SQL ................................................................................................................................ 22
Preventing data loss ............................................................................................................................. 26
Backup ........................................................................................................................................ 26
How to corrupt a database ............................................................................................................ 27
How to get help ................................................................................................................................... 29
How to give help ................................................................................................................................. 29
The Firebird Project ............................................................................................................................. 30
Appendix A: Document History ............................................................................................................ 31
Appendix B: License notice .................................................................................................................. 35
Alphabetical index ............................................................................................................................... 36

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 About this guide
The Firebird Quick Start Guide is an introduction for the complete newcomer to a few essentials for getting
off to a quick start with a Firebird binary kit. The guide first saw the light as Chapter 1 of the Using Firebird
manual, sold on CD by IBPhoenix. Later it was published separately on the Internet. In June 2004, IBPhoenix
donated it to the Firebird Project. Since then it is maintained, and regularly updated, by members of the Firebird
documentation project.

Important

Before you read on, verify that this guide matches your Firebird version. This guide covers versions 2.0–
2.0.5 and 2.1–2.1.2. For all other Firebird versions, get the corresponding Quick Start Guide at http://www.
firebirdsql.org/?op=doc.

Some warnings before you start

• Firebird 2.0.2 was recalled due to a regression; if you use it, upgrade to 2.0.3 or higher ASAP and make
sure to read your new version's Release Notes.

• If you want to rely on Linux forced writes to work correctly, upgrade to at least 2.0.4.

What is in the kit?

All of the kits contain all of the components needed to install the Firebird server:

• The Firebird server executable.

• One or more client libraries.

• The command-line tools.

• The standard user-defined function libraries.

• A sample database.

• The C header files (not needed by beginners).

• Release notes – ESSENTIAL READING!

Classic or Superserver?
Firebird comes in two flavours, called architectures: Classic Server and Superserver. Which one should you
install? That depends on your situation. A short overview of the most important differences follows.

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

Table 1. Firebird 2 Classic Server vs. Superserver

Classic Server Superserver

Processes Creates a separate process for every client A single process serves all connections,
connection, each with its own cache. Less using threads to handle requests. Shared
resource use if the number of connections cache space. More efficient if the number
is low. of simultaneous connections grows.
Local connections Permits fast, direct I/O to database files On Linux, all local connections are made
for local connections on Linux. The client via the network layer, using localhost
process must have filesystem-level access (often implicitly). Only the server process
rights to the database for this to work. needs access rights to the database file.
On Windows, both architectures now support safe and reliable local connec-
tions, with only the server process requiring access rights to the database file.
Multiprocessor SMP (symmetrical multi-processor) sup- No SMP support. On multi-processor Win-
port. Better performance in case of a small dows machines, performance can even
number of connections that do not influ- drop dramatically as the OS switches the
ence each other. process between CPUs. To prevent this, set
the CpuAffinityMask parameter in the
configuration file firebird.conf.
Guardian When run as a Windows application (as Can be used with the Guardian on Win-
opposed to a service) you can't use the Fire- dows, whether run as an application or as
bird Guardian. Note that running Firebird a service.
as an application is the only option on Win-
dows 9x–ME.

As you can see, neither of the architectures is better in all respects. This is hardly surprising: we wouldn't maintain
two separate architectures if one of them was an all-fronts loser.

If you're still not sure what to choose (maybe you find all this tech talk a little overwhelming), use this rule
of thumb:

• On Windows, choose Superserver.

• On Linux, just pick one or the other. In most circumstances, chances are that you won't notice a performance
difference.

Note that you can always switch to the other architecture later; your applications and databases will keep func-
tioning like before.

For Linux, Superserver download packages start with FirebirdSS, Classic packages with FirebirdCS. For
Windows, there is a combined installation package; you choose the architecture during the installation process.

Embedded Server for Windows

On Windows platforms only, Firebird offers a third flavor: Embedded Server, a client and server rolled into one
DLL for ease of deployment. While very practical, it lacks most of Firebird's usual security features. For more
information on Firebird Embedded Server, consult the Clients and Servers chapter in Using Firebird:

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

http://www.firebirdsql.org/manual/ufb-cs-embedded.html (HTML)

http://www.firebirdsql.org/pdfmanual/Using-Firebird_(wip).pdf (PDF)

The Embedded Server comes in a separate download package.

Default disk locations

Linux
The following table shows the default component locations of a Firebird installation on Linux. Some of the
locations may be different on other Unix-like systems.

Table 2. Firebird 2 component locations on Linux

Component File Name Default Location

Installation directory — /opt/firebird

(referred to hereafter as <In-

stallDir>)

Release Notes and other documen- Various files <InstallDir>/doc

tation
Firebird server fbserver (SS) or fb_inet_ <InstallDir>/bin
server (CS)

Command-line tools isql, gbak, nbackup, gsec, <InstallDir>/bin

gfix, gstat, etc.

Sample database employee.fdb <InstallDir>/examples/

empbuild

UDF libraries ib_udf.so, fbudf.so <InstallDir>/UDF

Additional server-side libraries libicu*.so, libib_util.so <InstallDir>/bin

Client libraries libfbclient.so.2.m.n (net- /usr/lib

work client)
(actually, the real stuff is in <In-
libfbembed.so.2.m.n (lo- stallDir>/lib, but you should
cal client with embedded engine, use the links in /usr/lib)
Classic only)

The usual symlinks (*.so.2,

*.so) are created. Legacy
libgds.* symlinks are also in-
stalled.

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

Windows
In the table below, <ProgramDir> refers to the Windows programs folder. This is usually “C:\Program
Files” but may also be a different path, e.g. “D:\Programmi”. Likewise, <SystemDir> refers to the Win-
dows system directory. Be sure to read the notes below the table, especially if you're running Firebird on a 64-
bit Windows system.

Table 3. Firebird 2 component locations on Windows

Component File Name Default Location

Installation directory — <ProgramDir>\Firebird\
Firebird_2_0
(referred to hereafter as <In-
stallDir>)

Release Notes and other documen- Various files <InstallDir>\doc

tation
Firebird server fbserver.exe (SS) or fb_in- <InstallDir>\bin
et_server.exe (CS)

Command-line tools isql.exe, gbak.exe, nback- <InstallDir>\bin

up.exe, gsec.exe, gfix.
exe, gstat.exe, etc.

Sample database employee.fdb <InstallDir>\examples\

empbuild

User-defined function (UDF) li- ib_udf.dll, fbudf.dll <InstallDir>\UDF

braries
Additional server-side libraries icu*.dll, ib_util.dll <InstallDir>\bin

Client libraries fbclient.dll <InstallDir>\bin

(with an optional gds32.dll, to (with an optional copy in <Sys-

support legacy apps) temDir> – see note below table)

The Windows system directory

The exact path to the Windows System directory depends on your Windows version. Typical locations on 32-
bit systems are:

• for Windows 95/98/ME: C:\Windows\System

• for Windows NT/2000: C:\WINNT\System32
• for Windows XP: C:\Windows\System32

For 64-bit systems, read the next note.

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

Important notice for 64-bit Windows users

On 64-bit Windows systems, the “Program Files” directory is reserved for 64-bit programs. If you try to
install a 32-bit application into that folder, it will be auto-redirected to a directory which – in English versions
– is called “Program Files (x86)”. In other language versions the name may be different.

In the same vein, the System32 directory is reserved for 64-bit libraries. 32-bit libraries go into SysWOW64.
That's right: 64-bit libraries are in System32, 32-bit libraries in SysWOW64.

If you're not aware of this, you may have a hard time locating your 32-bit Firebird components on a 64-bit
Windows system.

(Incidentally, WOW stands for Windows on Windows. Now you can also work out what LOL means.)

