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                                The mSQL FAQ

$Revision: 1.2 $

$Date: 1998/02/10 21:18:49 $

                                  Preamble

A text copy of this FAQ can be obtained via anonymous ftp from:

    ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/faq.txt

or an HTML copy can be obtained via anonymous ftp from:

    ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/faq.html

This FAQ is maintained by Peter Samuel <Peter.Samuel@uniq.com.au> and is
produced independently of Hughes Technologies (the developers of mSQL).

While every attempt is made to ensure that the information contained in this
FAQ is accurate, no guarantees of accuracy can or will be made.

This FAQ attempts to deal with mSQL. Because of time and space constraints,
other applications, including value added applications provided with the
mSQL distribution such as W3-mSQL and Lite, will not be covered in any great
detail.

Third party applications mentioned in this FAQ may not be compatible with
the current release of mSQL - by necessity their development will lag that
of mSQL. If you have any questions concerning their status please contact
the mSQL mailing list or the author of the application in question.

New questions in the FAQ are marked with (=). Questions that have been
modified since the last release of the FAQ are marked with (-).

Note: BEFORE POSTING A QUESTION TO THE mSQL MAILING LIST, PLEASE READ THE
SECTION "How do I post a question to the mSQL mailing list".

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
          ---------------------------------------------------------

                                  Contents

   * General Information
       1. (=) What is covered by this FAQ?
       2. What is SQL?
       3. Books on SQL and mSQL?
       4. What is mSQL?
       5. What platforms will it run on?
       6. Is it free?
       7. Where can I get it?
       8. (-) Are there any mirror sites for mSQL?
       9. What is the latest version?
      10. When will the next version be released?
      11. (=) What is Beta-release software?
      12. Why is David called Bambi?
      13. How is this FAQ prepared?
      14. How can I contribute to the FAQ?

   * Help and Support
       1. Are there any recommended patches to the latest version?
       2. Are there any known bugs or problems with the current release of
          mSQL?
       3. (-) What are the current problems with mSQL 2.0Bx?
       4. Are there any other patches available?
       5. How do I apply patches to the mSQL source?
       6. Is online documentation available?
       7. Is there a mailing list for mSQL?
       8. Is there a mailing list digest for mSQL?
       9. (-) Are there any HTML archives of the mSQL mailing list?
      10. Is there a news group for mSQL?
      11. How do I post a question to the mSQL mailing list? (PLEASE READ
          THIS!)
      12. I've found a bug. How can I tell if it's been fixed yet?
      13. How do I report a bug in mSQL?
      14. How do I contribute a patch to mSQL?
      15. How do I contribute code to the mSQL community?
      16. Where can I find examples of code that interface with mSQL?
      17. Are there any non Unix ports of mSQL?

   * Features and Limitations
       1. What support programs are bundled with mSQL?
       2. What SQL commands are supported?
       3. Does mSQL support keys?
       4. What datatypes are supported?
       5. What functions does the mSQL API provide?
       6. Are views or virtual tables supported?
       7. Does mSQL support table aliasing?
       8. Are column constraints supported?
       9. Are stored procedures supported?
      10. Are access privileges supported?
      11. Does mSQL support BLOBs?
      12. Are the transaction commands, BEGIN, COMMIT, and ROLLBACK
          supported?
      13. What are the limits on table and field names?
      14. What other limits can be modified?
      15. How much data can mSQL address?
      16. Are there any limitations in the way mSQL handles logical
          expressions?
      17. How does mSQL return values?
      18. How does SELECT return rows?
      19. Can mSQL nest tables?
      20. What storage overheads does mSQL have?
      21. Does msqld allocate more RAM to itself as new databases are added?
      22. Does performance degrade as the number of databases increase?
      23. Does mSQL support cursors?
      24. Does mSQL support different character sets?
      25. Why doesn't mSQL work when installed in disk space served by the
          Andrew File System (AFS)?

   * Installation Problems
       1. Under IRIX (SGI) I get problems relating to my username
       2. On OSF/1 or HP-UX I have trouble starting msqld at boot time
       3. Should I use cc or gcc when building mSQL on my Dec Alpha running
          OSF/1?
       4. Does mSQL work with Linux mmap()?
       5. Does mSQL work with HP-UX?
       6. I'm having trouble compiling MsqlPerl with mSQL under HP-UX
       7. How can I install mSQL on a SCO Unix system?
       8. Why does setup fail when building mSQL on a Linux system?
       9. Why won't my third party applications compile under Solaris 2.x?
      10. Why can't I run setup under Linux?
      11. Why do I get errors about "sys/bitypes.h" when compiling under
          Solaris 2.5?
      12. Why do I get errors about "POSIX_C_SOURCE" when compiling under
          Solaris 2.5?
      13. Why do I get errors about "weak definitions" when compiling under
          IRIX?
      14. How can I build mSQL version 1.0.16 for an AIX system running on
          an IBM PS/2?
      15. How can I make w3-auth.c work with my Apache HTTPD server?

   * Runtime Problems
       1. msqladmin will not let me create a database
       2. When I start msqld it complains about an ACL file
       3. When I start msqld it complains about a PID file
       4. I've just installed the latest version of mSQL and now my own
          applications won't work!
       5. Access control doesn't work with my setuid applications
       6. Why do I see an "Address already in use" error message when I
          attempt to start msqld?
       7. Why do I see a "Can't start server : UNIX Bind : Permission
          denied" error message when I attempt to start msqld?
       8. Why do I see "Couldn't create temporary table" error messages?
       9. How can I avoid running out of space when doing certain complex
          table joins?
      10. msqld is suddenly dumping core and complaining about bzero()
      11. Why does relshow drop the first two characters from its output?
      12. Why won't msqladmin work?
      13. Why does msqld crash when attempting to display real numbers on
          64-bit SGI platforms?
      14. Why won't mSQL work with the compressed file system under AIX?
      15. Why do I see "Protocol mismatch" errors under HP-UX?
      16. Why do I see "Can't start server : UNIX Bind : Invalid argument"
          errors running msqld under a MachTen BSD Unix system?
      17. Where did my mSQL socket file go?
      18. Why does it take such a long time to connect to the mSQL database
          server?
      19. Why do I see "This Beta test release expires in 57 days" when I
          start msql2d?
      20. Can I use IP addresses in the mSQL ACL file?
      21. What does the "Protocol mismatch. Server Version = 22 Client
          Version = 6" error mean?
      22. Why does mSQL take longer to return the same results when I change
          the order of my query?
      23. Why don't my SELECT statements work across multiple tables?

   * How do I ....?
       1. How do I embed single quotes in a field?
       2. What other characters need special treatment?
       3. How do I handle null fields?
       4. How do I perform case insensitive matches?
       5. How do I add a column to an existing table?
       6. When should I call msqlConnect() in a parent/child situation?
       7. Can I use mSQL reserved words as field or table names?
       8. How do I find the maximum or minimum value in a table?
       9. How can I determine the structure of a database?
      10. What happens when the mSQL server goes down between requests?
      11. Can I run more than one copy of msqld on the same CPU?
      12. How can I automatically ensure that each record receives a unique
          primary key?
      13. How can I avoid compiler redefinition errors when compiling my own
          mSQL applications?
      14. How do I link the mSQL library with my own code?
      15. How can I find the number of rows in a table?
      16. How can I delete all the rows in a table without destroying the
          table structure?
      17. How can I import flat files or other database formats into an mSQL
          table?
      18. How can I determine the number of rows affected by my last query?
      19. How can I get w3-msql to work with w3-auth?

   * (-) Contributed Code and Third Party Applications

   * (-) Web sites using mSQL

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
          ---------------------------------------------------------

                             General Information

What is covered by this FAQ?

This FAQ covers mSQL itself. It does not attempt to answer questions about
various value added packages such as W3-mSQL, MsqlPerl, msqltcl, PHP/FI, etc
in any great detail. Nor does it attempt to address problems integrating
HTML and mSQL in anything but a cursory manner.

The reasons for this limited scope are simple - time and space. I maintain
the FAQ out of the goodness/madness of my heart. I simply don't have the
time to cover everything - if I did cover everything I'd never get any real
work done and I'd starve :(

The FAQ is also quite large - 297k as of release 1.32 and growing. If I
could include minute details about all the value added mSQL products you'd
be looking at a very large document indeed (or several large documents).
This is the sort of problem I don't have the time to deal with :)

There is a bright side however. I'm perfectly willing to accept
contributions to the FAQ on ANY mSQL related issue - in fact I highly
encourage it. If you have details concerning an area of mSQL that you'd like
included in the FAQ, write it up and send it to me
<Peter.Samuel@uniq.com.au>.

Some of the value added products have mailing lists and home pages. See the
"Contributed Code and Third Party Applications" section for details.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is SQL?

The following section is based on chapter 1 of "Oracle7 Server - SQL
Language Reference Manual" - Oracle Corporation, December 1992, part number
778-70-1292.

SQL is an acronym that stands for Structured Query Language. It is often
pronounced "sequel". It was developed in the mid 1970s by IBM.

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the International
Standards Organisation (ISO) have adopted SQL as the standard language for
relational database management systems.

SQL provides commands for a variety of tasks including:

   * querying data
   * inserting, updating and deleting rows in a table
   * creating, replacing, altering and dropping objects
   * controlling access to the database and its objects
   * guaranteeing database consistency and integrity

SQL provides easy to learn commands that are both consistent and applicable
for all users.

While most relational database management systems - including mSQL - provide
support for SQL, each vendor usually has their own unique extensions to the
language that may hinder the portability of SQL procedures from one database
platform to another.

JCC Consulting http://www.jcc.com maintains a central source of information
about the SQL standards process and its current state. For more details
visit:

    http://www.jcc.com/sql_stnd.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Books on SQL and mSQL

There are countless books available on database design and SQL. Some good
starting points (in no particular order) are:

    C. J. Date
    "An Introduction to Database Systems"
    Vol I, Sixth Edition, 1995
    Addison Wesley
    ISBN 0-201-54329-X
    (http://heg-school.aw.com/cseng/authors/date/intro/intro.html)

    C. J. Date and Hugh Darwen
    "A Guide to Sql Standard"
    Fourth Edition, 1997
    Addison Wesley
    ISBN 0-201-96426-0
    (http://heg-school.aw.com/cseng/authors/date/sql/sql.html)

    Judith S. Bowman, Sandra L. Emerson and Marcy Darnovsky
    "The Practical SQL Handbook: Using Structured Query Language"
    Third Edition
    Addison Wesley
    ISBN 0-201-44787-8
    (http://www.awl.com/devpress/titles/44787.html)

    Terry Halpin
    "Conceptual Schema and Relational Database Design"
    1995
    Prentice Hall
    ISBN 0-13-355702-2
    (http://www.prenhall.com/allbooks/ptr_0133557022.html)

    Joe Celko
    "Instant SQL Programming"
    1995
    Wrox Press
    ISBN 1-874416-508
    (http://www.wrox.com/scripts/bookdetail.idc?Code=508)

    Martin Gruber
    "Understanding SQL"
    1990
    Sybex Publishing
    ISBN  0-89588-644-8
    (http://www.sybex.com/cgi-bin/bookpg.pl?644back.html)

    Jeff Rowe
    "Building Internet Database Servers with CGI"
    1996
    New Riders Publishing
    ISBN 1-56205-573-9
    (http://merchant.superlibrary.com:8000/catalog/hg/PRODUCT/PAGE/15620/bud/1562055739.html)

    Perkins & Morgan
    "Teach yourself SQL in 14 days"
    1995
    SAMS Publishing
    ISBN 0-67230-855-X
    (http://www.connection.se/cgi-bin/shop/method=showitem/sid=bm/uid=78F52F3/item=067230855X
    or
    http://merchant.superlibrary.com:8000/catalog/hg/PRODUCT/PAGE/06723/bud/067230855X.html)

    Connolly, Begg & Strachan
    "Database Systems: A Practical Approach to Design,
        Implementation and Management"
    1996
    Addison Wesley
    ISBN 0-201-42277-8
    (http://heg-school.aw.com/cseng/authors/connolly/databsys/databsys.html)

    Melton & Simon
    "Understanding the New SQL: A Complete Guide"
    1993
    Morgan Kaufmann
    ISBN 1-55860-245-3

    Mike Morgan & Jeff Wandling
    "Webmaster Expert Solutions"
    1996
    QUE books
    ISBN 0-7897-0801-9
    (http://merchant.superlibrary.com:8000/catalog/hg/PRODUCT/PAGE/07897/bud/0789708019.html)
    (see http://www.speakeasy.org/~jdw for errata)

    Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe
    "Fundamentals of Database Systems"
    Second Edition
    Addison Wesley
    ISBN 0-8053-1748-1
    (http://heg-school.aw.com/cseng/authors/elmasri/Dbase2e/Dbase2e.html)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is mSQL?

mSQL is mini SQL, a light weight database engine developed by David J.
Hughes <bambi@hughes.com.au> at Bond University, Australia. It has been
designed to provide fast access to stored data with low memory requirements.
As its name implies mSQL offers a subset of SQL as its query interface.
Although it only supports a subset of SQL, everything it supports is in
accordance with the ANSI SQL specification.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

What platforms will it run on?

mSQL has been developed under Sun OS 4.1.1 but has been tested under Solaris
2.x (release 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5), Ultrix 4.3, Linux, and OSF/1 (cc not gcc).
That said, it should "autoconf" and build on most BSD derived systems, SVR4
based systems or POSIX O/S's (that should cover most of them). It has been
reported that it works out-of-the-box on HP-UX, NeXT, SCO, Sequent, Cray,
Tandem, *BSD and a few others.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is it free?

