sybperl 2.0

@(#)README 1.28 11/06/98

sybperl 2.0

This is sybperl, the Sybase extensions for Perl5.

Copyright (c) 1991-1997, Michael Peppler
All rights reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the same terms as Perl itself.

You should have received a copy of the Perl license along with Perl;
see the file README in Perl distribution.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with Perl; see the file Copying. If not, write to the Free
Software Foundation, 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

You should have received a copy of the Artistic License along with
Perl; see the file Artistic.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

** NOTE: This version requires Perl 5.002 or later **

Please read the UPGRADE file if your previous version of sybperl was
1.0xx.

Please read the CHANGES file if you are upgrading from a previous
version of sybperl 2.x.

Please see the README.win32 file if you are trying to build sybperl
on a Windows 95/NT system.

Perl 5.005 and later can be built with threading enabled. Please read
README.thread before attempting to use Thread with any Sybase modules.

There are four modules in this distribution: Sybase::DBlib,
Sybase::BCP, Sybase::Sybperl and Sybase::CTlib.

Sybase::DBlib implements the Perl 5 version of the DB-Library
API. This differs slightly from the Perl 4 version. Note that this is
not a full implementation of the DB-Library API.
Sybase::BCP is a simplified bulk copy API, and requires Sybase::DBlib.
The Sybase::Sybperl module implements the sybperl 1.0xx API, and is
built on top of Sybase::DBlib. Use of Sybase::Sybperl is discouraged.

Sybase::CTlib implements a subset of the newer Client Library API.
Client Ligrary is included with Sybase's OpenClient libraries as of
System 10.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Recent Changes:

2.10 CTlib TEXT/IMAGE handling

**WARNING**

Please see the sybperl man page on changes to the dbpoll()
call.

Added ct_get_data(), ct_send_data(), ct_data_info().
Added some missing documentation.
Added Sybase::CTlib::DBDEAD().
Added Sybase::DBlib::dbcomputeinfo().

Changed dbpoll() to handle polling on a single handle.

W. Philipp Moore supplied a patch to CTlib/Makefile.PL to
link with the Sybase _r (re-entrant) libraries if perl
was compiled with threading enabled. **THERE IS NO GUARANTEE
THAT A THREADED VERSION OF Sybase::CTlib WILL WORK
CORRECTLY!!!***
Read README.thread for details.

Bug Fixes:

247: Sybase::DBlib::sql() returns invalid results in $doAssoc mode
when multiple result sets are being processed.
248: cs_dt_info(CS_DT_CONVFMT) doesn't work.

2.09_05 DBlib asynch calls

Added dbpoll(), dbsqlsend() to allow asynchronous calls to Sybase.

Applied W. Philipp Moore's patch to the nsql() routine.

2.09_04 DBlib dbreg*() calls

Added dbreg*() calls to allow execution of OpenServer registered
procedures.

2.09_03 Bug Fixes

235: Calling DBlib's dbexit() breaks Sybase::DBlib on Win32
236: Sybase::CTlib doesn't work with OC 11.x on Win32.

2.09_02 Bug Fixes

233: CTlib dumps core in DESTROY.

2.09_01 Bug Fixes

This is a bug fix release. The only functional change is in the
handling of attributes in Sybase::CTlib when using the
ct_cmd_alloc() call. If you use that call to open
multiple cursors on the same connection then you should
be aware that the attributes are shared between the handles
opened for this connection (ie the handle created with
ct_connect() and the handles created with ct_cmd_alloc().)

Other fixes:

218: length($buf) is incorrect after dbreadtext().
223: dbreadtext() leaves garbage at the end of $buf
224: dbreadtext() missing from Sybase::Sybperl
226: Changing $user in dblogin() fails on NCR
228: BCP RECORD_SEPARATOR error
229: BCP & null_pattern error
232: SEGV in ctutils.pl when inserting a duplicate row.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Installation:

Before you start, you have to consider the following issues:

a) Is Perl 5.002 (or later) already installed at your site?
(For Win32 you *must* have perl 5.004 or later)

Note: perl 5.004_04 (or later) is highly recommended.

If Perl 5.002 (or later) is the default production version of Perl
at your site, then I recommend that you unpack the sybperl
distribution outside of the Perl source tree. The sybperl build
process will normally be able to find the pieces it needs if this
is the case, and it will be easier for you to manage upgrades to
Perl and/or to the add-on extensions that you may have if they are
kept separate.

If 5.002 (or later) is not yet the default version of Perl, or has
not been made available via an alternate path, then you should
unpack the sybperl distribution in the ext/ directory of the Perl
5.002 source tree. NOTE: this method is not well tested, and you
may run into problems (unfortunately).

b) Do you want the Sybase modules to be dynamically loadable?

