FreeTDS Development Group

[Michael Peppler <mpeppler AT peppler.org>]

On Mon, 2004-05-03 at 18:10, Lowden, James K wrote:
> > From: John Brandt Sr. [mailto:pgmr AT Experts.tzo.com]
> > Sent: May 3, 2004 11:46 AM
> > 
> > I'm sorry if I got in on the back end of this conversation, 
> > but am I to understand that someone has (or has attempted) 
> > to port MS SQL server to linux?
> 

> What he did was build on src/server in the FreeTDS distribution.  That
> code is the server-side complement to the client libraries: it accepts
> TDS connections and responds to certain TDS packets.  Steve added the
> ability to understand some rudimentary SELECT statements.  This lets
> him pass the contents of some data files back to ODBC clients by
> fooling them into thinking they're talking to a Microsoft server.  

This is also what Sybase's OpenServer product/libraries allow you to do
- and which makes writing servers that understand TDS *relatively*
simple.

> I think it would be facinating to bolt the src/server code onto the
> front of another database server -- pick any one -- because in theory
> it would allow familar Sybase/Microsoft tool to be used with other
> backends.  That would be freeing to many developers.  It's also very
> different from what Steve undertook.  

I've got a project going where you can write an OpenServer in perl (i.e.
I built a perl binary that links the OpenServer libs and includes the OS
API calls). I built a simple MySQL gateway using DBI in a few hours...
It was supposed to be a commercial product, but interest has been pretty
minimal, so maybe I'll make it available somewhere.

> 
> Anyone interested in running a Microsoft-like server on Linux may wish
> to consider Sybase.  Version 11.9.2 is available for Linux at no
> charge.  

Actually, 11.0.3.3 is completely free (though I think Sybase has pulled
it from its web site - if you are interested please contact me
off-list). 11.9.2 is no longer available as it has been EOLed for quite
some time. 12.5.x (12.5.2 was released at the end of last week) is
available as a "developer edition", meaning that you can run a limited
server (I think only one engine, up to 25 connections) for development
purposes, but you can't put it into production.

Michael
-- 
Michael Peppler                              Data Migrations, Inc.
mpeppler AT peppler.org                       http://www.peppler.org/
Sybase T-SQL/OpenClient/OpenServer/C/Perl developer available for short
or long term contract positions - http://www.peppler.org/resume.html