David Hughes writes:

    "mSQL has been released in the past under terms known as
    'conscience-ware', the basic concept of which was that companies
    that used the software could contribute a small amount to the
    continued development of the software without any strict rules
    being placed upon such 'donations'. Although the concept sounds
    fair, it failed badly with only 3 contributions being made from
    over 3,600 copies of mSQL-1.0.5 that were ftp'ed from my machine
    alone. Over 1,000 of those copies went to commercial organisations
    and I receive many questions a day from companies using mSQL behind
    their WWW servers etc who are looking for free support.


    In an attempt to balance this out and allow me to devote some time
    to mSQL (rather than other pursuits that I do to generate an
    income), mSQL is now shareware. I still believe in free software
    over the Internet and cooperation in research so the new license is
    designed not to hurt Universities, research groups and other people
    that _should_ have free access to software. Commercial
    organisations that are using this so that they don't have to buy an
    Oracle or an Ingres will now have to buy mSQL (at a minute fraction
    of the cost of one of the commercial offerings).


    Please read the doc/License file to see if you are required to
    register your copy. An invoice is included in both Postscript and
    ASCII format to ease the generation of payments."

You may freely use mSQL if and only if you fall into the categories outlined
in the mSQL License file:

    You can use this software free of charge if you are an educational
    institution (excluding commercial training organisations),
    non-commercial research organisation, registered charity,
    registered not-for-profit organisation, or full-time student.

If you do not fall into any of these categories, you will have to pay a
license fee to use mSQL. As of release 1.0.16, the cost of mSQL is:

    Commercial Installation - AUD $225

    Private Installation - AUD $65

Exchange rates may vary wildly, but at the time of preparing this FAQ, the
Australian dollar was trading at about 0.75 US dollars. This information is
provided as an indication only. You MUST check your local exchange rates
before preparing to purchase mSQL.

An online currency conversion system developed by Olsen & Associates is
available at http://www.olsen.ch/cgi-bin/exmenu.

Another online currency conversion system is available from
http://www.DynaMind-LLC.com/services/utilities/currency.cgi.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Where can I get it?

mSQL 1.x can be obtained via anonymous ftp from Bond University, Australia.
The latest version of release 1.x can be found in the directory:

    ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/

The latest beta version of 2.x can be found at:

    http://hughes.com.au/software/msql2/current.htm

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are there any mirror sites for mSQL?

If you would like to mirror the mSQL FAQ, please contact
<Peter.Samuel@uniq.com.au>.

The following sites mirror the mSQL FAQ:

   * http://www.swl.fh-heilbronn.de/msql

     Thanks to Tobias Haecker <tobi@swl.fh-heilbronn.de>.

   * ftp://ftp.nerosworld.com/pub/SQL/msql

     Thanks to David Perry <deperry@nerosworld.com>.

   * http://cal038031.student.utwente.nl/~mSQL or
     ftp://cal038031.student.utwente.nl/pub/mSQL

     Thanks to Sjoerd de Heer <sjoerd@cal038031.student.utwente.nl>.

   * http://sunsite.srce.hr/mirror/mSQL-FAQ/faq.html

     Thanks to Davorin Bengez <Davorin.Bengez@sunsite.srce.hr>.

   * http://www.gold-cousins.org/lite_site/ftp/faq.html

     Thanks to Jeanne Gold <goldsaic@ix.netcom.com>.

   * http://tcts.fpms.ac.be/~zanoni/msql/faq.html

     Thanks to Laurent Zanoni <zanoni@tcts.fpms.ac.be>.

   * http://audi.dglnet.com.br/saito/mirrors/msql/faq.html and
     http://audi.dglnet.com.br/saito/mirrors/msql/faq.txt

     Thanks to Ricardo Saito <rtsaito@dglnet.com.br>.

   * http://www.blnet.com/msqlpc/lozano/msqlfaq.htm.

     Thanks to Fernando Lozano <bl@blnet.com>.

The following sites mirror the mSQL 1.x software distribution:

   * ftp://ftp.ntua.gr/pub/databases/msql/

     Thanks to Yiorgos Adamopoulos <adamo@noc.ntua.gr>.

   * ftp://sunsite.auc.dk/pub/databases/msql

     Thanks to Jesper Hagen <hagen@iesd.auc.dk>

   * ftp://ftp.nerosworld.com/pub/SQL/msql

     Thanks to David Perry <deperry@nerosworld.com>.

   * ftp://sunsite.srce.hr/mirrors/bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/msql

     Thanks to Davorin Bengez <Davorin.Bengez@sunsite.srce.hr>.

   * ftp://ftp.bf.rmit.edu.au/pub/msql

     Thanks to Malcolm Herbert <mjch@boojum.bf.rmit.edu.au>.

The following sites mirror the mSQL 2.x software distribution:

   * ftp://ftp.worldone.com/pub/msql

     Thanks to WorldOne http://www.worldone.com.

   * ftp://ftp.nerosworld.com/pub/msql/msql2

     Thanks to David Perry <deperry@nerosworld.com>.

   * http://cal038031.student.utwente.nl/~mSQL or
     ftp://cal038031.student.utwente.nl/pub/mSQL

     Thanks to Sjoerd de Heer <sjoerd@cal038031.student.utwente.nl>.

   * ftp://sunsite.srce.hr/mirrors/bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/msql2

     Thanks to Davorin Bengez <Davorin.Bengez@sunsite.srce.hr>.

The following sites have a complete mirror of http://hughes.com.au:

   * http://hermes.nerosworld.com/msql

     Thanks to David Perry <deperry@nerosworld.com>.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is the latest version?

At the time of compiling this FAQ, the latest released version was 1.0.16.

It is available via anonymous ftp from:

    ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/msql-1.0.16.tar.gz
    (195705 bytes)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

When will the next version be released?

David has suspended all development work on mSQL version 1.x and is
concentrating his efforts on version 2.x. However, he will continue to
provide any necessary bug fixes for the current release of mSQL.

mSQL development is NOT David's primary role. He does this work in whatever
spare time he has available so PLEASE don't pester him with requests about
when we can expect future releases. Take the zen approach and just let it
happen :)

A beta snapshot of mSQL version 2.0.x was released on May 8 1997. It is
available from:

    http://hughes.com.au/software/msql2/msql-2.0-B7.1.tar.gz
    (373261 bytes)

Note: Do NOT download the mSQL-2.0B7.0 distribution. If you do so you will
not be able to compile the Lite modules. Use the mSQL-2.0B7.1 distribution
instead.

It is also mirrored at a number of other sites. See the section above titled
"Are there any mirror sites for mSQL?" for details on these mirror sites.

More details on mSQL 2.0.x can be found by visiting the Hughes Technologies
web pages at http://hughes.com.au.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is Beta-release software?

Bambi is very interested in making mSQL work as well as possible for as many
people as possible. To make that happen quickly, Bambi has released versions
of mSQL which are not fully tested, with the hope that people will try them
under more circumstances than he could ever have the time or equipment to do
himself.

This means, however, that this Beta software MAY NOT WORK CORRECTLY for you.
If you cannot tolerate hangs, crashes, or loss of data, you should use the
latest released version and any recommended patches (currently mSQL version
1.0.16 with the "lost table patch"). However, if you can use the new
version, please do so and report bugs to the mailing list and to the bugs
list so they can be fixed in the next release.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why is David called Bambi?

Bambi is a nickname that David acquired quite a long time ago. He claims
there are no derogatory implications associated with the name. If you'd like
to find out more send him some mail at <bambi@hughes.com.au>.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How is this FAQ prepared?

The FAQ is written in HTML and proofread using version 3.01Gold of the
Netscape Navigator running under Solaris 2.5.1. The HTML syntax is checked
using version 1.017 of Neil Bowers' <neilb@khoral.com> weblint package. Text
versions of the FAQ are created by saving the document as a text file from
within the Netscape Navigator.

(See http://www.cre.canon.co.uk/~neilb/weblint.html for more details on
weblint).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How can I contribute to the FAQ?

If you find any errors or omissions in the FAQ, please contact me, Peter
Samuel <Peter.Samuel@uniq.com.au>. I will be happy to correct any errors or
add elements to the FAQ.

If you want something added to the FAQ, it would be a great help if you
could write a section and forward it to me - then I can simply insert it in
the appropriate location.

Remember, I don't own the FAQ - I'm just its caretaker on your behalf.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
          ---------------------------------------------------------

                              Help and Support

Are there any recommended patches to the latest version?

There are no official patches to any release of mSQL. If modifications need
to be made, a new version of mSQL will be released.

The above not withstanding there is one unofficial patch that should be
applied to mSQL version 1.0.16.

This patch comes from David Hughes <bambi@hughes.com.au> and fixes the very
old and very obscure problem of the occasionally disappearing table.

David writes:

    After sitting here banging my head against the old "missing table"
    bug with my partner in crime Jason  <jason@fan.net.au> , we've fixed
    it !!!!!  This is yet another very obscure bug.  So, can it be
    reproduced?  Yup, once you know the problem.

        o Fill the table cache
        o Cause a reference to a table that doesn't exist
        o The oldest cache entry will have the table definition list
          set to NULL but with the name, DB, and age fields still set

    We all owe a debt of thanks to Jason as it was his inability to type
    table names correctly that found the problem :)

*** ./src/msql/msqldb.c.orig    Sun Jul  7 16:47:09 1996
--- ./src/msql/msqldb.c Tue Jul 30 17:07:42 1996
***************
*** 1398,1403 ****
--- 1398,1406 ----
                safeFree(entry->rowBuf);
                safeFree(entry->keyBuf);
                entry->def = NULL;
+               *(entry->DB) = 0;
+               *(entry->table) = 0;
+               entry->age = 0;
        }

        /*

To avoid conflicts with mismatched whitespace, apply this patch using the
"-l" option of patch. (That's an "el", NOT a "one" or an "eye").

David assures us that this patch will be rolled into version 1.0.17.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are there any known bugs or problems with the current release of mSQL?

Since the release of mSQL 1.0.12, several problems have been reported to the
mSQL mailing list. These are outlined below.

   * Problems with table/field name lengths

     The definition of NAME_LEN changed from version 1.0.10 to 1.0.12. It
     now seems that 18 characters is the maximum value for a table or field
     name. This problem exists in mSQL versions 1.0.12 and above.

     David Hughes writes:

         The reason it changed in 1.0.12 is because I had a couple of
         field_name buffers that didn't have room for a trailing NULL. Now,
         trying to fix that without altering the size of the struct implies
         that you have to shorten the name of the field (to leave the
         required room). I didn't want to force everyone out there to drop
         and reload every database they have just because of a 1 byte buffer
         over-run.

         If this is a major problem for you then ....

             o dump all your databases
             o find the definition in question
             o set it to a value you like
             o rebuild everything
             o reload everything

         If you can work out what to change to get the extra field name
         length then you know enough about what you are doing to do the rest
         of what's required. I haven't provided a step-by-step because if
         people can't find the value they have to change I'm sure they'd
         still end up asking the list about this stuff after breaking
         things.

     At present there is NO patch to fix this problem. Possible workarounds
     are David's method outlined above or to downgrade to version 1.0.10.

   * The regular expression code in version 1.0.14 and above has been
     cleaned up with the unfortunate side affect of making it impossible to
     search for the special characters ^ and \.

     The cleanup also changes the way in which other special characters can
     be searched. The tables in the section "What other characters need
     special treatment?" outline the differences for versions up to and
     including version 1.0.13 and 1.0.14 and above.

   * There are still isolated reports of msqld crashing with SIGSEGV
     (segmentation violation) errors under Linux. These occurrences have
     diminished but have not disappeared. There has been one report that the
     problem lies not within mSQL or Linux but in the hardware in use. An
     upgrade of the hardware may eliminate the SIGSEGV conditions. For more
     non mSQL specific details on this problem see:

         http://www.bitwizard.nl/sig11

   * Some users have reported the msqld consumes large amounts of memory
     when doing ORDERed selects:

     Marty Picco writes:

         I have a 200K+ record database running on a p90 with 96MB memory.
         I have noticed that the first SELECT I do on this database after
         msqld is started causes msqld to grab as much memory as it can...in
         this case about 68MB. It appears that the memory is never released
         until the daemon is restarted. Indeed, the SELECT does have an
         ORDER clause.

     David has said that he'll investigate this problem.

   * There are still isolated reports of mSQL behaving strangely under HP-UX
     9.x. Any strangeness is more than likely a symptom of a broken mmap()
     implementation. Try compiling mSQL without mmap() support by editing

         ./targets/your-architecture/site.mm

     and ensuring the mmap() directive reads:

         MMAP=

     and then compile and re-install the mSQL package.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

What are the current problems with mSQL 2.0Bx?