Installing Firebird
The instructions given below for the installation of Firebird on Windows and Linux should be sufficient for the
vast majority of cases. However, if you experience problems or if you have special needs not covered here, be
sure to read the INSTALLATION NOTES chapter in the Release Notes. This is especially important if you are
upgrading from a previous version or if there are remnants of an old (and maybe long gone) InterBase or Firebird
installation floating around your system (DLLs, Registry entries, environment variables...)

Installing the Firebird server

Installation drives

Firebird server – and any databases you create or connect to – must reside on a hard drive that is physically
connected to the host machine. You cannot locate components of the server, or any database, on a mapped drive,
a filesystem share or a network filesystem.

Note

You can mount a read-only database on a CD-ROM drive but you cannot run Firebird server from one.

Installation script or program

Although it is possible to install Firebird by a filesystem copying method – such as “untarring” a snapshot
build or decompressing a structured .zip archive – it is strongly recommended that you use the distributed
release kit (.exe for Windows, .rpm for Linux), especially if this is the first time you install Firebird. The
Windows installation executable, the Linux rpm program and the install.sh script in the official .tar.
gz for various Posix platforms all perform some essential setup tasks. Provided you follow the installation
instructions correctly, there should be nothing for you to do upon completion but log in and go!

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

Installing on Windows
The Firebird installer lets you choose between Superserver and Classic Server installation. Both are fully mature
and stable and there is no reason to categorically prefer one to the other. Of course you may have your own
specific considerations.

If you install Firebird under Windows 95/98/ME, uncheck the option to install the Control Panel applet. It doesn't
work on these platforms. You'll find a link to a usable applet further down. (Note: the option to install the applet
is only available for Superserver.)

On Windows server platforms – NT, 2000, 2003 and XP – Firebird will run as a system service by default, but
during the installation you can also choose to let it run as an application. Non-server Windows systems – 95, 98
and ME – don't support services; running as an application is the only option there.

Use the Guardian?

The Firebird Guardian is a utility that monitors the server process and tries to restart it if it terminates abnormally.
The Guardian does not work with Firebird Classic Server on Windows if run as an application. This is due to
a known bug, which will be fixed later. Currently the Firebird 2 installer doesn't give you the option to include
the Guardian at all with a Classic Server, even if you install it as a service.

The Guardian works correctly with Superserver, whether run as an application or as a service.

If you run Firebird as a service on Windows 2000, 2003 or XP, the Guardian is a convenience rather than a
necessity, since these operating systems have the facility to watch and restart services. It is recommended that
you keep the Guardian option on (if possible) in all other situations.

Warning

If you install Firebird 2.0.3 (and probably earlier 2.0 versions too) on Windows without the Guardian, the in-
staller doesn't correctly detect an already running server. This leads to errors when it tries to overwrite existing
DLLs and executables. So, in the above case, make sure to uninstall any existing Firebid server before attempt-
ing to install the new one. This bug has been fixed in versions 2.0.4 and 2.1.

Installing on Linux and other Unix-like platforms

In all cases, read the Release Notes that came with your Firebird package (chapter Installation Notes, section
Posix Platforms). There may be significant variations from release to release of any Posix operating system,
especially the open source ones. Where possible, the build engineers for each Firebird version have attempted
to document any known issues.

If you have a Linux distribution that supports rpm installs, consult the appropriate platform documentation for
instructions about using RPM Package Manager. In most distributions you will have the choice of performing
the install from a command shell or through a GUI interface.

For Linux distributions that cannot process rpm programs, and for Unix flavours for which no .rpm kit is
provided, use the .tar.gz kit. You will find detailed instructions in the Release Notes.

Shell scripts have been provided. In some cases, the Release Notes may instruct you to edit the scripts and make
some manual adjustments.

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

Installing multiple servers

Firebird 2 allows the operation of multiple servers on a single machine. It can also run concurrently with Firebird
1.x or InterBase servers. Setting this up is not a beginner's task though. If you need to run multiple servers,
consult the Installation Notes chapter of the Release Notes, and have the Firebird 1.5 Release Notes handy too
– you will be directed to them at a certain point during your reading of the Installation Notes.

Testing your installation

If everything works as designed, the Firebird server process will be running on your server machine upon com-
pletion of the installation. It will also start up automatically whenever you restart your computer.

Before testing the Firebird server itself, it is advisable to verify if the server machine is reachable from the client
at all. At this point, it is assumed that you will use the recommended TCP/IP network protocol for your Firebird
client/server connections.

Notes

• If you have installed a Classic Server on Linux/Unix or any Firebird server on Windows, it is possible to
connect directly to the local server, without using a network layer. If you intend to use Firebird for this type
of connection only, you can skip the “Pinging the server” section below.

• For information about using the NetBEUI protocol in an all-Windows environment, refer to the Network
Configuration chapter in the Using Firebird manual sold by IBPhoenix, or consult the InterBase 6 Opera-
tions Guide (http://www.ibphoenix.com/downloads/60OpGuide.zip).

• Firebird does not support IPX/SPX networks.

Pinging the server

The ping command – available on most systems – is a quick and easy way to see if you can connect to a server
machine via the network. For example, if your server's IP address in the domain that is visible to your client is
192.13.14.1, go to a command shell on the client machine and type the command

ping 192.13.14.1

substituting this example IP address with the IP address that your server is broadcasting. If you are on a managed
network and you don't know the server's IP address, ask your system administrator. Of course you can also ping
the server by its name, if you know it:

ping vercingetorix

If you are connecting to the server from a local client – that is, a client running on the same machine as the
server – you can ping the virtual TCP/IP loopback server:

ping localhost –or– ping 127.0.0.1

If you have a simple network of two machines linked by a crossover cable, you can set up your server with
any IP address you like except 127.0.0.1 (which is reserved for a local loopback server) and, of course, the IP

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

address which you are using for your client machine. If you know the “native” IP addresses of your network
cards, and they are different, you can simply use those.

Once you have verified that the server machine is reachable from the client, you can go on to the next step.

Checking that the Firebird server is running

After installation, Firebird server should be running:

On Linux or other Unix-like systems:

As a service.

On Windows server systems (NT, 2000, 2003, XP):

As a service or as an application. Service is default and highly recommended.

On Windows non-server systems (95, 98, ME):

As an application.

The following sections show you how to test the server in each of these situations.

Server check: Linux and other Unices

Use the top command in a command shell to inspect the running processes interactively. If a Firebird Superserver
is running, you should see a process named fbguard. This is the Guardian process. Further, there will be one
main and zero or more child processes named fbserver.

The following screen shows the output of top, restricted by grep to show only lines containing the characters fb:

frodo:/inkomend/firebird # top -b -n1 | grep fb

2587 firebird 24 0 1232 1232 1028 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.00 fbguard
2588 firebird 15 0 4124 4120 2092 S 0.0 0.9 0:00.04 fbserver
2589 firebird 15 0 4124 4120 2092 S 0.0 0.9 0:00.00 fbserver
2604 firebird 15 0 4124 4120 2092 S 0.0 0.9 0:00.00 fbserver
2605 firebird 15 0 4124 4120 2092 S 0.0 0.9 0:00.02 fbserver
2606 firebird 15 0 4124 4120 2092 S 0.0 0.9 0:00.00 fbserver
2607 firebird 15 0 4124 4120 2092 S 0.0 0.9 0:00.00 fbserver

As an alternative to top, you can use ps -ax or ps -aux and pipe the output to grep.

For Classic Server versions, the process name is fb_inet_server. There will be one instance of this process
running for each network connection. Note that if there are no active connections, or if there are only direct local
connections, you won't find fb_inet_server in the process list. fb_lock_mgr should be present though
as soon as any kind of Classic connection has been established.

Other ways to test a Firebird server immediately after installation include connecting to a database, creating a
database, and launching the gsec utility. All these operations are described later on in this guide.

Server check: Windows, running as service

Open Control Panel -> Services (NT) or Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services (2000, XP).

This illustration shows the Services applet display on Windows 2000. The appearance may vary from one Win-
dows server edition to another. Also, service names may vary with the Firebird version.