Most Unix systems come with the capability of loading object code
into an already executing program dynamically, usually via some
sort of special library (on SunOS, for example, it's libdl.so.1.0).

The advantage of dynamic loading is that you do not need to install
a new Perl binary to provide new functionality, and the size of the
binary does not grow as you add this functionality. The cost is a
small performance penalty on startup.

Static loading might be more advantageous to those specific modules
which you know you will be using very often (however, I've always
used dynamic loading myself - with more than adequate results).

Note that if you are using HP-UX, you can only use dynamic loading
if you have the add-on (extra cost) C compiler (or GNU gcc) and if
you have the System 10 shared libraries (libsybdb.sl vs libsybdb.a)
as HP-UX can't load an object dynamically which has not been
compiled with the PIC (position independant code) flag.

It is also not possible to build a dynamically loadable version
of Sybase::CTlib on Linux as the Sybase libraries aren't compiled
as position independant code.

c) The DO_TIE compile option

The Sybase::DBlib and Sybase::CTlib modules define a number of
attributes that are accesible via the database handle:

$dbh = new Sybase::CTlib $user, $passwd...
$dbh->{UseDateTime} = CS_TRUE;

When the DO_TIE compile option is set, these attributes get 'tied'
into a special package, thus enabling syntax verification, so that
errors like

$dbh->{UseDateTIme}

will be caught.

The downside is that you won't be able to add your own attributes
to the $dbh on the fly. You must pre-declare any additional
attributes you wish to use by passing them as a hash reference in
the new()/dblogin()/ct_connect() calls (see the documentation and
the Sybase::BCP module for examples). The DO_TIE option is set via
the EXTRA_DEFINES option of the CONFIG file, and is enabled by
default.

d) The -L/usr/local/lib switch and libtcl.{a, so, sl}

Perl's Configure script adds this switch to the normal link or load
line used when building extensions. This is fine, but if you have
installed tcl/tk at your site, there is a strong chance that tcl's
libtcl.a library has been placed in /usr/local/lib. Sybase's Client
Library also includes a library called libtcl.{a,so,sl}. If the
-L/usr/local/lib switch is present on the link command line then
the wrong version of libtcl will be used, and the Sybase::CTlib
module will not work. The solution is to either move or rename
tcl/tk's libtcl.a while you build sybperl, or to remove the
-L/usr/local/lib flag from Perl's Config.pm file.

e) The LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable and libintl.so

On Solaris 2.x (and possibly other OSes as well) there is a library
in /usr/lib called libintl.so.*, the same name as one of Sybase's
ClientLibrary libs. If the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable includes
/usr/lib (or /lib) *before* $SYBASE/lib then the wrong library will
be found at run-time, causing 'make test' to fail. The solution is
to remove /usr/lib from LD_LIBRARY_PATH (there should be no reason
to include it as the system directories [/usr/lib and /lib] are
automatically searched for shared libraries when a program starts.)

f) If you are using Win32 (Win NT) please read the README.win32
file before proceeding.

g) There is a symbol conflict between Berkeley DB (-ldb) and
DB-Library (-lsybdb): both define the dbopen() function. Perl's
Configure will include -ldb in the link line of the perl binary if
it finds it on the system. This causes Sybase::DBlib to fail.

This can be resolved by rebuilding perl and excluding -ldb from the
libraries that are included. You can run

perl -V:libs

to see if -ldb is included in the link line.

Linux and DEC Unix 4.0 are known to include Berkeley DB by default,
so a normal perl build on those systems will be affected with this
problem.

h) Linux -lndbm and -lgbdm issues.

In addition to the discussion on -ldb above, it seems that linux's
libndbm.a and libgdbm.a libraries also cause problems with
DB-Library. I have not identified the exact problem yet, but
rebuilding perl without -lndbm and -lgdbm in the extra libraries
line (and of course without -ldb) seems to solve the problem.

Once you have answered these eight questions, you can proceed:

1) Unpack the package.
See comments under a) above.

Note that even if you don't want to install Perl 5.002 as a
production version right now, you can still install it in some
other place, and access that version by setting your PATH
variable accordingly (I have a production version Perl5.002
under /usr/local/{bin,lib} and a debug version of Perl5.002
under /f2/{bin, lib} and change my path when I need to test
things with debugging turned on).

2) Edit CONFIG
See comments under b) above regarding dynamic vs static loading.
Some systems require extra libraries to build (Solaris 2.x
requires -lnsl, for example). You should check your Sybase
OpenClient Supplement for your OS and add any special libraries
to the EXTRA_LIBS line. The required information can be found on
the web at http://sybooks.sybase.com/ (you'll need to need to
dig around a bit - look for "Open Client/Server xx.x.x
Platforms"), or via AnswerBase.