Note: This section is temporary. It will be merged into the rest of the FAQ
as mSQL 2.x matures.

Note: Some parts of this section have been compiled by Lloyd Parkes
<Lloyd.Parkes@vuw.ac.nz>.

There are a few known problems with the current release of mSQL 2.0Bx. This
list is undoubtedly incomplete and will probably remain so because of the
"moving target" nature of new software.

   * mSQL 2.x requires a fully functioning mmap(). If your operating system
     does not support mmap() then you can't use mSQL 2.x. The following
     operating systems are known to provide insufficient mmap() support:

        o NeXT

        o Linux - kernel 1.2.x and below. (Linux 1.3.x and above should be
          fine).

        o A/UX 3.1.1

        o DEC Ultrix

        o MachTen

        o UNICOS (Cray research)

   * There are some new keywords which cannot be used as table or field
     names. See the table in the section "Can I use mSQL reserved words as
     field or table names?" below.

   * The internal format of the database files has changed significantly. If
     you wish to use mSQL 1.x databases with mSQL 2.x you must reload them.
     The following procedure should be followed:

       1. Using mSQL 1.x, dump your database with msqldump:

              msqldump -h dbhost -c dbname > db.dump

       2. Edit db.dump and change ALL occurrences of PRIMARY KEY definitions
          to INDEX.

       3. Edit db.dump and change ALL occurrences of mSQL keywords used as
          table or fields names.

       4. Using mSQL 2.x, reload your database with msql:

              msql -h dbhost dbname < db.dump

     Vivek Khera <khera@kci.kciLink.com> has provided the following Perl
     program that will help you convert your mSQL 1.x dumps to the mSQL 2.x
     format:

         #! /usr/local/bin/perl
         use strict;

         # read a msql 1.x dump and convert PRIMARY KEY entries to UNIQUE INDEX
         # called pkey for that table.
         #
         # also converts fields named time->timestamp, date->datestamp, count->counter

         # V. Khera (vivek@khera.org) 08-JAN-1996

         # Usage: msqldumpconvert orig.dumpfile > new.dumpfile
         # or use it in a pipeline between msqldump from 1.x and msql from 2.x


         my($field, $table);
         while (<>) {
           if (m/^\# mSQL Dump/) {
             print "# mSQL Dump converted to mSQL 2.0 format\n";
           } elsif (m/^\s+ (\w+).*PRIMARY KEY,/) {
             $field = $1;
             s/ PRIMARY KEY//;
             print;
           } elsif (m/CREATE TABLE (\w+)/) {
             $table = $1;
             $field = "";            # no field means no primary key
             print;
           } elsif (m/^\) \\g/ and $field) {
             print;
             print "\nCREATE UNIQUE INDEX pkey ON $table ($field)\\g\n\n";
           } elsif (m/^  count /) {
             s/^  count /  counter /;
             print;
             print STDERR "Converted field 'count' to 'counter' in table $table\n";
           } elsif (m/^  time /) {
             s/^  time /  timestamp /;
             print;
             print STDERR "Converted field 'time' to 'timestamp' in table $table\n";
           } elsif (m/^  date /) {
             s/^  date /  datestamp /;
             print;
             print STDERR "Converted field 'date' to 'datestamp' in table $table\n";
           } else {
             print;
           }
         }

   * The mSQL 2.x API has some new functionality. You MUST re-link all your
     third party applications with the new API. This should be generally
     successful as the new API is a superset of the mSQL 1.x API.

     Note: Simply relinking will NOT make the new functionality available -
     the third party application must take advantage of the new functions
     for you to make use of them. Relinking will only enable you to use your
     existing third party applications with the mSQL 2.x database server.

   * mSQL 2.x uses a different protocol than version 1.x. The tools provided
     with mSQL version 1.x, such as msql, msqladmin, relshow, etc will not
     work with mSQL version 2.x. You MUST use the tools provided with the
     version 2.x distribution.

   * You cannot perform regular expression searches on TEXT fields.

     David Hughes writes:

         TEXT fields will always be slower than CHAR fields because the data
         is split over multiple buffers. As for the searching you can do
         anything other than *LIKE testing at the moment. I'll try to work
         out a way to do LIKE and CLIKE on TEXT fields. RLIKE is a
         non-option.

   * mSQL 2.0B5 uses a different database format than previous 2.x releases.
     This change was made to accommodate 64 bit aligned data for machines
     running 64 pit processors such as the DEC Alpha. If you are upgrading
     from a previous 2.x release to 2.0B5 or beyond, you must dump your
     databases and reload them using the following procedure:

       1. Use msqldump from the mSQL version 2.x release you are currently
          using to dump your databases:

              msqldump -h dbhost -c dbname > db.dump

       2. Drop the old database using msqladmin from the mSQL version 2.x
          release you are currently using to dump your databases:

              msqladmin drop dbname

       3. Remove the old version of mSQL 2.x and install the new version
          which should be mSQL version 2.0B5 or above.

       4. Create the new database using msqladmin from mSQL version 2.0B5:

              msqladmin create dbname

       5. Use the msql monitor from mSQL 2.0B5 to reload the dumped data:

              msql -h dbhost dbname < db.dump

   * msqlimport has a number of problems.

        o Empty fields in the input are not parsed as NULL fields, or
          anything else for that matter.
        o There seems to be a problem with memory being trashed.
        o Lossage when a delimiter longer than one character is specified.

     A patch is available from http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~lloyd/msql.

   * msqldump has trouble dumping the new DATE type fields. It doesn't
     surround them with single quotes. This patch from Andreas Wadephul
     <wadib@uhura.asfh-berlin.de> will fix this problem:

     *** src/msql/msqldump.c.orig    Tue Mar 25 09:49:57 1997
     --- src/msql/msqldump.c Tue Mar 25 09:50:57 1997
     ***************
     *** 346,352 ****
                             if (row[i])
                             {
                                     if (field->type == CHAR_TYPE ||
     !                                   field->type == TEXT_TYPE)
                                     {
                                             tmp = escapeText(row[i]);
                                             printf("\'%s\'", tmp);
     --- 346,353 ----
                             if (row[i])
                             {
                                     if (field->type == CHAR_TYPE ||
     !                                   field->type == TEXT_TYPE ||
     !                                   field->type == DATE_TYPE)
                                     {
                                             tmp = escapeText(row[i]);
                                             printf("\'%s\'", tmp);

     To avoid conflicts with mismatched whitespace, apply this patch using
     the "-l" option of patch. (That's an "el", NOT a "one" or an "eye").

   * Heikki Vatiainen <hessu@cs.tut.fi> has found a problem where the server
     (or client?) gets very confused with INSERT queries that have large
     amounts of data.

     More details are available from http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~lloyd/msql.

   * Various errors with the bookmarks sample application.

   * Eric Huss <e-huss@uiuc.edu> reports there seems to be some
     inconsistencies in the behaviour of the mSQL API calls msqlListFields()
     and msqlListIndex(). When passing a table name to msqlListFields(), if
     there is a newline character at the end of the table name, there is no
     problem. However, when passing a table name to msqlListIndex(), and the
     table name has a newline character at the end, then it doesn't work.
     This is due to the fact that msql is using strok(NULL,"\n\r") to chop
     up the arguments, and the extra newline in the middle causes problems.

   * Brendan Quinn <brendan@nexus.sofcom.com.au> reports a problem with
     regular expression searches.

     Brendan writes:

         If you have a field that is full and you do a like/clike search
         where the last character of the like string matches the last
         character of the field, mSQL-2.0 b3 and 4 (at least) incorrectly
         match.

         Example
         -------

         mSQL > create table blah ( Organisation CHAR(50) ) \g
         Query OK.  1 row(s) modified or retrieved.
         mSQL > insert into blah Values ('1995 Hopman Cup Tennis Tournament, Perth
         Western A') \g
         Query OK.  1 row(s) modified or retrieved.
         mSQL > select * from blah where Organisation clike '%abababa%' \g
         Query OK.  1 row(s) modified or retrieved.
         +----------------------------------------------------+
         | Organisation                                       |
         +----------------------------------------------------+
         | 1995 Hopman Cup Tennis Tournament, Perth Western A |
         +----------------------------------------------------+

         which of course is wrong.

     Brendan also supplies a patch for this problem:

     *** src/msql/types.c.orig       Fri Apr 11 08:58:30 1997
     --- src/msql/types.c    Tue Apr 15 16:53:00 1997
     ***************
     *** 138,144 ****
                               {
                                       if (*cp1 == *cp2)
                                       {
     !                                       if(likeTest(cp1,cp2,length-count)==1)
                                               {
                                                       return(1);
                                               }
     --- 138,144 ----
                               {
                                       if (*cp1 == *cp2)
                                       {
     !                                       if(likeTest(cp1,cp2,length-count+1)==1)
                                               {
                                                       return(1);
                                               }
     ***************
     *** 224,230 ****
                               {
                                       if (toupper(*cp1) == toupper(*cp2))
                                       {
     !                                       if(cLikeTest(cp1,cp2,length-count)==1)
                                               {
                                                       return(1);
                                               }
     --- 224,230 ----
                               {
                                       if (toupper(*cp1) == toupper(*cp2))
                                       {
     !                                       if(cLikeTest(cp1,cp2,length-count+1)==1)
                                               {
                                                       return(1);
                                               }

     To avoid conflicts with mismatched whitespace, apply this patch using
     the "-l" option of patch. (That's an "el", NOT a "one" or an "eye").

   * Robert Sum <sumrn@crd.ge.com> reports on a number of problems with
     pattern matching in mSQL version 2.0Bx. He has provided patches for
     these problems. The patches are available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://ce-toolkit.crd.ge.com/pub/sumrn/msql-2.0-B7/src/msql

   * mSQL version 2.0B7.1 has a problem with unique indices. Dennis Doherty
     <djd@atrieva.com> has supplied the following patch:

     *** src/msql/index.c.orig       Tue Jun 24 10:26:54 1997
     --- src/msql/index.c    Tue Jun 24 10:27:29 1997
     ***************
     *** 353,359 ****
             if (node)
             {
                     curRow = (u_int)node->data;
     !               if (curRow != rowNum && rowNum != NO_POS)
                             return(0);
             }
             return(1);
     --- 353,359 ----
             if (node)
             {
                     curRow = (u_int)node->data;
     !                if (curRow != rowNum || rowNum == NO_POS)
                             return(0);
             }
             return(1);

     To avoid conflicts with mismatched whitespace, apply this patch using
     the "-l" option of patch. (That's an "el", NOT a "one" or an "eye").

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are there any other patches available?

This FAQ only details those recommended patches that are necessary for the
general operation of mSQL. There are a number of other user contributed
patches that enhance the operation of mSQL. Some of these patches are
available via anonymous ftp while others are available from the mSQL mailing
list archives.

Some of these patches are for older releases of mSQL. They may have been
rolled into subsequent releases of mSQL or they may not work with later
releases of mSQL or they may break the successful operation of later
releases of mSQL. Use them at your own risk.

A brief and no doubt incomplete list of these patches follows:

   * When you insert a NULL as a primary key integer field, mSQL chooses a
     unique sequence number. Contributed by Jens-Peter Haack
     <peter@netcs.com>

     Available from:

         ftp://ftp.uni-bremen.de/pub/unix/database/Minerva/patches/insert.msql-1.0.9
         (593 bytes)

   * Mathematical updates. You can use statements like:

         update account set balance = balance + 100 where nr = 12345;

     Contributed by Michael Koehne <kraehe@bakunin.north.de>.

     Available from:

         ftp://ftp.uni-bremen.de/pub/unix/database/Minerva/patches/update.msql-1.0.9
         (12677 bytes)

   * You can now use double quotes where quotes are allowed. Contributed by
     Michael Koehne <kraehe@bakunin.north.de>.

     Available from:

         ftp://ftp.uni-bremen.de/pub/unix/database/Minerva/patches/quote.msql-1.0.9
         (1225 bytes)

   * Michael Koehne <kraehe@bakunin.north.de> has bundled his value added
     patches to mSQL, which include the two mentioned above as well as some
     others.

     Michael writes:

         This patch includes the following features :

         - Usage of double quotes for strings. I know this is not ISO
           but a lot of other databases also allow double quotes and
           some of my programs use double quotes.
         - Speedup of regular expression.
         - Simple expressions in update.
         - auto primary key insert.
         - Some bug fixes.

     They are available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://ftp.uni-bremen.de/pub/unix/database/Minerva/features-msql-1.0.16
         (19297 bytes)

     or

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLpatches/features.msql-1.0.16
         (19297 bytes)

   * Case insensitive searching. You can use statements like:

         select name from table where name ilike 'Manu%'

     Contributed by Benjamin Jacquard <jacquard@lix.polytechnique.fr>.

     The patch is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://ftp.geo.tu-freiberg.de/pub/unix/msql/case-insensitive.patch
         (8265 bytes)

   * Martin Schulze <joey@finlandia.Infodrom.North.DE> has modified msqldump
     to let it insert or remove fields while dumping. Using this patch fixes
     the problem where the table definition cannot be modified after filling
     it with data.