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

You should at least find the Firebird server in the services listing. The Guardian may or may not be running,
depending on the choices you made during installation.

Server check: Windows, running as application

If Firebird is up and running as an application, it is represented by an icon in the system tray:

• A green and grey server symbol if controlled by the Guardian;

• A round yellow and black graphic if running standalone.

A flashing icon indicates that the server is in the process of starting up (or at least trying to do so). A red icon,
or an icon with an overlying red stop sign, indicates that startup has failed.

One way to make 100% sure if the server is running or not is to press Ctrl-Alt-Del and look for the fbserver
or fb_inet_server process (and possibly fbguard) in the task list.

On some occasions, you may need to start the Guardian or server once explicitly via the Start menu even if you
opted for “Start Firebird now” at the end of the installation process. Sometimes a reboot is necessary.

If you're desperately trying to start Firebird and nothing seems to work, ask yourself if you've installed Firebird 2
Classic server with the Guardian option enabled (the installation program doesn't offer this possibility anymore,
but there are other ways). As said before, the combination Classic + Guardian currently doesn't work if Firebird
runs as an application. Uninstall Firebird if necessary and reinstall Classic without Guardian, or Superserver
with or without Guardian.

You can shut the server down via the menu that appears if you right-click on the tray icon. Notice that this also
makes the icon disappear; you can restart Firebird via the Start menu.

Note

Windows Classic Server launches a new process for every connection, so the number of fb_inet_server
processes will always equal the number of client connections plus one. Shutdown via the tray icon menu only
terminates the first process (the listener). Other processes, if present, will continue to function normally, each
terminating when the client disconnects from the database. Of course, once the listener has been shut down,
new connections can't be made.

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

In the case of Superserver you can also use a Control Panel applet to check and alter the Firebird server status.
Some available applets will be presented a little later in this guide.

Performing a client-only install

Each remote client machine needs to have the client library – libfbclient.so on Posix clients, fbclient.
dll on Windows clients – that matches the release version of the Firebird server.

Firebird versions from 1.5 onward can install symlinks or copies named after the 1.0 libs (with the “old” Inter-
Base names), to maintain compatibility with third-party products which need these files.

Some extra pieces are also needed for the client-only install.

Windows
At present, no separate installation program is available to install only the client pieces on a Windows machine.
If you are in the common situation of running Windows clients to a Linux or other Unix-like Firebird server
(or another Windows machine), you need to download the full Windows installation kit that corresponds to the
version of Firebird server you install on your server machine.

Fortunately, once you have the kit, the Windows client-only install is easy to do. Start up the installation program
just as though you were going to install the server, but select one of the client-only options from the installation
menu.

Linux and some other Posix clients

A small-footprint client install program for Linux clients is not available either. Additionally, some Posix
flavours – even within the Linux constellation – have somewhat idiosyncratic requirements for filesystem loca-
tions. For these reasons, not all *x distributions for Firebird even contain a client-only install option.

For most Linux flavours, the following procedure is suggested for a Firebird client-only install. Log in as root
for this.

1. Look for libfbclient.so.2.m.n (m.n being the minor plus patch version number) in /opt/fire-
bird/lib on the machine where the Firebird server is installed. Copy it to /usr/lib on the client.

2. Create chained symlinks using the following commands:

ln -s /usr/lib/libfbclient.so.2.m.n /usr/lib/libfbclient.so.2

ln -s /usr/lib/libfbclient.so.2 /usr/lib/libfbclient.so

...replacing 2.m.n with your version number, e.g. 2.0.0 or 2.1.0

If you're running applications that expect the legacy libraries to be present, also create the following sym-
links:

ln -s /usr/lib/libfbclient.so /usr/lib/libgds.so.0

ln -s /usr/lib/libfbclient.so /usr/lib/libgds.so

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

3. Copy firebird.msg to the client machine, preferably into the /opt/firebird directory. If you place
it somewhere else, create a system-wide permanent FIREBIRD environment variable pointing to the right
directory, so that the API routines can locate the messages.

4. Optionally copy some of the Firebird command-line tools – e.g. isql – to the client machine. Note: always
copy the tools from a Superserver kit, regardless of the architecture of the server(s) you're planning to
connect to. Tools from Classic distributions terminate immediately if they can't find the libfbembed
library (which is useless for network connections) upon program start.

Instead of copying the files from a server, you can also pull them out of a Firebird tar.gz kit. Everything
you need is located in the /opt/firebird tree within the buildroot.tar.gz archive that's packed inside
the kit.

Server configuration and management

There are several things you should be aware of – and take care of – before you start using your freshly installed
Firebird server. This part of the manual introduces you to some useful tools and shows you how to protect your
server and databases.

User management: gsec

Firebird comes with a command-line user management tool called gsec. Although its functions can also be
performed by a number of third-party GUI utilities, you should at least have a basic knowledge of gsec, since
this is the official tool and it's present in every Firebird server installation. In the next sections you will use gsec
to execute two tasks: changing the SYSDBA password and adding a Firebird user. First though, some points
of attention:

Permission to run gsec

With some Firebird installations, you can only run gsec if you are logged into the operating system as Supe-
ruser (root on Linux) or as the user the Firebird server process runs under. On Windows server platforms,
you typically need to be in the Power User group or higher to run gsec successfully.

Trouble running gsec

If you have enough privileges but invoking gsec results in a message like “cannot attach to pass-
word database - unable to open database”:

• You may be running Firebird on Windows and for some reason the local protocol isn't working. One
rather common cause for this is running Windows Vista, 2003 or XP with terminal services enabled.
To enable the local protocol, open firebird.conf, uncomment the IpcName parameter and set it to
Global\FIREBIRD. Then restart the server.

Note

In Firebird 2.0.1 and up, Global\FIREBIRD is already the default on TS-enabled Windows systems.

• If the above doesn't apply to you, you can at least circumvent the problem by “tricking” gsec into using
TCP/IP. Add the following parameter to the command line, adjusting the path if necessary:

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

-database "localhost:C:\Program Files\Firebird\Firebird_2_0\security2.fdb"

The file security2.fdb is the security database, where Firebird keeps its user account details. It is
located in your Firebird installation directory.

• Maybe your security database is a renamed security.fdb from Firebird 1.5. Of course this can't be the
case immediately after installation. Someone (you?) must have put it there, in order to keep the existing
accounts available. Consult the Release Notes for instructions on how to upgrade old security databases.

If the error message starts with “Cannot attach to services manager”, the server may not be
running at all. In that case, go back to Testing your installation and fix the problem.

Calling gsec on Linux

On **nix systems, if you call gsec from its own directory, you should type ./gsec instead of just gsec. The
current directory is usually not part of the search path, so plain gsec may either fail or launch a “wrong” gsec.

Changing the SYSDBA password

One Firebird account is created automatically as part of the installation process: SYSDBA. This account has all
the privileges on the server and cannot be deleted. Depending on version, OS, and architecture, the installation
program will either

• install the SYSDBA user with the password masterkey (actually, masterke: characters after the eighth
are ignored), or

• ask you to enter a password during installation, or

• generate a random password and store that in the file SYSDBA.password within your Firebird installation
directory.

If the password is masterkey and your server is exposed to the Internet at all – or even to a local network,
unless you trust every user with the SYSDBA password – you should change it immediately using the gsec
command-line utility. Go to a command shell, cd to the Firebird bin subdirectory and issue the following
command to change the password to (as an example) icuryy4me:

gsec -user sysdba -pass masterkey -mo sysdba -pw icuryy4me

Notice that you specify “sysdba” twice in the command:

• With the -user parameter you identify yourself as SYSDBA. You also provide SYSDBA's current password
in the -pass parameter.

• The -mo[dify] parameter tells gsec that you want to modify an account – which happens to be SYSDBA
again. Lastly, -pw specifies the type of modification: the password.

