FreeTDS Development Group

[Norman Palardy <palardyn AT mac.com>]

I know I won't win any friends with this; but that's not my point.
Obviously I'm not the only person who is having trouble with getting 
FreeTDS up and running.

<RANT>
Where is "configure, make, make install, test" insufficient ?

configure has how many options ?
To someone who simply wants to USE FreeTDS it is a large array of 
options many of which are not 100% clear which should be used together 
etc.
I've even asked people on this list directly what options they used for 
their install, which should be the same as mine (same version of the OS 
on mostly the same hardware .. certainly the same processors) I've done 
the exact same steps they did, no luck. So either they did other steps, 
options, etc. or I've used a version of the source that is not what they 
used. I started with what's available from freetds.org on the download 
page.

I've seen people mention that the sources from the CVS repository should 
be used.
That's fine, and I would, if I had some idea where this was or how to 
get them out of CVS.

make?
Even after configuring things I try and compile any of the unittests doe 
the dblib portion and they don't make. Some libs simply don't exist that 
these are being linked against

make install
Usually I end up having to su to root before this has any hope of 
working and that is not mentioned in any of the install guides that I 
have seen or read that are part of the distribution at 
http://www.freetds.org/download.html

test ?
I'm told the BEST test is to try and compile sqsh which is another 
adventure since it requires much of the same as FreeTDS.
And if it doesn't compile it's still possible that I have a good FreeTDS 
install with a bad install/make of SQSH for some reason like SQSH's 
configure not knowing anything about the host I have

Documentation ? The download includes documentation. Right
It includes a README that doesn't say enough about building the install 
to make it useful.
The doc files are in SGML. And no mention of what I might use to read it 
or what might be useful.

I'd LOVE to use FreeTDS. But at this point I can't get "configure, make, 
make install, test" to work for me

I've even said on this list I'd pay for it if I could just GET a binary 
that would install and work. I haven't seen one offered up yet.
AND THE OFFER STILL STANDS.

For me and the organizations I contract at this sort of thing is 
precisely why they refuse to use any freeware for ANY systems in the 
company.
No linux, no gcc, nothing. It's too large an effort to try and rely on 
freeware without any assurances that it really will work, and they don't 
pay me to make these things work; they pay me to build and improve the 
systems that use these sorts of components. So we use Sybase, Oracle, 
Solaris, etc. Things that already ship with official support from these 
vendors. And they pay the huge license fees and annual support contracts 
because they can feel confident that if/when something goes wrong or 
can't make work they have a vendor whom they can pressure to get people 
on site and fix it.

I've been the one trying to suggest that the project I'm currently on 
with them might be suitable to use FreeTDS and a few other items.

But I'm not going to win any converts if getting FreeTDS set up on the 
platforms we're looking at is any indication of future success.
</RANT>

On Wednesday, October 17, 2001, at 07:44  PM, James Cameron wrote:

> James Cameron <cameron AT stl.dec.com>