FreeTDS Development Group

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

On Sun, 27 Mar 2011 14:48:49 -0400
Brian Bruns <brian AT bruns.com> wrote:

> I would think the most natural place for this is the freetds.conf (and
> odbc.ini, or DSN connection string).  
...
> Maybe I've misunderstood the issue, and besides I'm all talk and no
> code. ;-)

You're plenty code, Brian.  You get to opine.  

As illustrated by the DSN connection string, the key problem with
putting the "initial database" in freetds.conf is that it precludes the
program(mer) from setting the database name.  The API Ken is
implementing allows the application to pass a databse name, and Azure
prohibits changing databases after the initial connection.  

Server properties, kept in freetds.conf, describe the server to the
client so that it can connect.  Client properties, kept in LOGINREC,
describe the client to the server.  The initial database is not a
server property; it is something the client requests of the server.  

Sybase and particularly Microsoft stopped updating db-lib a long time
ago.  If they had -- if ODBC and ct-lib had never been invented --
surely they would have provided a way for db-lib to set the database
name in the login packet.  

Regards, 

--jkl