documentation update and musing

Bob Kline bkline at rksystems.com
Thu May 3 07:19:06 EDT 2001


On Thu, 3 May 2001, James K. Lowden wrote:

> Bob Kline wrote:
> 
> > Here's another contribution for consideration as an addition
> > to the FAQ document (perhaps after 3.8, "How can I test my FreeTDS JDBC
> > Driver?").  The attached document ...
> 
> Thanks, Bob.  I converted you doc to html (with my own perl script.  
> What's the right way?).  

I usually just use vi. :->}

> Breaking with tradition, I moved it to its own document, because
> it's so big/thorough it would have made navigating the FAQ harder.

That's fine.  Here's a version that's tweaked to bring it in line with
the look and feel of its brothers and sisters.  (I also removed the
biggest navigational obstacle by replacing the footnote for the driver
URL with an inline link.)

Thanks again for your excellent work!

-- 
Bob Kline
mailto:bkline at rksystems.com
http://www.rksystems.com
-------------- next part --------------
<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">

<html>
 <head>
  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
  <title>FreeTDS - FAQ</title>
 </head>
<body bgcolor='white'>
   &nbsp;
 <table BORDER='0' WIDTH='590'>
  <tr>
   <td VALIGN='TOP' WIDTH='170'>
    <center>
     <a href="http://www.freetds.org/faq.html"><img SRC="http://www.freetds.org/button1.png" ALT="FAQ" BORDER=0 ></a>
     <br><a href="http://www.freetds.org/status.html"><img SRC="http://www.freetds.org/button3.png" ALT="Status" BORDER=0 ></a>
     <br><a href="http://www.freetds.org/download.html"><img SRC="http://www.freetds.org/button4.png" ALT="Download" BORDER=0 ></a>
     <br><a href="http://www.freetds.org/contact.html"><img SRC="http://www.freetds.org/button5.png" ALT="Contact" BORDER=0 ></a>
     <br><a href="http://www.freetds.org/index.html"><img SRC="http://www.freetds.org/homebutton.png" ALT="Home" BORDER=0 ></a>
    </center>
   </td>
   <td VALIGN='TOP' WIDTH='420'>
    <CENTER><img SRC="http://www.freetds.org/logo.png" ></CENTER>
    <CENTER>
     <H2>FreeTDS FAQ</H2>
    </CENTER>
    <dl>
     <dt>
      <b>3.9 What information do I need to supply 
         when asking about failures with the FreeTDS JDBC Driver?
      </b>
     </dt>
     <dd>
There's a good possibility that the problem you described may have been
fixed in a more recent version of the driver code.  In order for someone
to reproduce your problem, you need to supply a bit more information.
At a minimum:</dd>
<ol>
<li>The version(s) of freetds_jdbc you are using.</li>
<li>The version(s) of the TDS protocol you are using.</li>
<li>The version(s) of the JVM you are using.</li>
<li>Which DBMS you are using (including version and platform).</li>
<li>Which platform(s) you are running your client software on.</li>
<li>Whether the problem is present with the latest snapshot.</li>
<li>What other layers are present (e.g., CGI wrappers).</li>
</ol>
<P>
To determine #1, for each version of the driver you've tried and with
which you've experienced the problem, run `ident freetds_jdbc.jar' and
report the date for the most recently modified source code file.
<P>
For #2, unless you're specifying ";tds=[version]" in your connection
URL, you're using TDS 4.2.  Otherwise, you're specifying the TDS version
explicitly.
<P>
To find out the version of the JVM you're using (item #3), look at the
output from the command `java -version'.
<P>
For #4, report the output from the query `SELECT @@VERSION' (this will
tell us which service pack you're running as well as the major version
number and the particulars of the operating system underneath the DBMS).
Depending on the nature of your problem, it may also be appropriate to
include other information, such as the character set installed.  Use
your judgment.
<P>
You can get the information for #5 from the output of `uname -a' on
*n*x systems, or from `VER' on Windows systems.
<P>
For question #6, you need to pick up <A 
HREF='ftp://freetds.internetcds.com/pub/freetds_jdbc'>freetds_jdbc.snapshot.jar</A>
and determine whether the problem is resolved.  If it is, you should
probably just upgrade to the latest snapshot.  (Remember, this is not
production software -- the README describes it as a "sneak peek at an
incomplete driver" -- so questions like "Is this version stable enough
for my mission-critical production system?" aren't as appropriate as
they would be in other contexts.  You're welcome to contribute to the
project's work to help get closer to that goal, though.)  Be sure to
inform the list in this case, so someone doesn't waste time trying to
track down a problem which has already been resolved.
<P>
In addition, any code needed to reproduce the problem (including any
stored procedures) should also be included.  Try to reduce the problem
to the minimum amount of code which is capable of exhibiting the
behavior you're describing.  Don't include any sensitive information
(such as account names and passwords).
     </dl>
    </td>
   </tr>
  </table>
 </body>
</html>


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