FreeTDS Development Group

[edwardspl AT ita.org.mo]

"Lowden, James K" wrote:

> FreeTDS will use your system's iconv library to convert your clients' 
> encoding to/from the form of Unicode used by the server.  All you need to 
> do is make sure FreeTDS uses the system's iconv, and specify the client 
> charset you want.
>
> 1.  Make sure libiconv is installed.

How can I sure libiconv is installed ?

> 2.  Make sure FreeTDS detects you iconv library when you run ./configure.  
> Use "./configure --with-libiconv-prefix=" if need be.
> 3.  Use "iconv -l" to list your iconv's available encodings.
> 4.  Decide which encoding your client will use.  I recommend UTF-8, if it 
> suits you.

Does UTF-8 support the function of ( convert the charset of unicode ) 
including multi-language ( english and non-english ( eg : chinese ) ) ?

> 5.  Add this line to the [global] section in your freetds.conf:
>         client charset = UTF-8
>     (or whatever encoding you choose).
> 6.  Test with tsql.  If it doesn't work "export TDSDUMP=/tmp/tdsdump", run 
> tsql again, and look at the log.  It will tell you if iconv was engaged 
> correctly.  If it's not clear, send the log here.

Sorry, how to test with tsql ?
Just type "export TDSDUMP=/tmp/tdsdump" under Linux System ( shell prompt ) ?

> UTF-8 can encode all known writing systems, both real and fictional.  This 
> of course includes English and Chinese.

Sorry, don't quite understand the function ( useful ) of UTF-8...

Acutally, many thank for your help !

Edward.