     The patch is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://ftp.infodrom.north.de/pub/mirror/msql/Patches/msqldump-1.0.16
         (5275 bytes)

   * Denis Ballant <brdbb@brus.wec.com> has rewritten the acl.c file from
     the mSQL distribution so that it will accept the wild card characters *
     and ? anywhere within an entry. Details of this patch are available
     from the mSQL mailing list archives for the month of August 1996.

   * Robert Sum <sumrn@crd.ge.com> has a patch for mSQL version 1.0.16 that
     will restore the LIKE operation to its former glory - that is you can
     now search for the characters \ and ^.

     Robert writes:

         1.  Adjusted the deletion of backslashes during the mSQL to regexp
             translator code to make treatment of special characters more
             uniform. In other words, all regexp special characters except
             backslash require only two backslashes in front of them to be
             treated normally. (One is stripped by msql or the translator;
             the second by the regexp package.) The backslash character
             requires four backslashes because it is the escape character
             for both the msql monitor and the regexp package. The single
             quote, of course, remains the same needing only one backslash
             because it is special only to mSQL.

             So, you can all now search for \ and ^ and everything else. Or
             so my ever expanding test set tells me.

         2.  The execution of some of the non-LIKE comparison code by the
             NOT LIKE operator is fixed. (This should probably be a
             miniscule performance increase--except that it might be eaten
             by 1.)

     *** src/msql/msqldb.c   1996/11/04 23:13:54     1.1
     --- src/msql/msqldb.c   1996/11/05 01:02:01     1.2
     ***************
     *** 3164,3176 ****
                     switch(*cp1)
                     {
                             case '\\':
     !                               if (*(cp1+1) == '%' || *(cp1+1) == '_')
     !                               {
     !                                       cp1++;
     !                                       *cp2 = *cp1;
                                     }
     -                               cp1++;
     -                               cp2++;
                                     break;

                             case '_':
     --- 3164,3209 ----
                     switch(*cp1)
                     {
                             case '\\':
     !                               /* RNS: The only time that we really want to
     !                                  drop backslashes is when they are escaping
     !                                  either % or _.
     !                                  */
     !                               if (!*(cp1+1)) {
     !
     !                                 /* keep backslash at the end of an expr. */
     !                                 *cp2 = *cp1;
     !                                 *cp1++; *cp2++;
     !
     !                               } else {
     !
     !                                 if ((*(cp1+1) == '%') || (*(cp1+1) == '_')) {
     !
     !                                   /* drop backslash when followed by
     !                                      % or _.
     !                                      */
     !                                   cp1++;
     !                                   *cp2 = *cp1;
     !                                   cp1++; cp2++;
     !
     !                                 } else if (*(cp1+1) == '\\') {
     !
     !                                   /* keep both backslashes when they escape
     !                                      themselves
     !                                      */
     !                                   *cp2 = *cp1;
     !                                   *cp1++; *cp2++;
     !                                   *cp2 = *cp1;
     !                                   *cp1++; *cp2++;
     !
     !                                 } else {
     !
     !                                   /* keep the backslash so it can escape
     !                                      some other regexp character.
     !                                      */
     !                                   *cp2 = *cp1;
     !                                   *cp1++; *cp2++;
     !                                 }
                                     }
                                     break;

                             case '_':
     ***************
     *** 3351,3357 ****
             REG     char    *c1,*c2;
             REG     int     offset;

     !       if (op != LIKE_OP)
             {
                     c1 = v1;
                     c2 = v2;
     --- 3384,3394 ----
             REG     char    *c1,*c2;
             REG     int     offset;

     !       if ((op == LIKE_OP) || (op == NOT_LIKE_OP))
     !       {
     !               cmp = regexpTest( v1, v2, maxLen );
     !       }
     !       else
             {
                     c1 = v1;
                     c2 = v2;
     ***************
     *** 3395,3405 ****
                             break;

                     case LIKE_OP:
     !                       result = regexpTest(v1,v2,maxLen);
                             break;

                     case NOT_LIKE_OP:
     !                       result = !(regexpTest(v1,v2,maxLen));
                             break;
             }
             return(result);
     --- 3432,3442 ----
                             break;

                     case LIKE_OP:
     !                       result = cmp;
                             break;

                     case NOT_LIKE_OP:
     !                       result = !cmp;
                             break;
             }
             return(result);

   * Vivek Khera <khera@kci.kciLink.com> has a patch for increasing the
     number of connections that can be queued by msqld. The patch is
     available from the mSQL mailing list archives for the month of December
     1996.

   * Sascha Kettler <kettler@rummelplatz.uni-mannheim.de> has patched mSQL
     version 1.0.16 such that it supports the Secure Sockets Layer - SSL -
     protocol. The patch is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLSSL/msql-1.0.16-patch.tar.gz
         (7183 bytes)

   * Etienne Klein <etienne@lca.u-nancy.fr> has provided an mmap()
     substitute for NeXTSTEP systems. This code was developed by Fabien Roy
     <Fabien_Roy@free.fdn.fr> and Robert Ehrlich <Robert.Ehrlich@inria.fr>.
     It is presented here in full.

     Etienne writes:

         I just want to share this little patch which solve the mmap problem
         for NeXTSTEP. It apparently works (meaning all msql tests are OK)
         for:

             NSFIP 3.3 p1
             NS Motorola 3.3 p1.
             It does NOT work for HP 3.2

         All other configurations are untested !
         Thanks to the authors Fabien Roy and Robert Ehrlich for this patch !

         Etienne Klein
         Laboratoire de Chimie Analytique
         Faculte de Pharmacie de Nancy
         France

     /*
      * @(#)map.c 1.0 of 20 December 1996
      *
      *      Copyright (c) 1996 by Fabien Roy.
      *      Written by Fabien Roy and       Robert Ehrlich.
      *              Fabien_Roy@free.fdn.fr          Robert.Ehrlich@inria.fr
      *              Not derived from licensed software.
      *
      *      Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any
      *      purpose on any computer system, and to redistribute it freely,
      *      subject to the following restrictions:
      *
      *      1. The author is not responsible for the consequences of use of
      *              this software, no matter how awful, even if they arise
      *              from defects in it.
      *
      *      2. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented, either
      *              by explicit claim or by omission.
      *
      *      3. Altered versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not
      *              be misrepresented as being the original software.
      *
      */
     #include <sys/types.h>
     #include <sys/mman.h>
     #include <stdlib.h>
     #include <syscall.h>


     caddr_t
     mmap(caddr_t addr, size_t len, int prot, int flags, int fd, off_t off)

     {
             int pagelessone = getpagesize() -1;
             int size;
             caddr_t pageaddress;

                     /* round to next page size */
                     size = (len + pagelessone) & ~pagelessone;
                     /* allocate aligned pages */
                     if (!(pageaddress = (caddr_t) valloc(size)))
                             return (caddr_t) -1;
                     /* map it */
                     if (syscall(SYS_mmap, pageaddress, size, prot,
     flags, fd, off)){
                             free(pageaddress);
                             return (caddr_t) -1;
                     }
                     return pageaddress;
     }

     void
     munmap(caddr_t addr, size_t len)
     {
             syscall(SYS_munmap,addr,len);
             free(addr);
     }

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How do I apply patches to the mSQL source?

Patches are distributed as context based difference listings. That is the
line by line differences between the original file and the new file are
listed with surrounding lines of code to provide some context information.
They are usually generated by using a program such as diff.

The easiest way to apply these patches is to use Larry Wall's patch program:

    Patch will take a patch file containing any of the four forms of
    difference listing produced by the diff program and apply those
    differences to an original file, producing a patched version. By
    default, the patched version is put in place of the original, with
    the original file backed up to the same name with the extension
    ".orig".

Patch is available from a number of anonymous ftp sites worldwide. Latest
versions of patch are being distributed by the Free Software Foundation as
part of the GNU suite of products.

If you're having difficulty finding the latest version of patch, you can
download version 2.1 via anonymous ftp from:

    ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Misc/patch-2.1.tar.gz
    (74856 bytes)

While some patches are fairly simple - often involving minor changes to a
single line of code - others are quite complex and attempting to apply these
patches by hand is definitely NOT recommended. Use the patch program
whenever you need to apply a patch.

To apply the patches listed in this FAQ, use this procedure:

  1. Save the patch to a file - say /tmp/msql-patch1. Only save the patch
     information - the patch program can usually determine which parts of
     the file are patches and which parts are not but its easier for you to
     strip out any unnecessary information before running patch.

     You should be left with a file containing a number of sections similar
     to:

     *** ./src/msql/net.c.orig       Tue Oct 17 11:24:03 1995
     --- ./src/msql/net.c    Tue Dec 12 15:24:11 1995
     ***************
     *** 66,72 ****



     ! void writePkt(fd)
             int     fd;
       {
             u_char  *cp;
     --- 66,72 ----



     ! int writePkt(fd)
             int     fd;
       {
             u_char  *cp;

  2. Change directories to your mSQL source repository. For example:

         cd /usr/local/src/db/Minerva/msql/msql-1.0.16

  3. Apply the patch as follows:

         patch -l < /tmp/msql-patch1

     The "-l" option is used to tell patch to ignore any whitespace
     mismatches between lines in the patch file and lines in the mSQL source
     file. (That's an "el", NOT a "one" or an "eye").

     Patch will respond with output similar to:

         Hmm...  Looks like a new-style context diff to me...
         The text leading up to this was:
         --------------------------
         |*** ./src/msql/net.c.orig        Tue Oct 17 11:24:03 1995
         |--- ./src/msql/net.c     Tue Dec 12 15:24:11 1995
         --------------------------
         Patching file ./src/msql/net.c using Plan A...
         Hunk #1 succeeded at 66.
         Hunk #2 succeeded at 84.
         done

     If you have problems applying the patch, you may wish to consider using
     some or all of the following arguments to patch:

        o -b

          forces patch to create a backup of the original file. By default
          it adds a .orig suffix to the original filename.

        o -N

          forces patch to ignore patches that it thinks are reversed or
          already applied.

        o -p0 (That's a "zero", NOT an "oh").

          forces patch to honour the full pathname of the files listed in
          the patch file.

  4. Recompile mSQL. If you have third party applications that use the mSQL
     library, you'll probably have to recompile them as well.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is online documentation available?

A set of WWW pages for mSQL, W3-mSQL, ESL and Minerva are now available from

    http://Hughes.com.au

Jeff Rowe <beowulf@cscsun4.larc.nasa.gov> has converted the mSQL
documentation to HTML format. It is available from:

    http://cscsun1.larc.nasa.gov/~beowulf/msql/msql.html

Tim Finin <finin@umbc.edu> has created an online mSQL tutorial. It is
available from:

    http://www.cs.umbc.edu/~finin/461/msql

Mike Carpenter <mikec@emi.net> has begun to collate the available mSQL
documentation into a single site. He hopes to have a wide range of resources
available for value added mSQL products such as the Perl and Java
interfaces. His work can be found at:

    http://www.emi.net/~mikec/tech/msql.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is there a mailing list for mSQL?

Yes.

To subscribe to the list, send the word "subscribe" in the body of your
message to msql-list-request@bunyip.com.

To unsubscribe from the list send the word "unsubscribe" in the body of your
message to msql-list-request@bunyip.com.

Postings should be addressed to msql-list@bunyip.com.

Archives of the mailing list are available via anonymous ftp from:

    ftp://ftp.bunyip.com/pub/mailing-lists/msql-list.archive/

Each month's archive is stored in a file:

    msql-list.archive.YYMM

where YYMM represents the year and month. So the archive for October 1995
would be in the file:

    msql-list.archive.9510

These files are also available from the majordomo mailing list server at
bunyip.com. To receive a list of the archive files available as well as the
majordomo help file send a message to majordomo@bunyip.com with the text:

    index msql-list
    help
    END

in the body of the message.

To reach a human for help regarding the mailing list send a note to:

    owner-msql-list@bunyip.com

or

    listmaster@bunyip.com

The mailing list discusses issues that arise from the use of mSQL and
W3-mSQL (both products developed by David Hughes). Often discussions on
contributed software arise but it is probably best to take these discussions
off line and summarise solutions back to the list.

Traffic on the list is fairly high. There were approximately 1100 postings
between April 1 1996 and May 31 1996 which gives an average of around 550
messages per month. (If you think this is high, try subscribing to the
firewalls list - this has an average of around 1000 postings per month!)

Turn around times for postings can sometimes be a little slow. It is not
unusual for messages sent from Australia to take a few hours to appear on
the list. List subscribers from other countries have also reported similar
turn around times. Please be patient.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is there a mailing list digest for mSQL?

Yes. To subscribe to the list digest, send the words "subscribe
msql-list-digest" in the body of your message to majordomo@bunyip.com.

To unsubscribe from the list digest send the words "unsubscribe
msql-list-digest" in the body of your message to majordomo@bunyip.com.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are there any HTML archives of the mSQL mailing list?