If all has gone well, the new password icuryy4me is now encrypted and stored, and masterkey is no longer
valid. Please be aware that unlike Firebird user names, passwords are case-sensitive.

Adding Firebird user accounts

Firebird allows the creation of many different user accounts. Each of them can own databases and also have
various types of access to databases and database objects it doesn't own.

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

Using gsec, you can add a user account as follows from the command line in the Firebird bin subdirectory:

gsec -user sysdba -pass masterkey -add billyboy -pw sekrit66

Provided that you've supplied the correct password for SYSDBA, a user account called billyboy will now
have been created with password sekrit66. Remember that passwords are case-sensitive.

Note

Since Firebird 2, users can change their own passwords. Previous versions required SYSDBA to do this.

Security
Firebird 2 offers a number of security options, designed to make unauthorised access as difficult as possible.
Be warned however that some configurable security features default to the old, “insecure” behaviour inherited
from InterBase and Firebird 1.0, in order not to break existing applications.

It pays to familiarise yourself with Firebird's security-related configuration parameters. You can significantly
enhance your system's security if you raise the protection level wherever possible. This is not only a matter of
setting parameters, by the way: other measures involve tuning filesystem access permissions, an intelligent user
accounts policy, etc.

Below are some guidelines for protecting your Firebird server and databases.

Run Firebird as non-system user

On Unix-like systems, Firebird already runs as user firebird by default, not as root. On Windows server
platforms, you can also run the Firebird service under a designated user account (e.g. Firebird). The
default practice – running the service as the LocalSystem user – poses a security risk if your system is
connected to the Internet. Consult README.instsvc in the doc subdir to learn more about this.

Change SYSDBA's password

As discussed before, if your Firebird server is reachable from the network and the system password is mas-
terkey, change it.

Don't create user databases as SYSDBA

SYSDBA is a very powerful account, with full (destructive) access rights to all your Firebird databases. Its
password should be known to a few trusted database administrators only. Therefore, you shouldn't use this
super-account to create and populate regular databases. Instead, generate normal user accounts, and provide
their account names and passwords to your users as needed. You can do this with gsec as shown above, or
with any third-party Firebird administration tool.

Protect databases on the filesystem level

Anybody who has filesystem-level read access to a database file can copy it, install it on a system under his
or her own control, and extract all data from it – including possibly sensitive information. Anybody who has
filesystem-level write access to a database file can corrupt it or totally destroy it.

As a rule, only the Firebird server process should have access to the database files. Users don't need, and
should not have, access to the files – not even read-only. They query databases via the server, and the server
makes sure that users only get the allowed type of access (if at all) to any objects within the database.

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

Disable Classic local mode on Linux

An exception to the above rule is the so-called local or embedded access mode of Firebird Classic Server
on Linux. This mode requires that users have proper access rights to the database file itself. They must also
have read access to the security database security2.fdb. If this worries you, reserve filesystem access
to the security database (and other databases, while you're at it) for the server process only. Users are then
obliged to connect via the network layer. However, the libfbembed.* libraries should not be removed
from your system, because the Firebird command-line tools refuse to run if they are not present.

(Another exception is the Windows Embedded Server, but that's outside the scope of this manual.)

Use database aliases

Database aliases shield the client from physical database locations. Using aliases, a client can e.g. connect
to “frodo:zappa” without having to know that the real location is frodo:/var/firebird/music/
underground/mothers_of_invention.fdb. Aliases also allow you to relocate databases while the
clients keep using their existing connection strings.

Aliases are listed in the file aliases.conf, in this format on Windows machines:

poker = E:\Games\Data\PokerBase.fdb
blackjack.fdb = C:\Firebird\Databases\cardgames\blkjk_2.fdb

And on Linux:

books = /home/bookworm/database/books.fdb
zappa = /var/firebird/music/underground/mothers_of_invention.fdb

Giving the alias an .fdb (or any other) extension is fully optional. Of course if you do include it, you must
also specify it when you use the alias to connect to the database.

Restrict database access

The DatabaseAccess parameter in firebird.conf can be set to Restrict to limit access to explic-
itly listed filesystem trees, or even to None to allow access to aliased databases only. Default is All, i.e.
no restrictions.

Note that this is not the same thing as the filesystem-level access protection discussed earlier: when
DatabaseAccess is anything other than All, the server will refuse to open any databases outside the
defined scope even if it has sufficient rights on the database files.

There are more security parameters, but the ones not mentioned here are already set to an adequate protection
level by default. You can read about them in the 1.5 and 2.0 Release Notes and in the comments in firebird.
conf itself.

Windows Control Panel applets

Several control panel applets are available for use with Firebird. Whilst such applets are not essential, they do
provide a convenient way to start and stop the server and check its current status.

Firebird Server Manager

The Firebird Server Manager applet is included in the Firebird distribution. The option to install this applet is
only available for Superserver.

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

Note

The applet is also usable for Classic server, provided that it (the server, that is) runs as a service, not as an
application. Since the installation dialogue won't give you the option to include the applet with a Classic server,
you must, if you really want it:

• Install Superserver first;

• Copy the applet Firebird2Control.cpl from the Windows system folder to a safe place;
• Uninstall Superserver;
• Install Classic;
• Copy the applet back to the system directory.

This is a screenshot of the activated applet. Notice that the title bar says “Firebird Server Control”, although it
is listed in the Control Panel as Firebird 2.0 Server Manager.

Unfortunately, the bundled applet only works on Windows NT, 2000/2003 and XP.

Firebird Control Center

If you want an applet that also works on Windows 9x or ME, visit this webpage:

http://www.achim-kalwa.de/fbcc.phtml

...and download the Firebird Control Center fbcc-0.2.7.exe. Please note that, unlike the applet included with
Firebird, the Firebird Control Center will not work with Classic servers at all.

The Control Center doesn't look anything like the Firebird applet shown in the screenshot, but offers the same
functionality, and then some. Attention: if you run Firebird as a service and without the Guardian, the Start/
Stop button will be labeled “Start” all the time, even when the server is already running. It functions as it should
though. In all other configurations the button will say “Start” or “Stop” according to the situation.

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

Administration tools
The Firebird kit does not come with a GUI admin tool. It does have a set of command-line tools – executable
programs which are located in the bin subdirectory of your Firebird installation. One of them, gsec, has already
been introduced to you.

The range of excellent GUI tools available for use with a Windows client machine is too numerous to describe
here. A few GUI tools written in Borland Kylix, for use on Linux client machines, are also in various stages
of completion.

Inspect the Downloads > Contributed > Administration Tools page at http://www.ibphoenix.com for all of the
options.

Note

Remember: you can use a Windows client to access a Linux server and vice-versa.

Working with databases

In this part of the manual you will learn:

• how to connect to an existing database,

• how to create a database,
• and some things you should know about Firebird SQL.

In as much as remote connections are involved, we will use the recommended TCP/IP protocol.

Connection strings
If you want to connect to a database or create one you have to supply, amongst other things, a connection string to
the client application (or, if you are a programmer, to the routines you are calling). A connection string uniquely
identifies the location of the database on your computer, local network, or even the Internet.

Local connection strings

An explicit local connection string consists of the path + filename specification in the native format of the
filesystem used on the server machine, for example

• on a Linux or other Unix-like server:

/opt/firebird/examples/empbuild/employee.fdb

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

• on a Windows server:

C:\Biology\Data\Primates\Apes\populations.fdb

Many clients also allow relative path strings (e.g. “..\examples\empbuild\employee.fdb”) but you
should use them with caution, as it's not always obvious how they will be expanded. Getting an error message
is annoying enough, but applying changes to another database than you thought you were connected to may
be disastrous.