The DBLIBVS and CTLIBVS variables need to be set correctly for
the version of OpenClient that is available at your site. Below
is a table which lists which versions of Open Client were
shipped with the different Sybase Server releases:

Sybase version DBLIBVS CTLIBVS
- 4.0 400 0
- 4.2 (includes MSSQL 4.2) 420 0
- 4.8, 4.9.x 461 0
- 10.0.x 1000 100
- 11.x 1000 100

You can check for the DB-Library version by looking at the top
of the sybdb.h include file (it should be located in
$SYBASE/include/sybdb.h, where $SYBASE is your Sybase
installation directory.)

Determine if you need any additional #define's for the
EXTRA_DEFS line: With Perl 5.001m you needed -DUNDEF_BUG, but
this bug has been corrected in 5.002, and you can also add
-DDO_TIE to get the stricter attribute checking behavior (see
point c. above).

Uncomment the LINKTYPE line if required (see point b. above).

3) Type: perl Makefile.PL

4) Type: make

If you get errors (such as undefined variables) it may be
because your DBLIBVS or CTLIBVS does not correspond to the Open
Client versions that are in fact installed at your site. Check
them again. In the case of the Sybase::DBlib module, it doesn't
hurt to build with DBLIBVS set to 400 as this is pretty well
guaranteed to work (provided you have *some* version of
DB-Library!)

6) Edit PWD
Enter the user id and password that you want to use to run the
tests. It's probably a good idea to reset this file to its
original state once you're done, unless you really don't have
any security concerns!

Make sure that the SYBASE environment variable is set
correctly. You can test this by trying to connect to the server
using isql from the same shell.

The tests are non-destructive (ie only SELECT statements),
except for Sybase::BCP which creates a temp table (#bcp) to test
the bulk copy features.

6) Type: make test
If you decided to use static loading then a new perl binary will
be generated at this point.

If you get undefined symbols when testing CTlib (such as _net_*
or _intl_getenv not defined), then I'd bet that you have either
a libtcl.* in /usr/local/lib, or you have LD_LIBRARY_PATH that
includes /usr/lib on Solaris 2.x (which has its own libintl.so
just to confuse the issue!). See points d) and e) above.

If you are using perl 5.003 or earlier you will get an error
in the dbmoney.t script. This is due to a change in the
behaviour of the AutoLoader between perl 5.003 and perl 5.004.
The solution is to upgrade to 5.004 (or later), or edit
Sybperl/Sybperl.pm and move the __END__ tag to the very end
of the file.

7) If everything went OK, type: make install
Note that the man page does not get installed automatically. To
install the documentation, cd to the pod directory, and read the
README file there.
Also note that even if you've asked for static linking and a
perl binary has been built in the sybperl source directory, no
perl binary gets installed (see step 8).

8) If the LINKTYPE is static type:

make -f Makefile.aperl inst_perl MAP_TARGET=perl

to install the new Perl binary. This step is not required when
using dynamic linking as the existing Perl binary will load the
new code dynamically when required.

9) Read the manual :-)

Look for it in the pod/ directory. You can create .man or .html
versions from the .pod file by using pod2man or pod2html, both
of which come with Perl.
The manual may not be perfect yet, but it comes to 16 PostScript
pages here, which is "respectable", I guess.

In case of problems:
====================

First, read the FAQ file in the sybperl distribution.

Second, fire off an e-mail to me ([email protected]) or to the Sybperl
mailing list ([email protected]) with a *full* description of
what doesn't work, including version numbers of Perl and sybperl, the
hardware and OS version, and the Sybase Open Client version you are
using.

The regression tests don't attempt to test *everything*, but they do
test all of the basic functions, and should work cleanly.

There are quite a few small example scripts in eg/ which illustrate
the use of both the DBlib and CTlib modules.

There is a mailing list for discussing sybperl related questions
([email protected]). Send a message to
[email protected] with 'subscribe Sybperl-L your name'
in the body to subscribe to the list.

Reporting Bugs:
===============

I have set up a bug tracking database to which bugs can be
submitted via e-mail. If you have a comment, bug report or feature
request you would like to make please use the template in the SPR file
in this directory.

When submitting bugs, or any sort of problem report, please make sure
you include full version information for Sybperl, Perl, Sybase and
also what hardware/OS configuration you are on. The exact Sybperl
versions can be extracted by running the 'Version' script in this
directory. Perl's configuration can be summarized by running 'perl -V'.

Comments, criticism, et.al. VERY welcome!

Michael Peppler - [email protected]