A number of sites have set up a web based archive of the mSQL mailing list
(among others). Their locations and features are summarised below:

                    Archive Location                          Features

 http://tacyon.spectrum.com.au/mail/msql                  Threaded archive,
 (Thanks to Matt Perkins <matt@spectrum.com.au>).         list archive, old
                                                          list archives.

                                                          Threaded archive,
 http://cure.medinfo.org/lists/programming/index.html     browse current
 (Thanks to the folks at Medinfo                          month, search
 http://cure.medinfo.org).                                list archive.
                                                          Currently
                                                          Unavailable.

 http://www.nexial.nl/cgi-bin/msql                        Fuzzy searchable
 (Thanks to Kim Hendrikse <kim@nexial.nl>).               archive.

                                                          Listed by subject
 http://www.findmail.com/listsaver/msql-list              thread, date or
 (Thanks to FindMail Communications                       author. Archives
 http://www.findmail.com).                                from October
                                                          1995.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is there a news group for mSQL?

No.

This question comes up about every three months or so - usually from new
subscribers to the mSQL mailing list who haven't seen the previous threads.

There seem to be two distinct groups of people involved in this discussion:

  1. Those who prefer the mailing list.

        o News turn around times can be horrendously slow. It is not
          uncommon for messages to appear in Australia up to seven (7) days
          after they were originally posted. Considering that mSQL is
          developed and supported in Australia, a news group would pose an
          unacceptable delay in providing support for mSQL.

        o The mailing list is well established and even if a news group were
          created, the mailing list would still live on. Creation of a news
          group would mean that users would need to track both forums in
          order to keep abreast of current developments in mSQL.

        o Newsgroup messages expire - if you happen to be away for an
          extended period you run the risk of losing valuable information
          that may have expired while you were away.

        o News groups are often subject to "spamming" whereas mailing lists
          are less vulnerable.

        o Signal to noise ratios on news groups tend to be lower than
          mailing lists (even when instances of "spamming" are discounted).

        o Not everyone who subscribes to the mSQL mailing list has a news
          feed. Establishment of a news group would immediately isolate
          those mSQL users from any discussions carried out within the news
          group.

        o Not everyone has access to a full news feed. Some people have
          difficulty in obtaining permission to receive new news groups.
          Establishment of a news group would immediately isolate those mSQL
          users from any discussions carried out within the news group.

  2. Those who would prefer a news group.

        o A news group allows mSQL related messages to be isolated from
          other messages. This can be resolved by using mail filtering or
          threaded mail readers. Examples of mail filtering include procmail
          and filter (which is distributed with the Elm mail reader).
          Release 2.x and above of the Netscape Navigator includes a
          threaded mail reader.

        o The volume of messages on the mSQL list is increasing, making it
          difficult to keep track of threads. This can be alleviated using
          the methods described above.

        o It is often more cost effective for some users to receive blocks
          of news rather than individual mail messages. Similar behaviour
          can be achieved by subscribing to the mSQL mailing list digest.

While opinion is divided among these camps, the dominant force at present is
for the mailing list to continue without the establishment of a global
newsgroup. However, this does not preclude you from setting up a local
news/mail gateway such that incoming mail items are sent to a local
newsgroup at your site and outgoing news postings are sent to the mailing
list. Consult your nntp documentation for more details.

Nor does it preclude you from establishing a global news group. There are
well defined channels established within the Usenet community for the
creation of new news groups.

One publicly available mail/news gateway is available via anonymous ftp
from:

    ftp://ftp.vix.com/pub/inn/contrib/newsgate.tar.Z
    (443025 bytes)

It includes the programs mail2news and news2mail.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How do I post a question to the mSQL mailing list?

Before you post a question to the mSQL mailing list, read the manual that
came with the mSQL distribution as well as the rest of this FAQ. Also, ask
yourself the following question:

    Is there any way I can find the answer to this question myself?

If you can figure out a way to simply find the answer, then it will probably
be quicker than asking the list. If you think your answer would be helpful
to others then post a summary to the mailing list.

Postings should be addressed to msql-list@bunyip.com.

IF YOU POST A QUESTION TO THE LIST ASKING FOR HELP, YOU MUST INCLUDE THE
FOLLOWING INFORMATION!

  1. The operating system you are using - for example Solaris 2.4 or Linux
     1.3.1. On Unix like systems, this can usually be obtained by running
     the command:

         uname -a

  2. The processor type - for example sparc, Intel 386, HP PA-RISC, mc68020.
     Often the same operating system may run on different processors.

  3. The output of the command:

         msqladmin version

  4. Which, if any, unofficial patches you have applied to the version of
     mSQL you're using.

  5. The name and version details of any third party application you are
     using with mSQL.

Failure to include these details makes it almost impossible to pinpoint the
cause of your problem.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've found a bug. How can I tell if it's been fixed yet?

The status of the development is reflected in the HISTORY file. An on-line
copy of the HISTORY file is kept on the Hughes Technology web pages. This
file is updated as each modification is made to the sources. Any bugs that
have been fixed in the code since it was last release will be mentioned in
the on-line release history information. You can access this file on the web
as:

    http://Hughes.com.au/product/msql/history.htm


----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How do I report a bug in mSQL?

The first thing to remember is that you should NOT mail David Hughes (aka
Bambi) directly with your questions - this just makes the process slower.
Any questions you have should be sent to the mSQL mailing list.

If you want to report a bug, send a report to the mSQL bug reporting address
at msql-bugs@hughes.com.au. You may also wish to copy your report to the
mSQL mailing list at msql-list@bunyip.com.

When making your bug report, please include the following information:

   * the operating system and version - for example Solaris 2.4 or HP-UX
     9.05
   * the processor you are using - for example sparc or Intel 486
   * include the output of "msqladmin version"
   * which, if any, unofficial patches you have applied to the version of
     mSQL you're using
   * include a dump of a test database using msqldump
   * include an mSQL script that will show the bug

You should also ensure that you are running the latest (stable) version of
mSQL before posting a bug report as David fixes bugs in every version.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How do I contribute a patch to mSQL?

Following this procedure will standardise the manner in which unofficial
mSQL patches are distributed to the mSQL user community.

  1. Ensure that you are patching the latest version of mSQL.

  2. Ensure that you have applied any necessary unofficial recommended
     patches to the latest version.

  3. Make your changes to the "src" hierarchy of mSQL. For example, if you
     need to patch the file:

         msqld.c

     Save the original file as follows:

         cp ./src/msql/msqld.c ./src/msql/msqld.c.orig

     Make your changes to the file:

         ./src/msql/msqld.c

  4. Test, double test and triple test your patch to make sure it REALLY
     fixes a problem.

  5. Generate a difference listing suitable for use by Larry Wall's patch
     program:

         diff -c ./src/msql/msqld.c.orig ./src/msql/msqld.c

  6. Post this difference listing and an explanation of the patch to the
     mSQL mailing list.

If at all possible, try to avoid posting 'monster' patches. If your patch
modifies a number of separate aspects of mSQL, split each of these into
different patches. This makes it easier for people to apply feature specific
patches to mSQL while avoiding unwanted feature patches.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How do I contribute code to the mSQL community?

Contributed code can be uploaded to the ftp server at Bond University
Australia. Place your code in the directory:

    ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Incoming

then notify David at <bambi@hughes.com.au>. He will move your contribution
to the mSQL contributions directory:

    ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib

Note: The directory permissions for
ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Incoming prohibit the viewing of any
files contained therein. This is a security feature implemented by the
system administration staff at Bond University to eliminate recent attempts
to use the ftp server as a relay for the unauthorised transfer of commercial
software. If you upload any software to this directory, you must notify
<bambi@hughes.com.au> to have it moved to
ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib.

You may like to discuss your proposed code with others on the mSQL mailing
list. The subscribers to this list may be able to help you with improvements
or modifications to your code or advise you of work already available in
your area.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Where can I find examples of code that interface with mSQL?

If you're writing code in the C programming language, examine the mSQL
distribution itself. All the auxiliary programs use the mSQL API in a
variety of ways. Pay particular attention to:

   * ./src/msql/msql.c
   * ./src/msql/relshow.c
   * ./src/msql/msqldump.c
   * ./src/msql/msqladmin.c

If you're writing code in other languages, have a look through the
distribution of the mSQL language extension itself for examples. Another
good place to look is the mSQL mailing list archives.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are there any non Unix ports of mSQL?

Both mSQL version 1.x and 2.x have been ported to a few other operating
systems - namely MS Windows, MS Windows 95, MS Windows NT and OS/2. For more
details on these ports and any other ports, please see the "Contributed Code
and Third Party Applications" section of this FAQ.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
          ---------------------------------------------------------

                          Features and Limitations

What support programs are bundled with mSQL?

mSQL is bundled with the following programs:

                     Support Programs bundled with mSQL
                                 version 1.x

                      msqld   the mSQL database server.

                              handles administrative
                              details such as creation
                    msqladmin and deletion of
                              databases, server
                              shutdown etc.

                              the mSQL monitor. It
                       msql   provides a user interface
                              for making SQL queries on
                              databases.

                              Dumps a database in ASCII
                              format. The dump takes
                              the form of SQL commands
                     msqldump so that the entire
                              database can be
                              re-created from the dump
                              file.

                              The mSQL schema viewer.
                     relshow  Shows table details for a
                              given database.

                     Support Programs bundled with mSQL
                                 version 2.x

                      msql2d   the mSQL database
                               server.

                               handles administrative
                               details such as creation
                     msqladmin and deletion of
                               databases, server
                               shutdown etc.

                               the mSQL monitor. It
                       msql    provides a user
                               interface for making SQL
                               queries on databases.

                               Dumps a database in
                               ASCII format. The dump
                               takes the form of SQL
                     msqldump  commands so that the
                               entire database can be
                               re-created from the dump
                               file.

                               Dumps a database in
                               ASCII format. The dump
                               takes the form of user
                    msqlexport defined character
                               delimited fields
                               suitable for importing
                               into other vendor's
                               databases.

                               Loads a flat file in
                    msqlimport ASCII format into an
                               mSQL database.

                               The mSQL schema viewer.
                      relshow  Shows table details for
                               a given database.

                               CGI program that allows
                      w3-msql  users to embed mSQL
                               statements in their HTML
                               documents.

                               Access control and
                      w3-auth  authentication module
                               for use with w3-msql

                       lite    A stand alone mSQL
                               scripting language.

For more details on these programs see the documentation that comes with
mSQL.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

What SQL commands are supported?

mSQL version 1.x supports the following SQL commands:

                              mSQL version 1.x

  CREATE TABLE table_name (
      col_name col_type [ not null | primary key ]
      [, col_name col_type [ not null | primary key ] ]**
  )

  DROP TABLE table_name

  INSERT INTO table_name [ ( column [ , column ]** ) ]
      VALUES (value [, value]** )

  DELETE FROM table_name
      WHERE column OPERATOR value
      [ AND | OR column OPERATOR value ]**

          OPERATOR can be <, >, =, <=, >=, <>, or LIKE

  SELECT [ DISTINCT ] [table.]column [ , [table.]column ]**
      FROM table [ = alias] [ , table [ = alias] ]**
      [ WHERE [table.]column OPERATOR VALUE
          [ AND | OR [table.]column OPERATOR VALUE]** ]
      [ ORDER BY [table.]column [DESC] [, [table.]column [DESC] ] [LIMIT n]

          OPERATOR can be <, >, =, <=, >=, <>, or LIKE
          VALUE can be a literal value or a column name

  UPDATE table_name SET column=value [ , column=value ]**
      WHERE column OPERATOR value
      [ AND | OR column OPERATOR value ]**

          OPERATOR can be <, >, =, <=, >=, <>, or LIKE

For more details see the documentation that comes with mSQL version 1.x.

mSQL version 2.x supports the following SQL commands:

                              mSQL version 2.x

  CREATE TABLE table_name (
      col_name col_type [ not null ]
      [, col_name col_type [ not null ] ]**
  )

  CREATE [ UNIQUE ] INDEX index_name ON table_name  (
      col_name [, col_name ]**
  )

  CREATE SEQUENCE ON table_name
      [ STEP step_val ] [ VALUE initial_val ]

  DROP TABLE table_name

  DROP INDEX index_name FROM table_name

  DROP SEQUENCE FROM table_name

  INSERT INTO table_name [ ( column [ , column ]** ) ]
      VALUES (value [, value]** )

  DELETE FROM table_name
      WHERE column OPERATOR value
      [ AND | OR column OPERATOR value ]**

          OPERATOR can be <, >, =, <=, >=, <>, LIKE, RLIKE or CLIKE

  SELECT [ DISTINCT ] [table.]column [ , [table.]column ]**
      FROM table [ = alias] [ , table [ = alias] ]**
      [ WHERE [table.]column OPERATOR VALUE
          [ AND | OR [table.]column OPERATOR VALUE]** ]
      [ ORDER BY [table.]column [DESC] [, [table.]column [DESC] ] [LIMIT n]

          OPERATOR can be <, >, =, <=, >=, <>, LIKE, RLIKE or CLIKE
          VALUE can be a literal value or a column name
          WHERE clauses may contain parentheses () to nest conditions

  UPDATE table_name SET column=value [ , column=value ]**
      WHERE column OPERATOR value
      [ AND | OR column OPERATOR value ]**

          OPERATOR can be <, >, =, <=, >=, <>, LIKE, RLIKE or CLIKE

For more details see the documentation that comes with mSQL version 2.x.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does mSQL support keys?

