FreeTDS Development Group

["James K. Lowden" <jklowden AT freetds.org>]

Hi Steve, 

Brian Bruns wrote:
> tsql with the -H and -p switches is useful for seeing if a server is
> up and answers without a freetds.conf configuration.  

This technique gets employed frequently, if list traffic is at all
representative.  ISTM FreeTDS gets used most often with ODBC and/or PHP,
environments that don't call for sqsh.  sqsh is definitely overkill for
straightening out configuration problems.  

tsql's unmediation is good, too: it helps people figure out if the problem
they're encountering is in FreeTDS or a higher layer.  

I'd think you should consider including freebcp, bsqldb, and defncopy,
too.  These are user tools.  Have a quick look at the man pages if you
haven't been keeping up.  :-)  

> We have to walk a fine line between providing a decent tool for
> debugging configuration problems and accidentally encouraging people
> to use it in a production setting.

We should have such problems.  If it gets *too* popular, we can always
stop linking in readline.  Or maybe make people type  "I accept the risk"
instead of "go".  (cf.
http://www.washington.edu/imap/documentation/imaprc.txt.html)

Maybe there should be a cautionary note in the tsql man page, warning
people that (for example) tsql won't always exit with an error code when
it encounters a database problem.  

Regards, 

--jkl