FreeTDS Development Group

[Brian Bruns <camber AT ais.org>]

On Thu, 29 Nov 2001, Bill Thompson wrote:

> Hi Brian,
> 
> I'm using 4.2 , but I'm sceptical whether SQL server 2000 is taking any
> notice of the TDS version as far as the bcp side of things is concerned.
> Nice to have it confirmed that TDS 7.0 has never worked. At least I know
> where I stand.
> 
> I'm trying to get my networks guys to put a sniffer on when I do a proper
> SQL server bcp. Perhaps this will give me some more clues. I also think I
> stand a sporting change of getting MS to give me the TDS spec. Well I can
> hope anyway...

Be careful of the terms, specifically code release is generally considered 
disclosure, so if you are forced to sign an NDA it does not good for 
FreeTDS.

> The good news is I'm making progress on filling the gaps in the original.
> One problem I have is with null columns ( which in Sybase are treated as
> variable length as you know ). Your "is_nullable_type" function , used to
> decide whether a column will go in the "left" or "right" of the packet,
> just works on column type - so char always goes on the "left", regardless
> of whether or not the column is null. Hmmm. in the 4.2 code there doesn't
> appear to be anything captured from the column info to say whether the
> column is nullable or not. Any ideas ?

Ack, it's been a while... TDSCOLINFO->column_nullable should have the 
data.  This was a recent change by Mark (11/7/01 it looks like) update to 
a recent CVS copy.

> I should have the bcp_exec function handling all formats of files pretty
> soon. I've cracked the column order problem and I've put in more code to
> make the api behave exactly as per the manual pages. So I'm getting there.

Very cool, I'm excited to have this working finally.  Any plans to add it 
to ct-lib? ;-)
 
> Thanks for the help thus far....
> 
> Bill

My pleasure,

Brian