Yes.

Under mSQL version 1.x any single field of a table can be designated as the
PRIMARY KEY. These keys are, by definition, unique. mSQL version 1.x does
not support multiple keys within a table.

The creation of a PRIMARY KEY is made during the table declaration, for
example:

    CREATE TABLE employee (
        employee_number         INT PRIMARY KEY,
        department              CHAR(20),
        first_name              CHAR(20) NON NULL,
        last_name               CHAR(20) NON NULL
    )

    CREATE TABLE department (
        department_name         CHAR(20) PRIMARY KEY
    )

For more details see the documentation that comes with mSQL version 1.x.

mSQL version 2.x has disposed of the PRIMARY KEY in favour of an indexing
mechanism.

An INDEX may be created for any field of a table at any time, for example:

    CREATE UNIQUE INDEX idx1 ON employee(employee_number)
    CREATE INDEX idx2 ON employee(first_name, last_name)

This examples shows that the first INDEX, idx1, is unique. This is identical
to the PRIMARY KEY concept used by mSQL version 1.x. The second INDEX, idx2,
need not be unique. idx2 also spans two fields within a table which will
improve performance whenever a search is made based on these two fields.

These indices will be used automatically whenever a query is sent to the
database engine that uses those fields in its WHERE clause. The user is not
required to specify any special values in the query to ensure the indices
are used to increase performance.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

What datatypes are supported?

mSQL version 1.x supports the following datatypes:

    int         (4 bytes)       -2147483646 <= i <= 2147483647
    real        (8 bytes)       4.94E-324 <= x <= 1.79E+308, -1.79E+308 <= x <= -4.94E-324
    char

The internal storage for types int and real is held at 4 bytes and 8 bytes
respectively, regardless of the system architecture you're using. So even on
64 bit Crays a real will be 8 bytes.

There is NO fixed limit on the size of a character field. Provided you
declare it correctly when the table is defined, mSQL will handle fields of
at least several thousand characters without problems. You may run into
difficulty actually using fields of this size in whatever language you
choose to interface to the mSQL database engine.

Note: If you declare a char field with a large size, each and every row in
the table will allocate sufficient storage space for the char field -
whether the full size of the field is used or not. This may lead to very
large database tables indeed.

An example of each mSQL version 1.x datatype within a table declaration
follows:

    CREATE TABLE table_name (
            field_name_1        INT PRIMARY KEY,
            field_name_2        REAL,
            field_name_3        CHAR(10) NOT NULL,
            field_name_4        CHAR(80),
            field_name_5        INT     NOT NULL,
            field_name_6        REAL
        )

For more details see the documentation that comes with mSQL version 1.x.

mSQL version 2.x supports the following datatypes:

    int         (4 bytes)       -2147483646 <= i <= 2147483647
    uint        (4 bytes)       0 <= i <= 4294967295
    real        (8 bytes)       4.94E-324 <= x <= 1.79E+308, -1.79E+308 <= x <= -4.94E-324
    char
    text
    date                        dd-mon-yy, for example 12-May-97
    time
    money

The internal storage for types int/uint and real is held at 4 bytes and 8
bytes respectively, regardless of the system architecture you're using. So
even on 64 bit Crays a real will be 8 bytes.

There is NO fixed limit on the size of a character field. Provided you
declare it correctly when the table is defined, mSQL will handle fields of
at least several thousand characters without problems. You may run into
difficulty actually using fields of this size in whatever language you
choose to interface to the mSQL database engine.

Note: If you declare a char field with a large size, each and every row in
the table will allocate sufficient storage space for the char field -
whether the full size of the field is used or not. This may lead to very
large database tables indeed.

text (or other 8 bit data) fields are defined with an expected average
length. Values longer than the specified length will be split between the
data table and external overflow buffers. text fields are slower to access
than char fields and cannot be used in an index or in LIKE tests.

An example of each mSQL version 2.x datatype within a table declaration
follows:

    CREATE TABLE table_name (
            field_name_1                INT,
            field_name_2                REAL,
            field_name_3                CHAR(10)        NOT NULL,
            field_name_4                CHAR(80),
            field_name_5                INT             NOT NULL,
            field_name_6                REAL,
            field_name_7                TEXT(25),
            field_name_8                DATE,
            field_name_9                UINT,
            field_name_10               TIME,
            field_name_11               MONEY
        )

Note: The storage of real numbers is highly machine dependent. If you store
the number 10.03 don't be surprised if it is actually stored as either 10.03
or 10.03000000001 or 10.02999999999.

Note: The upper and lower limits for real numbers are also highly machine
dependent. Both mSQL version 1.x and 2.x obtain these values from the system
include file:

    /usr/include/limits.h

If you plan on storing very big numbers (positive or negative numbers with
exponents approaching 308) or very small numbers (positive or negative
numbers with exponents approaching -324) you MUST check whether your
operating system will support them.

Note: When dealing with real numbers it might be advisable to either convert
the real number to an integer if possible. For example if you are dealing
with decimal currency, it may be preferable to work in units of cents rather
than dollars - note that mSQL 2.x now has a MONEY type which handles this
concept - or to perform some sort of delta check when retrieving values. The
following logic demonstrates one possible application of this concept:

    delta = 0.00001
    select a real number from a table

    if abs(number - expected value) < delta
    then
        proceed
    else
        fail

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

What functions does the mSQL API provide?

The mSQL API provides the following functions and macros:

                              mSQL version 1.x

      Return Type                  Prototype                    Type

      int          msqlConnect(char *host);                   FUNCTION

      int          msqlSelectDB(int sock, char *dbname);      FUNCTION

      int          msqlQuery(int sock, char *query);          FUNCTION

      m_result *   msqlStoreResult();                         FUNCTION

      void         msqlFreeResult(m_result *result);          FUNCTION

      m_row        msqlFetchRow(m_result *result);            FUNCTION

      void         msqlDataSeek(m_result *result, int pos);   FUNCTION

      int          msqlNumRows(m_result *result);              MACRO

      m_field *    msqlFetchField(m_result *result);          FUNCTION

      void         msqlFieldSeek(m_result *result, int pos);  FUNCTION

      int          msqlNumFields(m_result *result);            MACRO

      m_result *   msqlListDBs(int sock);                     FUNCTION

      m_result *   msqlListTables(int sock);                  FUNCTION

      m_result *   msqlListFields(int sock, char *tableName); FUNCTION

      void         msqlClose(int sock);                       FUNCTION

For more details see the documentation that comes with mSQL version 1.x.

Note: The PostScript documentation that comes with mSQL version 1.x lists
the function msqlClose() as type int. This is incorrect. It is actually type
void.

                              mSQL version 2.x

 Return Type                       Prototype                         Type

 int         msqlConnect(char *host);                              FUNCTION

 int         msqlSelectDB(int sock, char *dbname);                 FUNCTION

 int         msqlQuery(int sock, char *query);                     FUNCTION

 m_result *  msqlStoreResult();                                    FUNCTION

 void        msqlFreeResult(m_result *result);                     FUNCTION

 m_row       msqlFetchRow(m_result *result);                       FUNCTION

 void        msqlDataSeek(m_result *result, int pos);              FUNCTION

 int         msqlNumRows(m_result *result);                          MACRO

 m_field *   msqlFetchField(m_result *result);                     FUNCTION

 void        msqlFieldSeek(m_result *result, int pos);             FUNCTION

 int         msqlNumFields(m_result *result);                        MACRO

 m_seq *     msqlGetSequenceInfo(int sock, char *table);           FUNCTION

 m_result *  msqlListDBs(int sock);                                FUNCTION

 m_result *  msqlListTables(int sock);                             FUNCTION

 m_result *  msqlListFields(int sock, char *tableName);            FUNCTION

 m_result *  msqlListIndex(int sock, char *tableName, char         FUNCTION
             *index);

 void        msqlClose(int sock);                                  FUNCTION

 char        msqlUnixTimeToDate(char *date);                       FUNCTION

 char        msqlUnixTimeToTime(char *date);                       FUNCTION

 time_t      msqlDateToUnixTime(char *date);                       FUNCTION

 time_t      msqlTimeToUnixTime(char *date);                       FUNCTION

For more details see the documentation that comes with mSQL version 2.x.

Note: The HTML documentation that comes with mSQL version 2.x lists the
function msqlClose() as type int. This is incorrect. It is actually type
void.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are views or virtual tables supported?

No.

This feature may be included in mSQL version 2.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does mSQL support table aliasing?

Yes.

As an example, consider this method to find the list of grandparents from a
child/parent tuple:

    SELECT t1.parent, t2.child from parent_data=t1,parent_data=t2
        WHERE t1.child=t2.parent

mSQL also supports the SQL standard method of table aliasing which uses
either a space character or the keyword AS instead of an = character. So the
above example can also be written as either:

    SELECT t1.parent, t2.child from parent_data t1,parent_data t2
        WHERE t1.child=t2.parent

or

    SELECT t1.parent, t2.child from parent_data AS t1,parent_data AS t2
        WHERE t1.child=t2.parent

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are column constraints supported?

No.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are stored procedures supported?

No - that's getting beyond the scope of Mini SQL (see Oracle :)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are access privileges supported?

Yes.

mSQL has an access control file which allows the database administrator to
control access on a user and host level.

For more details see the documentation that comes with mSQL.

mSQL does not support access control from within SQL commands.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does mSQL support BLOBs?

BLOBs are Binary Large OBjects. Typical examples would be large blocks of
text, graphics or audio data.

The current release of mSQL has NO direct support for BLOBs. However, you
can always store the path name of a file that points to the BLOB in one of
the fields of your table. Then your application can deal with the file name
appropriately.

If you're dealing with large blocks of text, you may also wish to consider
this approach from Pascal Forget <pascal@wsc.com>:

    Another possible hack would be to have the "block_text"
    record contain a pointer to a "text_lines" table. This
    table would contain a linked list of text lines like this:

        CREATE TABLE text_lines (
            line_id     int primary key,
            string      char(80),
            next_line   int
        )

Mike Eggleston <mikee@sys8.wfc.com> offers this solution:

    What I prefer to do in databases where I have text fields containing
    near infinite amounts of text is to define several tables like:

        create table prog (
          id int,
          name char(40),
          programmer char(40),
          ....
        )\p\g

        create table descript (
          id int,
          line int,
          descript char(100)
        )\p\g

    Then in a program I break up the text as necessary and put one line
    of text in each record of <descript>. When I want it back, by
    program, I [use]

        select line, descript from prog, descript
            where prog.id = descript.id
            and name = 'foobar' order by line\p\g

Later versions of mSQL may have support for BLOBs.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are the transaction commands, BEGIN, COMMIT, and ROLLBACK supported?

No, and they will probably never be supported (once again that's beyond the
scope of mSQL).

The mSQL server handles requests serially - that is only one user's request
is handled at a time. Therefore there is no danger of a user reading from a
table that is currently being updated by another user.

However, there is the possibility that the same read operations may straddle
another user's write operation so that different data will be returned from
each read.

mSQL version 2 will provide client initiated locking.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

What are the limits on table and field names?

A table or field name MUST begin with an alphabetic character. The remainder
of the name may be any of the following 63 characters:

   * A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
   * a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
   * 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
   * _ (that's an "underbar" NOT a "dash")

The maximum name length is set to 20 characters. That's for a table or a
field in a table. This allows for 813621925049196536663393538834956800
possible naming combinations using the characters listed above. For the
mathematically inclined that's:

           19
         -----
         \
          \        i
   52 *   /      63   =   813621925049196536663393538834956800
         /
         -----
         i = 0

Though in practise, many of these combinations will probably remain unused.

While not recommended, the default maximum name length value of 20 can be
changed by editing the mSQL source code. However, if you change it AFTER you
have already created ANY databases, the old databases will be unreadable. To
avoid this problem, follow this procedure:

  1. Dump your old databases to ASCII files using msqldump.

  2. Drop your old databases using msqladmin.

  3. Shutdown the mSQL database server msqld using msqladmin.

  4. Edit the mSQL source and modify

         ./src/msql/msql_priv.h

     Change the line reading

         #define NAME_LEN    19              /* Field/table name length */

     to suit your needs. Ensure that you use a number that is one less than
     the maximum value you desire. For example, if you wish to have a name
     length of 36 you would change the line to read:

         #define NAME_LEN    35              /* Field/table name length */

  5. Recompile and install the modified mSQL.

  6. Start the new mSQL database server msqld.

  7. Create new databases using msqladmin.

  8. Repopulate your databases using msql and the ASCII dumps from step 1.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

What other limits can be modified?