Instead of a file path, the local connection string may also be a database alias that is defined in aliases.
conf, as mentioned earlier. The format of the alias depends only on how it's defined in the aliases file, not on
the server filesystem. Examples are:

• zappa
• blackjack.fdb
• poker

Tip

If your local connections fail, it may be because the local protocol isn't working properly on your machine. If
you're running Windows Vista, 2003 or XP with terminal services enabled, this can often be fixed by setting
IpcName to Global\FIREBIRD in the configuration file firebird.conf (don't forget to uncomment the
parameter and restart the server). In Firebird 2.0.1, Global\FIREBIRD is already the default on TS-enabled
Windows systems.

If setting IpcName doesn't help and you don't get the local protocol enabled, you can always work around
the problem by putting “localhost:” before your database paths or aliases, thus turning them into TCP/IP
connection strings (discussed below).

TCP/IP connection strings

A TCP/IP connection string consists of:

1. a server name or IP address

2. a colon (“:”)
3. either the absolute path + filename on the server machine, or an alias defined on the server machine.

Examples:

• On Linux/Unix:

pongo:/opt/firebird/examples/empbuild/employee.fdb

bongo:fury

112.179.0.1:/var/Firebird/databases/butterflies.fdb

localhost:blackjack.fdb

• On Windows:

siamang:C:\Biology\Data\Primates\Apes\populations.fdb

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

sofa:D:\Misc\Friends\Rich\Lenders.fdb

127.0.0.1:Borrowers

Notice how the aliased connection strings don't give any clue about the server OS. And they don't have to, either:
you talk to a Linux Firebird server just like you talk to a Windows Firebird server. In fact, specifying an explicit
database path is one of the rare occasions where you have to be aware of the difference.

Third-party programs

Please note that some third-party client programs may have different requirements for the composition of con-
nection strings. Refer to their documentation or online help to find out.

Connecting to an existing database

A sample database named employee.fdb is located in the examples/empbuild subdirectory of your Fire-
bird installation. You can use this database to “try your wings”.

If you move or copy the sample database, be sure to place it on a hard disk that is physically attached to your
server machine. Shares, mapped drives or (on Unix) mounted SMB (Samba) filesystems will not work. The
same rule applies to any databases that you create or use.

Connecting to a Firebird database requires the user to authenticate with a user name and a valid password. In
order to work with objects inside the database – such as tables, views, etc. – you also need explicit permissions
on those objects, unless you own them (you own an object if you have created it) or if you're connected as
SYSDBA. In the example database employee.fdb, sufficient permissions have been granted to PUBLIC (i.e.
anybody who cares to connect) to enable you to view and modify data to your heart's content.

For simplicity here, we will look at authenticating as SYSDBA using the password masterkey. Also, to keep
the lines in the examples from running off the right edge, we will work with local databases and use relative
paths. Of course everything you'll learn in these sections can also be applied to remote databases, simply by
supplying a full TCP/IP connection string.

Connecting with isql

Firebird ships with a text-mode client named isql (Interactive SQL utility). You can use it in several ways to
connect to a database. One of them, shown below, is to start it in interactive mode. Go to the bin subdirectory
of your Firebird installation and type isql (Windows) or ./isql (Linux) at the command prompt.

[In the following examples, # means “hit Enter”]

C:\Program Files\Firebird\Firebird_2_0\bin>isql#
Use CONNECT or CREATE DATABASE to specify a database
SQL>CONNECT ..\examples\empbuild\employee.fdb user SYSDBA password masterkey;#

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

Important

• In isql, every SQL statement must end with a semicolon. If you hit Enter and the line doesn't end with a
semicolon, isql assumes that the statement continues on the next line and the prompt will change from SQL>
to CON>. This enables you to split long statements over multiple lines. If you hit Enter after your statement
and you've forgotten the semicolon, just type it after the CON> prompt on the next line and press Enter again.

• If you run Classic Server on Linux, a fast, direct local connection is attempted if the database path does not
start with a hostname. This may fail if your Linux login doesn't have sufficient access rights to the database
file. In that case, connect to localhost:<path>. Then the server process (with Firebird 2 usually running
as user firebird) will open the file. On the other hand, network-style connections may fail if a user created
the database in Classic local mode and the server doesn't have enough access rights.

Note

You can optionally enclose the path, the user name and/or the password in single (') or double (") quotes. If
the path contains spaces, quoting is mandatory.

At this point, isql will inform you that you are connected:

Database: ..\examples\empbuild\employee.fdb, User: sysdba

SQL>

You can now continue to play about with the employee.fdb database. With isql you can query data, get
information about the metadata, create database objects, run data definition scripts and much more.

To get back to the command prompt, type:

SQL>QUIT;#

You can also type EXIT instead of QUIT, the difference being that EXIT will first commit any open transactions,
making your modifications permanent.

Connecting with a GUI client

GUI client tools usually take charge of composing the CONNECT string for you, using server, path (or alias),
user name and password information that you type into prompting fields. Use the elements as described in the
preceding topic.

Notes

• It is quite common for such tools to expect the entire server + path/alias as a single connection string – just
like isql does.
• Remember that file names and commands on Linux and other “Unix-ish” platforms are case-sensitive.

Creating a database using isql

There is more than one way to create a database with isql. Here, we will look at one simple way to create a
database interactively – although, for your serious database definition work, you should create and maintain
your metadata objects using data definition scripts.

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

Starting isql

To create a database interactively using the isql command shell, get to a command prompt in Firebird's bin
subdirectory and type isql (Windows) or ./isql (Linux):

C:\Program Files\Firebird\Firebird_2_0\bin>isql#
Use CONNECT or CREATE DATABASE to specify a database

The CREATE DATABASE statement

Now you can create your new database interactively. Let's suppose that you want to create a database named
test.fdb and store it in a directory named data on your D drive:

SQL>CREATE DATABASE 'D:\data\test.fdb' page_size 8192#

CON>user 'SYSDBA' password 'masterkey';#

Important

• In the CREATE DATABASE statement it is mandatory to place quote characters (single or double) around
path, username and password. This is different from the CONNECT statement.

• If you run Classic Server on Linux and you don't start the database path with a hostname, creation of the
database file is attempted with your Linux login as the owner. This may or may not be what you want (think
of access rights if you want others to be able to connect). If you prepend localhost: to the path, the
server process (with Firebird 2 usually running as user firebird) will create and own the file.

The database will be created and, after a few moments, the SQL prompt will reappear. You are now connected
to the new database and can proceed to create some test objects in it.

But to verify that there really is a database there, let's first type in this query:

SQL>SELECT * FROM RDB$RELATIONS;#

Although you haven't created any tables yet, the screen will fill up with a large amount of data! This query
selects all of the rows in the system table RDB$RELATIONS, where Firebird stores the metadata for tables. An
“empty” database is not really empty: it contains a number of system tables and other objects. The system tables
will grow as you add more user objects to your database.

To get back to the command prompt type QUIT or EXIT, as explained in the section on connecting.

Firebird SQL
Every database management system has its own idiosyncrasies in the ways it implements SQL. Firebird adheres
to the SQL standard more rigorously than most other RDBMSes. Developers migrating from products that are
less standards-compliant often wrongly suppose that Firebird is quirky, whereas many of its apparent quirks
are not quirky at all.

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

Division of an integer by an integer

Firebird accords with the SQL standard by truncating the result (quotient) of an integer/integer calculation to
the next lower integer. This can have bizarre results unless you are aware of it.

For example, this calculation is correct in SQL:

1 / 3 = 0

If you are upgrading from an RDBMS which resolves integer/integer division to a float quotient, you will need
to alter any affected expressions to use a float or scaled numeric type for either dividend, divisor, or both.

For example, the calculation above could be modified thus in order to produce a non-zero result:

1.000 / 3 = 0.333

Things to know about strings

String delimiter symbol

Strings in Firebird are delimited by a pair of single quote (apostrophe) symbols: 'I am a string' (ASCII
code 39, not 96). If you used earlier versions of Firebird's relative, InterBase®, you might recall that double
and single quotes were interchangeable as string delimiters. Double quotes cannot be used as string delimiters
in Firebird SQL statements.

