. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3. Invoking Isql. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5. Starting An Isql Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 6. Ending an Isql Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 13. Isql Prompts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 6.2.1. Connecting with isql . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. Creating a database using isql . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 6.3.1. Starting isql . . . . . . . . . . . . . . of testing the server after installation is by starting a Firebird client (e.g. /opt/firebird/bin/isql) and connecting to a database or creating one. These operations are described later in this guide

............. 14 Creating a database using isql ........................................................................................... 15 Starting isql ........................................... authenticating as SYSDBA using the password masterkey. Using isql There are several different ways to connect to a database using isql. One way is to start isql in its in- teractive shell. Go to the bin subdirectory Firebird installation and, at that prompt, type the command isql (on Linux: ./isql) [# means “hit Enter”]: C:\Program Files\Firebird\bin>isql# Use CONNECT or CREATE DATABASE to specify a database SQL>CONNECT

.................................................................... 22 Creating a database using isql ................................................................................................. /doc Firebird server fbserver (SS) or fb_inet_ server (CS) /bin Command-line tools isql, gbak, nbackup, gsec, gfix, gstat, etc. /bin Sample database employee.fdb /examples/ Firebird server fbserver.exe (SS) or fb_in- et_server.exe (CS) \bin Command-line tools isql.exe, gbak.exe, nback- up.exe, gsec.exe, gfix.exe, gstat.exe, etc. \bin Sample database

shadow file already exists for the database. To this end, a shadow was created as follows: linux> isql my_employee; SQL> create shadow 1 manual '/home/norman/firebird/shadow/my_employee.shd1'; SQL> create session is connected to the database and can see that there are two shadow files attached: linux_1>isql my_employee Database: my_employee SQL> show database; Database: my_employee Owner: SYSDBA Chapter try to connect to the database linux_2> rm /home/norman/firebird/shadow/my_employee.shd2 linux_2> isql_my_employee Statement failed, SQLCODE = -901 lock conflict on no wait transaction -I/O error for file

do that for you as the following example shows. tux> # Check current shadows, use isql as gstat is broken. tux> isql employee Database: employee Chapter 6. Backup & Restore Recipes 22 SQL> show database; -replace overwrite /backups/employee.fbk employee tux> # Check shadows again, use isql as gstat is broken. tux> isql employee Database: employee SQL> show database; Database: employee Owner: Check shadows again, use isql as gstat is broken. tux> isql employee Database: employee SQL> show database; Database: employee Owner: SYSDBA ... SQL> quit;  I use isql in the above examples

implementation are: • Dynamic SQL (DSQL) • Procedural SQL (PSQL) • Embedded SQL (ESQL) • Interactive SQL (ISQL) Dynamic SQL is the major part of the language which corresponds to the Part 2 (SQL/Foundation) expressions implemented in DSQL are supported in ESQL. Interactive ISQL refers to the language that can be executed using Firebird isql, the command-line application for accessing databases interactively environment. Both DSQL and PSQL subsets are completely presented in this reference. Neither ESQL nor ISQL flavours are described here unless mentioned explicitly. 2.1.2. SQL Dialects SQL dialect is a term

implementation are: • Dynamic SQL (DSQL) • Procedural SQL (PSQL) • Embedded SQL (ESQL) • Interactive SQL (ISQL) Dynamic SQL is the major part of the language which corresponds to the Part 2 (SQL/Foundation) expressions implemented in DSQL are supported in ESQL. Interactive ISQL refers to the language that can be executed using Firebird isql, the command-line application for accessing databases interactively environment. Both DSQL and PSQL subsets are completely presented in this reference. Neither ESQL nor ISQL flavours are described here unless mentioned explicitly. 2.1.2. SQL Dialects SQL dialect is a term

as zeroes To make matters worse, Firebird lies to you when you retrieve data from the table. With isql and many other clients, “SELECT * FROM ADVENTURES” will return this dataset: Table 9. Result set the true state of the data is NULL. What the… ...is going on here? When a client application like isql queries the server, the conversation passes through several stages. During one of them — the “describe” outlawed NULLs will survive for a long time, as there won’t be any wake-up calls later on.  The isql command SHOW TABLE lists “CHECK … IS NOT NULL” columns as nullable, because the column type is not

table — MON$DATABASE which has a copy of all of the above data in an easy to obtain format: tux> isql employee Database: employee Chapter 4. Database Header Page — Type 0x01 11 SQL> show table mon$database; back, we should see a change. The following is the above database after a session connected using isql and immediately exited without doing anything: Offset Data ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 00 00 You can see that it looks remarkably like loading up a connection to isql and then exiting actually executes 4 separate transactions. We can see at the end of the last line