The file

    ./src/msql/msql_priv.h

contains the definitions of the internal mSQL limits:

    #define MAX_FIELDS  75              /* Max fields per query */
    #define MAX_CON     24              /* Max connections */
    #define BUF_SIZE    (256*1024)      /* Read buf size if no mmap() */
    #define NAME_LEN    19              /* Field/table name length */
    #define PKT_LEN     (32*1024)       /* Max size of client/server packet */
    #define CACHE_SIZE  8               /* Size of table cache */

If you want to increase them you can just edit this file and recompile.
Don't change MAX_CON or CACHE_SIZE without understanding why these limits
are set (maximum file descriptors per process etc).

Changing any of these parameters will almost certainly make any existing
databases unreadable. To avoid this problem, follow this procedure:

  1. Dump your old databases to ASCII files using msqldump.

  2. Drop your old databases using msqladmin.

  3. Shutdown the mSQL database server msqld using msqladmin.

  4. Edit the mSQL source and modify

         ./src/msql/msql_priv.h

     changing the definitions to suit your needs.

  5. Recompile and install the modified mSQL.

  6. Start the new mSQL database server msqld.

  7. Create new databases using msqladmin.

  8. Repopulate your databases using msql and the ASCII dumps from step 1.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How much data can mSQL address?

mSQL can theoretically address tables with a maximum size of 4 gigabytes. In
practise you'll probably run up against operating system limitations well
before this theoretical limit.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are there any limitations in the way mSQL handles logical expressions?

mSQL version 1.x has a very simplistic approach to logical expressions.

Consider the SQL query:

    SELECT something from somewhere WHERE
        name='jan' or country='italy' and sex='female' or title='ms'

Under mSQL version 1.x, the parser will scan the condition from left to
right. So in this example the condition reads:

    ((name='jan' or country='italy') and sex='female') or title='ms'

mSQL version 1.x does NOT support parentheses in logical expressions, so
there is NO way to change this parsing.

Ted Harding <Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> provides some solutions for three
component queries.

Ted writes:

    Let's get something clear: ALL 3-component (or equivalent) queries
    can be implemented in mSQL (without parentheses and using the mSQL
    left-to-right evaluation). There are only the following:

            (A and B) and C  =  A and (B and C)  =  A and B and C
            (A or B) or C    =  A or (B or C)    =  A or B or C
            (A and B) or C   =  A and B or C
            A and (B or C)   =  (B or C) and A   =  B or C and A
            (A or B) and C   =  A or B and C
            A or (B and C)   =  (B and C) or A   =  B and C or A

    Queries like A and B and C and (E or F) are the same as (A and B
    and C) and (E or F) which is the same form as G and (E or F).

    The trouble starts with 4-component queries such as (A or B) and (C
    or D) for which there is no one-pass generally correct mSQL
    representation.

mSQL version 2.x allows parentheses within logical expressions so this
limitation is eliminated.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How does mSQL return values?

mSQL returns all values as ASCII strings. If, for example, you are expecting
an integer result you may have to do some internal conversions depending on
the language you're using.

In C, for example, see the manual pages on atoi().

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How does SELECT return rows?

On Tue, 4 Jul 1995, Karri-Pekka Laakso wrote:

    Does SELECT return the rows always in order 'first inserted first',
    if there is no ORDER statement given, and the rows are selected
    from one table only, and there has been no DELETEs on that table?
    It seems be so, but is it guaranteed?

David Hughes replied:

    This is guaranteed. The only time the rows will be returned in
    another order is if you have deleted a row and it's then filled by
    a later insert.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Can mSQL nest tables?

On Tue, 25 Jul 1995, Jerome Stoller wrote:

    I am new at mSQL, and have a beginner question: Is it possible to
    create a table "normally", and to have the fields of one
    of the column being[sic] another table?

David Hughes replied:

    You can't nest tables in mSQL (don't think you can in ANSI SQL
    either). What you can do is to use a common value as a key to join
    the contents of two tables (eg. a part number or a user ID).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

What storage overheads does mSQL have?

mSQL stores each database in its own directory under the 'msqldb' directory
of wherever you specified mSQL should be installed. For example if you
specified that mSQL should be installed in:

    /usr/local/Minerva/

then the databases will be created in the directory:

    /usr/local/Minerva/msqldb/

Note that this can be overridden by specifying the MSQL_HOME environment
variable when starting msqld.

Each table in the database is stored as a number of files:

   * dbname/table.dat - table data. This file contains the data for all the
     rows in the table.

     For each field in a table, mSQL will also store an additional flag
     byte. mSQL also stores an additional flag byte for each row of the
     table.

     Consider the following table:

         CREATE TABLE test (
             f0      char(13),
             f1      int,
             f2      real,
             f3      real,
             f4      real,
             f5      real,
             f6      int
         )

     Storage space for each row of this table would be:

         (13 * char) + (2 * int) + (4 * double) + (7 * fields) + (1 * rows)
             =  (13 * 1) + (2 * 4) + (4 * 8) + (7 * 1) + 1
             =  61 bytes

     So if this table had 1000 records, it would occupy 61000 bytes of disk
     space. (In reality it may occupy slightly more real disk space because
     of the way the underlying file system behaves. This is operating system
     specific and not really an issue to worry about. If you do an 'ls -l'
     on the file it will show 61000 bytes).

   * dbname/table.key - table keys. This file will only exist if the table
     has a primary key. It contains the key pointers into the table data
     file.

     The size of this file will be the size of the key plus one flag byte
     times the number of rows in the table. In the above example, if the
     table was defined as:

         CREATE TABLE test (
             f0      char(13) primary key,
             f1      int,
             f2      real,
             f3      real,
             f4      real,
             f5      real,
             f6      int
         )

     and the table had 1000 rows, the size of the data file would still be
     61000 bytes and the size of the key file would be:

         ((13 * char) + 1) * 1000
             =  ((13 * 1) + 1) * 1000
             =  14 * 1000
             =  14000 bytes

   * dbname/table.def - table definition. This file contains the table
     structure definition.

     Each field in the table has a 64 byte definition. Using the example
     above, the table has 7 fields so the size of the definition file will
     be:

         7 * 64  =  448 bytes

   * dbname/table.stk - table stack. This file keeps track of the holes or
     empty rows in the table.

     For every hole in the table, this file will contain a 4 byte integer
     indicating the row number of the hole. It is accessed like a stack.
     When a row is deleted, it's index is appended to the file. When an
     insert is done, the last 4 bytes are "popped" off the file and the file
     is truncated back 4 bytes.

     If the table contains 20 holes, the size of the stack file will be:

         20 * 4  =  80 bytes

     If the table contains no holes then this file will have zero length.

Therefore to calculate the storage requirements for a table, use one of the
following formulae:

Tables with a primary key:

         table_storage_requirements
             =  expected_max_rows *
                 (
                     number_of_fields + 1 + total_chars +
                     (4 * total_ints) + (8 * total_reals) +
                     (size_of_key + 1) +
                     (4 * expected_deletion_ratio)
                 ) +
             (total_fields * 64)

Tables without a primary key:

         table_storage_requirements
             =  expected_max_rows *
                 (
                     number_of_fields + 1 + total_chars +
                     (4 * total_ints) + (8 * total_reals) +
                     (4 * expected_deletion_ratio)
                 ) +
             (total_fields * 64)

Using the keyed table above, if we expect it to contain a maximum of 10000
rows and we expect to have a 10 percent deletion ratio (that is at any one
time we expect that 10 percent of our rows have been deleted but not
replaced by new rows), we should allow for:

    10000 *
        (
            7 + 1 + 13 +
            (4 * 2) + (8 * 4) +
            (13 + 1) +
            (4 * 0.10)
        ) +
    (7 * 64)

        =  10000 * ( 21 + 8 + 32 + 14 + 0.4) + 448
        =  754448 bytes

plus a handful of bytes to store file names in directories.

Note that this is the maximum storage allocation. Unlike some other database
systems, mSQL only uses disk space when it has data to add to a table - it
does NOT allocate a large block of empty disk space and then proceed to fill
it. If our example only had 1000 rows the storage requirements would only be
75848 bytes.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does msqld allocate more RAM to itself as new databases are added?

On Fri, 11 Aug 1995, Andrew Waegel wrote:

    does msqld allocate more ram to itself as new db's are added? i.e.
    is any part of the database held in ram or does it just access the
    database files directly from disc? I need to do some planning, and
    want to know if I need to plan to get more simms...

David Hughes replies:

    If your OS supports mmap() (e.g. Solaris, SunOS, *BSD, BSDI, Linux
    1.3.x, HP-UX >9.x) then the more memory you throw at it the
    better things will get if you are using big databases. The data is
    left on disk but is accessed via the virtual memory subsystem so it
    will be in memory some of the time.

    If you are not using mmap() then data is just read from disk as it
    is needed. There's a small buffer in the read code to make things
    faster but that's about it. It doesn't matter how many databases
    you have defined it only uses 1 buffer.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does performance degrade as the number of databases increase?

On Fri, 11 Aug 1995, Andrew Waegel wrote:

    Does performance degrade at all as the number of databases
    increases? That is, say a query from database A took n seconds when
    database A was the only one served by msqld. After adding databases
    B, C, D and E, should the database A query take any longer? It
    seems like 'no' from my experience, but...

David Hughes replies:

    No. It will degrade if people are hitting the new databases at the
    same time as they are hitting database A though. msqld only handles
    1 query at a time so if 2 queries come in they are queued and
    processed in order.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does mSQL support cursors?

Pascal Forget replies to a posting by Brian Bartholomew:

    > To browse the database, I want mSQL to return me the first row
    > in the database, and keep a pointer to it. Then sometime later
    > I can ask it for the second row, and so on.

    mSQL does not provide support for cursors.

    You'll have to issue a SELECT query each time you want the next
    row. mSQL has no provisions for modifying a result set once it has
    been created. I suggest you add a field containing a unique
    identifier for each row, then fetch the next row using:

        SELECT ... FROM mytable where unique_field > last_id LIMIT 1

    > How do I express this in sql?

    If you find a way to express it, it most certainly won't be in
    standard SQL, as the language has no support for cursors.

    > I see that I could add an explicit field that was an arbitrary
    > row number, and query for the current row number +/- 1, but over
    > time with insertions and deletions there would be gaps and the
    > query would break. How is this problem usually solved?

    The select statement I gave you won't break even if there are gaps
    in the unique identifiers. You can periodically "compact" the
    numbers if you want.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does mSQL support different character sets?

Patrik Faltstrom writes:

    Yes, as long as the client that fetches the characters knows what
    character set you are using. I.e. there is no support in mSQL for
    keeping track of the character set name, but mSQL is 8bit clean so
    you can store 8bit characters (in whatever character set).

    In Digger, the Whois++ server, we store UNICODE characters by
    encoding them first into UTF-8 which is an 8bit encoding scheme
    described in UNICODE 1.1.

Neil Bowers <neilb@cre.canon.co.uk> has written a paper on "Processing
Japanese Text with mSQL and Perl". It is available from:

    http://www.cre.canon.co.uk/~neilb/jmSQL.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why doesn't mSQL work when installed in disk space served by the Andrew File
System (AFS)?

Jon Leech <leech@cs.unc.edu> writes:

    AFS does not support some Unix file system behaviour that's needed
    by mSQL. You cannot create Unix domain sockets in AFS space, and
    mmap() does not work on at least some client-server combinations,
    if not all.

    You should install mSQL and its databases in NFS or local Unix
    filesystems.

Other users have also reported problems when running mSQL from NFS mounted
partitions. To be absolutely safe you should only run msqld from the same
machine on which the physical disks containing the mSQL databases are
attached.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
          ---------------------------------------------------------

                            Installation Problems

Under IRIX (SGI) I get problems relating to my username

Colin Surprenant reports:

    The solution to the problem with using the socket and then nsl
    libraries with NIS in IRIX 5.2 is:

    1. Do not link them if they are not needed :) This is the case for
       mSQL.

    or

    2. link libc BEFORE the socket and the nsl libraries.

    For those who didn't know, the problem is that if you use NIS and
    link socket or nsl, the getpwuid() function doesn't work.

To ensure that the unnecessary libraries are avoided, edit
targets/your-architecture/site.mm and change the line

    EXTRA_LIB=  -lsocket -lnsl -lgen -ldl

so that it reads:

    EXTRA_LIB=

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On OSF/1 or HP-UX I have trouble starting msqld at boot time

David-Michael Lincke reports:

    Looks like the same thing that happens under HP-UX with background
    processes in rc scripts. They are killed off on exit of the ksh
    functions.

    Create yourself a wrapper for msqld. In there you do a fork and
    exit the parent process in the child process you do a call to
    setsid() to get rid of the controlling terminal followed by a call
    to execl() to launch msqld. You might also want to close all open
    file descriptors before calling exec.

An alternative to this approach is to place the following in /etc/inittab

    msql:3:respawn:/usr/local/Minerva/bin/msqld </dev/console >/dev/console 2>&1

This assumes that your mSQL super user is "root".

The next version of the FAQ will attempt to address this issue in detail.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Should I use cc or gcc when building mSQL on my Dec Alpha running OSF/1?

Rick Beebe writes:

    DEC Alphas running OSF/1 (Digital Unix): The original mSQL docs
    recommended using cc rather than gcc on this platform. In my
    experience this is still good advice. If you have gcc on the
    machine, however, autoconf will find it and default to it. After
    running 'setup' edit site.mm and change 'gcc' to 'cc' and
    'bison -y' to yacc.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does mSQL work with Linux mmap()?