Apostrophes in strings

If you need to use an apostrophe inside a Firebird string, you can “escape” the apostrophe character by preceding
it with another apostrophe.

For example, this string will give an error:

'Joe's Emporium'

because the parser encounters the apostrophe and interprets the string as 'Joe' followed by some unknown
keywords. To make it a legal string, double the apostrophe character:

'Joe''s Emporium'

Notice that this is TWO single quotes, not one double-quote.

Concatenation of strings

The concatenation symbol in SQL is two “pipe” symbols (ASCII 124, in a pair with no space between). In SQL,
the “+” symbol is an arithmetic operator and it will cause an error if you attempt to use it for concatenating
strings. The following expression prefixes a character column value with the string “Reported by: ”:

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

'Reported by: ' || LastName

Firebird will raise an error if the result of a string concatenation exceeds the maximum (var)char size of 32 Kb.
If only the potential result – based on variable or field size – is too long you'll get a warning, but the operation
will be completed successfully. (In pre-2.0 Firebird, this too would cause an error and halt execution.)

See also the section below, Expressions involving NULL, about concatenating in expressions involving NULL.

Double-quoted identifiers

Before the SQL-92 standard, it was not legal to have object names (identifiers) in a database that duplicated
keywords in the language, were case-sensitive or contained spaces. SQL-92 introduced a single new standard to
make any of them legal, provided that the identifiers were defined within pairs of double-quote symbols (ASCII
34) and were always referred to using double-quote delimiters.

The purpose of this “gift” was to make it easier to migrate metadata from non-standard RDBMSes to stan-
dards-compliant ones. The down-side is that, if you choose to define an identifier in double quotes, its case-
sensitivity and the enforced double-quoting will remain mandatory.

Firebird does permit a slight relaxation under a very limited set of conditions. If the identifier which was defined
in double-quotes:

1. was defined as all upper-case,

2. is not a keyword, and
3. does not contain any spaces,

...then it can be used in SQL unquoted and case-insensitively. (But as soon as you put double-quotes around
it, you must match the case again!)

Warning

Don't get too smart with this! For instance, if you have tables "TESTTABLE" and "TestTable", both defined
within double-quotes, and you issue the command:

SQL>select * from TestTable;

...you will get the records from "TESTTABLE", not "TestTable"!

Unless you have a compelling reason to define quoted identifiers, it is usually recommended that you avoid
them. Firebird happily accepts a mix of quoted and unquoted identifiers – so there is no problem including that
keyword which you inherited from a legacy database, if you need to.

Warning

Some database admin tools enforce double-quoting of all identifiers by default. Try to choose a tool which
makes double-quoting optional.

Expressions involving NULL

In SQL, NULL is not a value. It is a condition, or state, of a data item, in which its value is unknown. Because it
is unknown, NULL cannot behave like a value. When you try to perform arithmetic on NULL, or involve it with

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

values in other expressions, the result of the operation will almost always be NULL. It is not zero or blank or an
“empty string” and it does not behave like any of these values.

Below are some examples of the types of surprises you will get if you try to perform calculations and comparisons
with NULL.

The following expressions all return NULL:

• 1 + 2 + 3 + NULL

• not (NULL)

• 'Home ' || 'sweet ' || NULL

You might have expected 6 from the first expression and “Home sweet ” from the third, but as we just said,
NULL is not like the number 0 or an empty string – it's far more destructive!

The following expression:

• FirstName || ' ' || LastName

will return NULL if either FirstName or LastName is NULL. Otherwise it will nicely concatenate the two
names with a space in between – even if any one of the variables is an empty string.

Tip

Think of NULL as UNKNOWN and these strange results suddenly start to make sense! If the value of Number
is unknown, the outcome of '1 + 2 + 3 + Number' is also unknown (and therefore NULL). If the content
of MyString is unknown, then so is 'MyString || YourString' (even if YourString is non-NULL).
Etcetera.

Now let's examine some PSQL (Procedural SQL) examples with if-constructs:

• if (a = b) then
MyVariable = 'Equal';
else
MyVariable = 'Not equal';

After executing this code, MyVariable will be 'Not equal' if both a and b are NULL. The reason is
that 'a = b' yields NULL if at least one of them is NULL. If the test expression of an “if” statement is
NULL, it behaves like false: the 'then' block is skipped, and the 'else' block executed.

Warning

Although the expression may behave like false in this case, it's still NULL. If you try to invert it using
not(), what you get is another NULL – not “true”.

• if (a <> b) then
MyVariable = 'Not equal';
else
MyVariable = 'Equal';

Here, MyVariable will be 'Equal' if a is NULL and b isn't, or vice versa. The explanation is analogous
to that of the previous example.

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

The DISTINCT keyword comes to the rescue!

Firebird 2 implements a new use of the DISTINCT keyword allowing you to perform (in)equality tests that take
NULL into account. The semantics are as follows:

• Two expressions are DISTINCT if they have different values or if one is NULL and the other isn't;
• They are NOT DISTINCT if they have the same value or if both are NULL.

Notice that if neither operand is NULL, DISTINCT works exactly like the “<>” operator, and NOT DISTINCT
like the “=” operator.

DISTINCT and NOT DISTINCT always return true or false, never NULL.

Using DISTINCT, you can rewrite the first PSQL example as follows:

if (a is not distinct from b) then

MyVariable = 'Equal';
else
MyVariable = 'Not equal';

And the second as:

if (a is distinct from b) then

MyVariable = 'Not equal';
else
MyVariable = 'Equal';

These versions will give you the results that a normal human being (untouched by SQL standards) would expect,
whether there are NULLs involved or not.

More about NULLs

A lot more information about NULL behaviour can be found in the Firebird Null Guide, at these locations:

http://www.firebirdsql.org/manual/nullguide.html (HTML)

http://www.firebirdsql.org/pdfmanual/Firebird-Null-Guide.pdf (PDF)

An updated and greatly extended version of the Null Guide is available since January 2007.

Preventing data loss

Backup
Firebird comes with two utilities for backing up and restoring your databases: gbak and nbackup (note: nbackup
is broken in 2.1; fixed in 2.1.1). Both can be found in the bin subdirectory of your Firebird installation. Firebird
databases can be backed up while users are connected to the system and going about their normal work. The
backup will be taken from a snapshot of the database at the time the backup began.

Regular backups and occasional restores should be a scheduled part of your database management activity.

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

Warning

Except in nbackup's lock mode, do not use external proprietary backup utilities or file-copying tools such as
WinZip, tar, copy, xcopy, etc., on a database which is running. Not only will the backup be unreliable, but the
disk-level blocking used by these tools can corrupt a running database.

Important

Study the warnings in the next section about database activity during restores!

More information about gbak can be found in The Firebird Book, the Using Firebird guide (a not-so-recent
version is available through IBPhoenix, an updated version is currently in a state of growth on the Firebird site),
or in the InterBase 6.0 manuals combined with the Firebird 1.5 and 2.0 Release Notes. See the links to these
resources in How to get help.

The nbackup manual is here (HTML and PDF version, same content):

http://www.firebirdsql.org/manual/nbackup.html

http://www.firebirdsql.org/pdfmanual/Firebird-nbackup.pdf

How to corrupt a database

The following sections constitute a summary of things not to do if you want to keep your Firebird databases
in good health.

Modifying metadata tables yourself

Firebird stores and maintains all of the metadata for its own and your user-defined objects in special tables,
called system tables, right in the database itself. The identifiers for these system tables, their columns and several
other types of system objects begin with the characters RDB$.

Because these are ordinary database objects, they can be queried and manipulated just like your user-defined
objects. However, just because you can does not say you should. The Firebird engine implements a high-level
subset of SQL (DDL) for the purpose of defining and operating on metadata objects, typically through CREATE,
ALTER and DROP statements.

