----------------------------------------------------------- Firebird 1.5 installation notes ----------------------------------------------------------- 1. GENERIC INFORMATION The distribution of the version 1.5 has a number of changes as compared with 1.0. 1.1. Some files were renamed, namely: ibserver.exe -> fbserver.exe (SS architecture) ibguard.exe -> fbguard.exe interbase.msg -> firebird.msg interbase.log -> firebird.log isc4.gdb -> security.fdb Regarding the last item, it should be mentioned that now the recommended extension for database files is ".fdb" to avoid possible conflicts with "system restore" feature of Windows ME/XP operating systems. 1.2. Changes in the client library Now the client library is named "fbclient.dll". To provide a compatibility with existing applications, a gateway library "gds32.dll" can be installed to the Windows System Directory. See instclient.exe utility for this. This tool can also properly install fbclient.dll to Windows System Directory, should you like or need so. It's recommended to use native fbclient.dll library in newly developed applications. All server utilities (gbak, gfix, etc) uses only fbclient.dll and do not require gds32.dll. 1.3. New configuration file ibconfig file is no longer used and it has been replaced with firebird.conf, which is a part of new configuration manager and allows you to use both old and some new options. You can see the list of all supported configuration options (as well as their default values) in the distributed version of this file. 1.4. Classic Server (CS) Since Firebird 1.5, Classic engine is included in win32 distributions. The file of this server version is named fb_inet_server.exe and support TCP/IP and NetBEUI network protocols (local protocol is not supported). The usage of the Classic engine doesn't differ from its SS variant, except of the architecture specifics (one server process is running per client connection). 1.5. Ability to install and work with existent IB/FB1 server There were some changes done in the system object names to allow FB 1.5 to be installed and used on the computer which already has IB/FB1 installed. FB 1.5 also uses another registry keys. If you setup the server to use different network ports, you also can run a few server instances simultaneously or run FB 1.5 in the same time with IB/FB1. 1.6. Compatibility with previous versions Name of the local IPC port is no longer compatible, i.e. with default server settings you cannot connect to it from applications using old client library (gds32.dll). If necessary, you can setup the server to use old name of the IPC map via the configuration file. New version uses updated ODS (10.1). It doens't cause any incompatibilities with previous versions, but you should be aware of this fact. Engine doesn't upgrade ODS automatically and Firebird 1.0 and 1.5 can use both ODS 10.0 and 10.1 databases. Regardless of the above, backup/restore is still the recommended procedure of migrating databases to the different version of the server. Since a number of bugs has been fixed, the behaviour of the database may change after downgrading from v1.5 to v1.0. The datailed information of all such issues (as well as appropriate recommendations) will be published separately. Some specifics of the server work have been changed in v1.5. For more detailed information see configuration file (firebird.conf) and release notes (WhatsNew.txt). 2. INSTALLATION The installation of FB 1.5 doesn't practically differ from previous versions. 2.1. Required steps If you don't have a special setup program (it's distributed separately) the steps are the following: - unzip the archive into the separate directory (since a few file names were changed, it doesn't make sense to unzip v1.5 files into the directory with IB/FB1) - change the current directory to \bin (here and below is the directory where v1.5 files are located) - run instreg.exe: instreg.exe install it causes the installation path to be written into the registry (HKLM\Software\Firebird Project\Firebird Server\Instances) - if you want to register a service, run also instsvc.exe: instsvc.exe install (This is a Windows NT/2K/XP specific step.) - optionally, you can copy both fbclient.dll and gds32.dll to the OS system directory. To do so, use the provided instclient.exe tool. Usage: instclient i[nstall] [ -f[orce] ] library q[uery] library r[emove] library where library is: f[bclient] | g[ds32] This utility should be located and run from the 'bin' directory of your Firebird installation. '-z' can be used with any other option, prints version Purpose: This utility manages deployment of the Firebird client library into the Windows system directory. It caters for two installation scenarios: Deployment of the native fbclient.dll. Deployment of gds32.dll to support legacy applications. Version information and shared library counts are handled automatically. You may provide the -f[orce] option to override version checks. Please, note that if you -f[orce] the installation, you might have to reboot the machine in order to finalize the copy and you might break some other Firebird or InterBase(R) version on the system. 2.2. Installation of CS To install the CS engine, the only difference is the additional option for instsvc.exe: instsvc.exe install -classic It means that you may have only one copy of the engine (either fbserver.exe or fb_inet_server.exe) to be installed as a service. 2.3. Simplified setup If you don't need a registered service, then you may avoid running both instreg.exe and instsvc.exe. In this case you should just unzip the archive into a separate directory and run the server: fbserver.exe -a It should treat its parent directory as a root directory in this case. You can also use instclient.exe to copy client library to System. 2.4. Uninstallation To remove FB 1.5 you should: - stop the server (running "instsvc.exe stop" for instance) - run "instsvc.exe remove" - run "instreg.exe remove" - run "instclient.exe remove fbclient" and/or "insclient.exe remove gds32" if you used that tool to install those libraries the OS system directory. - delete installation directory 3. INFORMATION ABOUT THIS VERSION All changes included in FB 1.5 are briefly described in file: \doc\WhatsNew.txt Full documentation about new features and bugfixes will be published in the official Release Notes, which will be available in the final release.