It cannot be recommended too strongly that you use DDL – not direct SQL operations on the system tables
– whenever you need to alter or remove metadata. Defer the “hot fix” stuff until your skills in SQL and your
knowledge of the Firebird engine become very advanced. A wrecked database is neither pretty to behold nor
cheap to repair.

Disabling forced writes

Firebird is installed with forced writes (synchronous writes) enabled by default. Changed and new data are
written to disk immediately upon posting.

It is possible to configure a database to use asynchronous data writes – whereby modified or new data are held in
the memory cache for periodic flushing to disk by the operating system's I/O subsystem. The common term for

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

this configuration is forced writes off (or disabled). It is sometimes resorted to in order to improve performance
during large batch operations.

Disabling forced writes on Windows

The big warning here is: do not disable forced writes on a Windows server. It has been observed that the Win-
dows server platforms do not flush the write cache until the Firebird service is shut down. Apart from power
interruptions, there is just too much that can go wrong on a Windows server. If it should hang, the I/O system
goes out of reach and your users' work will be lost in the process of rebooting.

Note

Windows 9x and ME do not support deferred data writes

Disabling forced writes on Linux

Linux servers are safer for running an operation with forced writes disabled temporarily. Still, do not leave it
disabled once your large batch task is completed, unless you have a very robust fall-back power system.

Warning

It was recently discovered that forced writes did not work at all under Linux. This is due to a bug in the
fcntl() function on Linux and it affects all Firebird versions up to and including 2.0.3. The only known
workaround is to mount the partition in question with the sync option — or upgrade to Firebird 2.0.4 or higher.

Other Unices don't seem to suffer from this bug. To make sure, test if you system's fcntl() can successfully
set the O_SYNC flag. Set the flag on and off and read it back both times to make sure the change was actually
written.

Restoring a backup to a running database

One of the restore options in the gbak utility (gbak -rep[lace_database]) allows you to restore a gbak
file over the top of an existing database. It is possible for this style of restore to proceed without warning while
users are logged in to the database. Database corruption is almost certain to be the result.

Note

Notice that the shortest form of this command is gbak -rep, not gbak -r as it used to be in previous Firebird
versions. What happened to gbak -r? It is now short for gbak -recreate_database, which functions
the same as gbak -c[reate] and throws an error if the specified database already exists. You can force
overwriting of the existing database by adding the o[verwrite] flag though. This flag is only supported
with gbak -r, not with gbak -c.

These changes have been made because many users thought that the -r switch meant restore instead of replace
– and only found out otherwise when it was too late.

Warning

Be aware that you will need to design your admin tools and procedures to prevent any possibility for any user
(including SYSDBA) to restore to your active database if any users are logged in.

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 Firebird 2 Quick Start

If is practicable to do so, it is recommended to restore to spare disk space using the gbak -c[reate] option
and test the restored database using isql or your preferred admin tool. If the restored database is good, shut down
the old database (you can use the gfix command-line tool for this; see the InterBase Operations Guide; a link
is given in the next section). Make a filesystem copy of the old database just in case and then copy the restored
database file(s) over their existing counterparts.

Allowing users to log in during a restore

If you do not block access to users while performing a restore using gbak -rep[lace_database] then
users may be able to log in and attempt to do operations on data. Corrupted structures will result.

How to get help

The community of willing helpers around Firebird goes a long way back, to many years before the source code
for its ancestor, InterBase® 6, was made open source. Collectively, the Firebird community does have all the
answers! It even includes some people who have been involved with it since it was a design on a drawing board
in a bathroom in Boston.

• Visit the official Firebird Project site at http://www.firebirdsql.org and join the user support lists, in particular
firebird-support. Look at http://www.firebirdsql.org/?op=lists for instructions.

• Use the Firebird documentation index at http://www.firebirdsql.org/?op=doc.

• Visit the Firebird knowledge site at http://www.ibphoenix.com to look up a vast collection of information
about developing with and using Firebird. IBPhoenix also sells a Developer CD with the Firebird binaries
and lots of documentation.

• Order the official Firebird Book at http://www.ibphoenix.com/main.nfs?a=ibphoenix&s=1093098777:1497

34&page=ibp_firebird_book, for more than 1100 pages jam-packed with Firebird information.

• As a last resort – since our documentation is still incomplete – you can consult the InterBase 6.0 beta manu-
als (the files whose names start with 60 at http://www.ibphoenix.com/downloads/) in combination with the
Firebird 1.5 and 2.0 Release Notes.

Note

The IBPhoenix publications Using Firebird and The Firebird Reference Guide, though still on the Developer
CD, are no longer actively maintained. However, most of the material contained in those documents is currently
being brought up to date and added, bit by bit, to the official project documentation.

How to give help

Firebird exists, and continues to be improved, thanks to a community of volunteers who donate their time and
skills to bring you this wonderful piece of software. But volunteer work alone is not enough to keep an enter-
prise-level RDBMS such as Firebird up-to-date. The Firebird Foundation supports Firebird development finan-
cially by issuing grants to designers and developers. If Firebird is useful to you and you'd like to give something
back, please visit the Foundation's pages and consider making a donation or becoming a member or sponsor.

29
 Firebird 2 Quick Start

The Firebird Project

The developers, designers and testers who gave you Firebird and several of the drivers are members of the
Firebird open source project at SourceForge, that amazing virtual community that is home to thousands of open
source software teams. The Firebird project's address there is http://sourceforge.net/projects/firebird. At that site
are the source code tree, the download packages and a number of technical files related to the development and
testing of the codebases.

The Firebird Project developers and testers use an email list forum – [email protected]
forge.net – as their “virtual laboratory” for communicating with one another about their work on enhance-
ments, bug-fixing and producing new versions of Firebird.

Anyone who is interested in watching their progress can join this forum. However, user support questions are
a distraction which they do not welcome. Please do not try to post your user support questions there! These
belong in the firebird-support group.

Happy Firebirding!

30
 Firebird 2 Quick Start

Appendix A:
Document History
The exact file history is recorded in the manual module in our CVS tree; see http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_
id=9028

Revision History
0.0 2002 IBP Published as Chapter One of Using Firebird.

1.0 2003 IBP Published separately as a free Quick Start Guide.

1.x June 2004 IBP Donated to Firebird Project by IBPhoenix.

2.0 27 Aug 2004 PV Upgraded to Firebird 1.5

Added Classic vs. Superserver section.
Reorganised and corrected Disk Locations Table.
Added (new) screenshots.
Added section on security.
Updated and completed information on Control Panel applets.
Added more examples to “Expressions involving NULL”.
Various other corrections and additions.

2.1 20 Feb 2005 PV Enhanced GSEC section.

Added more info to CONNECT and CREATE DATABASE sections.
Added version number and document history.

2.1.1 1 Mar 2005 PV Changed gbak r[estore] to r[eplace] in two places.

2.1.2 8 Apr 2005 PV Reordered Firebird SQL subsections.

Added links to Firebird Null Guide.

2.2 2 Dec 2005 PV Removed "Using the books by IBPhoenix" as it doesn't make sense in
the QSG.
Promoted "How to get help" to 1st-level section and removed "Where
to next" shell.
Removed link to UFB and RefGuide; added a note instead explaining
their current status.
Updated/corrected classic-super comparison table.
Moved a number of sections on installing, working with databases, and
(un)safety into newly created top-level sections.

2.2.1 22 Dec 2005 PV Corrected statement on SS thread usage in Classic-vs-Superserver ta-

ble.
Fixed broken link.

3.0 21 May 2006 PV Creation of 2.0 Quick Start Guide, still equal to previous revision ex-
cept for some version numbers, XML ids etc.

3.2 10 Aug 2006 PV Promoted “Firebird Project members” to co-authors in articleinfo.

31
 Firebird 2 Quick Start

Updated references to website (firebird.sourceforge.net ->

www.firebirdsql.org).
Removed “maturity” and “Service Manager” rows from Classic-vs-
Super table; these things are no longer different in Firebird 2. Also
changed the row on local connections: CS and SS now both allow
safe, reliable local connections on Windows. Added row on Guardian.
Prepended a column with feature names.
Removed any and all remarks about Classic not having a (full) Service
Manager.
Removed 2nd paragraph of “Default disk locations” section.
Removed notes stating that Classic/Win connections will fail without a
host name.
Updated location table and inserted rows for documentation.
Edited the Installation sections; added sections on Guardian and
installing multiple servers. Removed “if-you-do-not-find-the-re-
lease-notes” tip.
Heavily edited and extended the “Testing your installation” sections.
The “Other things you need” section is now gone and its contents dis-
tributed across other sections.
Added a section on gsec (consisting partly of existing material).
Greatly enhanced and extended the Security section, and moved it to
another location.
Extended and improved the “Windows Control Panel applets” section.
Edited “Working with databases”. Added a special section on connec-
tion strings. Added information on access to database objects, the EXIT
statement, and local vs. remote connections. Made some paths in the
examples relative, to keep the lines short. Extended paragraph on meta-
data.
Weakened the claim that Firebird is more SQL-compliant than any oth-
er RDBMS.
Changed the “Expressions involving NULL” section. Added a subsec-
tion on DISTINCT. Changed “More about NULLs” subsection some-
what.
Renamed “Safety measures” to “Preventing data loss”. The Security
subsection has been moved elsewhere.
Extended Backup section to include nbackup information. Added links
to other documentation.
In the “How to corrupt...” part, changed gbak -r syntax to -rep and
added explanatory note.
Added the “IB6 plus rlsnotes” as last-resort option to How to get help.
Also mentioned firebird-support explicitly.
Corrected more version numbers, paths, and stuff.
Many sections have been reshuffled, moved up or down the hierarchy,
etc. Many smaller modifications are not listed here.
Added “Happy Firebirding!” to conclude the last section.

3.3 15 Oct 2006 PV Default disk locations table: added isql to command line tools; added
row for additional server-side libs.
Added introductory paragraph to “Installing Firebird”. Changed first
sentence of “Installing on Linux...”
Changed and extended “Server check: Linux and other Unices”.
Corrected and extended the section on Linux client-only installs.

32
 Firebird 2 Quick Start

Security section: moved last paragraph of the “Protect databases...” lis-

titem into a new item on Classic local mode.
Connection strings: improved and extended introductory paragraph;
added a subsection on third party program requirements.
Changed 3rd and 4th paragraph of “Connecting to an existing
database”. Used relative paths in connection examples. Updated/cor-
rected note on the use of quote characters.
Edited first “Important” item in “The CREATE DATABASE state-
ment”.
Updated the warning about concatenation of long strings.
Extended the note in “Restoring a backup to a running database”.
Updated last sentence of first paragraph in “The Firebird Project”.

3.4 25 Jan 2007 PV About this guide: Changed note about versions and replaced HTML and
PDF links with single link to new doc index page.
Classic or Superserver?: Replaced note on Embedded Server with a
proper subsection, containing more info and links to UFB.
Default disk locations: Created two subsections (for Linux and Win-
dows); also split table in two and removed first column. Introduced
placeholders <ProgramDir> and <SystemDir>. Changed text
around tables, changed existing note, and added note for Win64 users.
Security: Removed statement that 1.5 Release Notes are included with
2.x packages.
More about NULLs: Replaced note about the Null Guide being updated
with a para announcing the availability of the new version.
Backup: Updated information on UFB.
How to get help: Updated documentation links and changed text here
and there.

3.5 14 Mar 2007 PV About this guide and Important notice for 64-bit Windows users: Minor
rewordings.
User management: gsec and Connection strings: Added information on
enabling local protocol with IpcName=Global\FIREBIRD.
Security :: Use database aliases: Changed type from <database> to
<literal> to improve output.

3.6 21 Sep 2007 PV About this guide: Mentioned 2.0.3. Warned against 2.0.2.
Expressions involving NULL: Space added to expected concatenation
result: “Home sweet ”.

3.7 8 Apr 2008 PV About this guide: Added 2.0.4 and 2.1 to covered versions. Mentioned
forced writes bug.
Installing the Firebird server :: Use the Guardian?: Added warning
about Win installer not detecting existing server.
How to corrupt a database?: Gave subsections id attributes.
Disabling forced writes on Windows: Created new parent section Dis-
abling forced writes, with the Windows and Linux cases as subsections.
Warned against Linux forced writes bug.
License notice: Copyright end year now 2008.

3.8 18 Jan 2009 PV About this guide: Added 2.0.5 and 2.1.2 to covered versions.
Preventing data loss :: Backup: Mentioned nbackup's brokenness in
2.1.

33
 Firebird 2 Quick Start

How to corrupt a database :: Restoring a backup to a running

database: Changed and extended instructions re. safe restoring.
How to give help: New section directing reader to the Foundation.
License notice: Copyright end year now 2009.

34
 Firebird 2 Quick Start

Appendix B:
License notice
The contents of this Documentation are subject to the Public Documentation License Version 1.0 (the “Li-
cense”); you may only use this Documentation if you comply with the terms of this License. Copies of the Li-
cense are available at http://www.firebirdsql.org/pdfmanual/pdl.pdf (PDF) and http://www.firebirdsql.org/man-
ual/pdl.html (HTML).

The Original Documentation is titled Firebird Quick Start Guide.

The Initial Writer of the Original Documentation is: IBPhoenix Editors.

Copyright (C) 2002-2004. All Rights Reserved. Initial Writer contact: hborrie at ibphoenix dot com.

Contributor: Paul Vinkenoog - see document history.

Portions created by Paul Vinkenoog are Copyright (C) 2004-2009. All Rights Reserved. Contributor contact:
paul at vinkenoog dot nl.

35
Alphabetical index
A Firebird Foundation, 29
Admin tools, 18 Firebird Guardian, 8
Aliases, 16, 19, 20 Firebird project, 30
Apostrophes in strings, 23 Firebird SQL, 22
Forced writes, 27
Linux forced writes bug, 28
B
Backup, 26
Books
G
The Firebird Book, 29 gsec, 13
Guardian, 8, 10
C
Checking the server, 10
H
Help, 29, 29
Classic Server, 3
Configuration, 13
Connecting, 20 I
CONNECT statement, 20 Installation, 7
connection strings, 18 Classic or Superserver, 3
Control Panel applets, 16 client-only, 12
CREATE DATABASE statement, 22 drives, 7
kit contents, 3
script or program, 7
D
server, 7
Databases
Integer division, 23
aliases, 16, 19, 20
isql
backup and restore, 26, 28, 29
connecting to a database, 20
connecting, 20
creating a database, 21
with a GUI client, 21
with isql, 20
corruption, 27 L
creating with isql, 21 License notice, 35
example database, 20
metadata, 22, 27 M
security, 15 Management, 13
system tables, 22, 27
working with databases, 18 N
Disk locations, 5 NULL, 24
Linux, 5
Windows, 6 P
Document history, 31 Passwords
Documentation, 29 changing, 14
Double-quoted identifiers, 24 Ping, 9
Project, 30
E
Example database, 20 R
Restore, 26
F to a running database, 28
Firebird Book, 29 user logins during restore, 29

36
 Alphabetical index

S
Sample database, 20
Security, 15
Server name and path, 19
Services (Windows), 10
SQL, 22
CONNECT statement, 20
CREATE DATABASE statement, 22
Strings, 23
apostrophes in strings, 23
concatenation, 23
delimiter symbol, 23
Superserver, 3
Support Firebird, 29
SYSDBA, 14, 15, 15
System tables, 22, 27

T
TCP/IP, 19
Testing, 9
top command (Linux), 10

37