Version 1.3 or greater of the Linux operating system has full mmap()
support. If you're using such a version of Linux, mSQL will work perfectly
well using mmap().

If you have an earlier version of Linux you can either upgrade or ensure
that mmap() support in mSQL is disabled by running the 'setup' program and
then editing

    ./targets/your-architecture/site.mm

and ensuring the mmap() directive reads:

    MMAP=

and then recompile the mSQL package.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does mSQL work with HP-UX?

Arley Carter (via David Hughes) writes:

    I just built msql-1.0.10 on hpux 9.05. It appears that you have
    slain the mmap bug. Good job. The only mods I [made] are in site.mm

        CC= cc -Ae +O3 +Z

    Remove -g flags also or you'll get a lot of annoying messages about
    opt not compatible with debug. The test suites for msql and
    msqlperl ran flawlessly.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm having trouble compiling MsqlPerl with mSQL under HP-UX

Arley Carter writes:

    This problem has to do with the way HP-UX deals with shared
    libraries.

    Ensure the EXTRA_CFLAGS option in the file:

        ./targets/your-architecture/site.mm

    reads:

        EXTRA_CFLAGS= -Ae +O3 +Z

    and recompile mSQL.

    The +Z option ensures that "position independent
    code" is used when creating object files. For more information
    see the manual pages on your compiler.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How can I install mSQL on a SCO Unix system?

Note: This fix has had some conflicting results. Please let me
(<Peter.Samuel@uniq.com.au>) know if it works OR fails. If it fails, let me
know exactly where (if possible) and how you fixed it (if you did).

The following is a summary of the efforts required by Andrew Cash
<cash_a@sls.co.uk> to install mSQL version 1.0.8 on a SCO Unix system. It
should work perfectly well for version 1.0.9 as well.

   * Unpack the source code and create the site dependent files as follows:

         gunzip -c msql-1.0.9.tar.gz | tar xvf -
         cd msql-1.0.9
         make target
         cd targets/your-architecture
         ./setup
             answer questions

   * In the file:

         ./common/config.h

     ensure the lines referring to the sys/select.h include file are
     commented out as follows:

         /* Defined if you have sys/select.h  */
         /* #define HAVE_SYS_SELECT_H 1 */

   * Note: This step should only be applied if you use gcc and bison. These
     compilation tools will attempt to use alloca() instead of malloc()
     which will fail under SCO Unix. If you do not use bison, you should
     skip this step.

     SCO Unix doesn't have an alloca() library function so you'll have to
     use malloc(). You need to generate the file:

         ./msql/msql_yacc.c

     so run:

         make

     until it completes (or fails). Ensure that the msql_yacc.c file has
     been created. If it has, applythe following patch to the file. (Use the
     "-l" option of patch to avoid any problems with mismatched whitespace.
     That's an "el", NOT a "one" or an "eye").

     This patch ensures that <malloc.h> is explicitly included and that all
     references to alloca() are changed to malloc(). Note: This patch has
     been generated based on the output from the bison compiler compiler
     from GNU. It should NOT be applied to an msql_yacc.c that has been
     generated by yacc - such a file already uses malloc().

*** msql/msql_yacc.c.orig       Fri Jan  5 13:07:02 1996
--- msql/msql_yacc.c    Fri Jan  5 13:09:34 1996
***************
*** 329,362 ****
     Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.  */


- #ifndef alloca
- #ifdef __GNUC__
- #define alloca __builtin_alloca
- #else /* not GNU C.  */
- #if (!defined (__STDC__) && defined (sparc)) || defined (__sparc__) || defined (__sparc) || defined (__sgi)
- #include <alloca.h>
- #else /* not sparc */
- #if defined (MSDOS) && !defined (__TURBOC__)
- #include <malloc.h>
- #else /* not MSDOS, or __TURBOC__ */
- #if defined(_AIX)
  #include <malloc.h>
-  #pragma alloca
- #else /* not MSDOS, __TURBOC__, or _AIX */
- #ifdef __hpux
- #ifdef __cplusplus
- extern "C" {
- void *alloca (unsigned int);
- };
- #else /* not __cplusplus */
- void *alloca ();
- #endif /* not __cplusplus */
- #endif /* __hpux */
- #endif /* not _AIX */
- #endif /* not MSDOS, or __TURBOC__ */
- #endif /* not sparc.  */
- #endif /* not GNU C.  */
- #endif /* alloca not defined.  */

  /* This is the parser code that is written into each bison parser
    when the %semantic_parser declaration is not specified in the grammar.
--- 329,335 ----
***************
*** 607,618 ****
        yystacksize *= 2;
        if (yystacksize > YYMAXDEPTH)
        yystacksize = YYMAXDEPTH;
!       yyss = (short *) alloca (yystacksize * sizeof (*yyssp));
        __yy_bcopy ((char *)yyss1, (char *)yyss, size * sizeof (*yyssp));
!       yyvs = (YYSTYPE *) alloca (yystacksize * sizeof (*yyvsp));
        __yy_bcopy ((char *)yyvs1, (char *)yyvs, size * sizeof (*yyvsp));
  #ifdef YYLSP_NEEDED
!       yyls = (YYLTYPE *) alloca (yystacksize * sizeof (*yylsp));
        __yy_bcopy ((char *)yyls1, (char *)yyls, size * sizeof (*yylsp));
  #endif
  #endif /* no yyoverflow */
--- 580,591 ----
        yystacksize *= 2;
        if (yystacksize > YYMAXDEPTH)
        yystacksize = YYMAXDEPTH;
!       yyss = (short *) malloc (yystacksize * sizeof (*yyssp));
        __yy_bcopy ((char *)yyss1, (char *)yyss, size * sizeof (*yyssp));
!       yyvs = (YYSTYPE *) malloc (yystacksize * sizeof (*yyvsp));
        __yy_bcopy ((char *)yyvs1, (char *)yyvs, size * sizeof (*yyvsp));
  #ifdef YYLSP_NEEDED
!       yyls = (YYLTYPE *) malloc (yystacksize * sizeof (*yylsp));
        __yy_bcopy ((char *)yyls1, (char *)yyls, size * sizeof (*yylsp));
  #endif
  #endif /* no yyoverflow */

   * Rebuild msqld with the modified msql_yacc.c file by running:

         make

   * If you are NOT going to be running mSQL as root, then you'll need to
     ensure that msqld can be installed correctly. Edit the makefile:

         ./msql/Makefile.full

     and comment out the mode change line for msqld as follows:

         # chmod 4750 $(INST_DIR)/bin/msqld

     Failure to make this change will result in an error during the install
     phase.

   * Install mSQL by running:

         make install

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why won't my third party applications compile under Solaris 2.x?

Solaris 2.x is an SVR4 version of Unix. When compiling programs that require
network support (this includes any program that uses the mSQL library), you
must explicitly reference the networking libraries socket and nsl:

    gcc -o prog prog.c -Imsql_install_dir/include \
        -Lmsql_install_dir/lib -lmsql -lsocket -lnsl

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why does setup fail when building mSQL on a Linux system?

Did you install the Linux kernel sources?

If you installed Slackware and didn't get the K series disks then you will
be missing a lot of C header files that you need to compile mSQL. Go back
and grab the kernel sources disks and install them on your box.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why can't I run setup under Linux?

This problem involves an interaction between the Linux setup program, the
mSQL setup program and your $PATH environment variable.

After unpacking the mSQL distribution and running the make target command,
the next step in installing mSQL is to change directories to:

    targets/target

and run the setup command. If you have /sbin in your $PATH ahead of ., or
you don't have . in your $PATH at all (which is a good idea if you happen to
be root) then your shell will attempt to run the Linux setup program ahead
of the mSQL setup program.

This can be avoided (for all flavours of Unix) by issuing the command as:

    ./setup

This will force your shell to run the setup program in the current working
directory, regardless of the contents of your $PATH.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why do I get errors about "sys/bitypes.h" when compiling under Solaris 2.5?

Paul Gregg <pgregg@tibus.net> writes:

    Q: When I try to "make all" mSQL on Solaris (2.5 confirmed) it
    fails with the error:
        ../makedepend/makedepend: warning: msqld.c (reading /usr/include/arpa/inet.h,
        line 68): cannot find include file "sys/bitypes.h"
            not in /usr/include/arpa/sys/bitypes.h
            not in ../sys/bitypes.h
            not in /usr/include/sys/bitypes.h
        ../makedepend/makedepend: warning: msqld.c (reading /usr/include/arpa/inet.h,
        line 72): cannot find include file "sys/cdefs.h"
            not in /usr/include/arpa/sys/cdefs.h
            not in ../sys/cdefs.h
            not in /usr/include/sys/cdefs.h

    A: You have installed BIND 4.9 on your system. Bind replaces your existing
    /usr/include/netdb.h, but forgets to include the compatability includes
    cdefs.h and bitypes.h

    Solution: locate the cdefs.h and bitypes.h files in your BIND source code

        bind/compat/include/sys/cdefs.h
        bind/compat/include/sys/bitypes.h

    and copy these two files to /usr/include/src mSQL should now make
    cleanly.

    Credit should be given to Emir Mulabegovic <mulabego@mcs.anl.gov> for this
    answer.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why do I get errors about "POSIX_C_SOURCE" when compiling under Solaris 2.5?

This only occurs when you are compiling mSQL version 1.x. This version of
mSQL ships with a compile time utility called makedepend developed by the X
consortium. This utility is used in the pre compile phase to establish the
dependencies of all the source code used by mSQL.

The version of makedepend that ships with mSQL version 1.x does not
appreciate the ANSI C syntax used by the Solaris 2.5 include files and gives
a number of errors such as:

    "strlib.c":225:  defined(__EXTENSIONS__) || defined(_REENTRANT) ||
        (_POSIX_C_SOURCE - 0 >= 199506L)
                                    ^--- expecting )

These messages can be safely ignored. The actual compilation of the mSQL
source is unaffected.

If you wish to avoid seeing these messages you can use the following
procedure to use the makedepend that is shipped with OpenWindows 3.5 instead
of the version of makedepend shipped with mSQL version 1.x.

  1. cd msql-1.0.16/src/makegen

  2. edit both library.mm and object.mm and change all references to

         @$(TOP)/makedepend/makedepend

     so that they read:

         @/usr/openwin/bin/makedepend

  3. cd ../../targets/Solaris-2.5/Sparc

  4. make

This will avoid the error messages listed above but you will now see the
following warning messages:

    /usr/openwin/bin/makedepend:  ignoring option -a

These too can be safely ignored.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why do I get errors about "weak definitions" when compiling under IRIX?

If you're compiling under Silicon Graphic's IRIX operating system and see
error messages such as:

    ld: WARNING 134: weak definition of pmap_getport in /usr/lib/libnsl.so
        preempts that weak definition in /usr/lib/libc.so.

as well as unresolved symbols, you'll need to ensure that unnecessary
libraries are not being used during the compilation.

Edit targets/your-architecture/site.mm and change the line

    EXTRA_LIB=  -lsocket -lnsl -lgen -ldl

so that it reads:

    EXTRA_LIB=

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How can I build mSQL version 1.0.16 for an AIX system running on an IBM
PS/2?

mSQL assumes that any AIX system will be running on an RS6000 processor. If
you are running AIX on an IBM PS/2 the make target will fail.

David Schuler <schuld@btv.ibm.com> provides the following patch to solve
this problem:

*** scripts/sys-arch.orig       Fri Mar 28 16:25:49 1997
--- scripts/sys-arch    Fri Mar 28 16:29:19 1997
***************
*** 43,52 ****

  if test "$os" = "AIX"
  then
-       machine="rs6000"
        maj=`uname -v`
        min=`uname -r`
        rev="$maj.$min"
  fi

  echo "${os}-${rev}-${machine}" | sed 's/ /_/g'
--- 43,57 ----

  if test "$os" = "AIX"
  then
        maj=`uname -v`
        min=`uname -r`
        rev="$maj.$min"
+       if test $maj -eq 1
+       then
+               machine="i386"
+       else
+               machine="rs6000"
+       fi
  fi

  echo "${os}-${rev}-${machine}" | sed 's/ /_/g'

To avoid conflicts with mismatched whitespace, apply this patch using the
"-l" option of patch. (That's an "el", NOT a "one" or an "eye").

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How can I make w3-auth.c work with my Apache HTTPD server?

You need to patch the Apache server itself. The following patch from Simon
Kershaw <Simon.Kershaw@Smallworld.co.uk> works against Apache 1.2b7:

*** src/util_script.c~      Mon Feb 10 11:47:24 1997
--- src/util_script.c       Tue Mar 25 15:53:14 1997
***************
*** 174,180 ****
        else if (!strcasecmp (hdrs[i].key, "Content-length"))
            table_set (e, "CONTENT_LENGTH", hdrs[i].val);
        else if (!strcasecmp (hdrs[i].key, "Authorization"))
!           continue;
        else
            table_set (e, http2env (r->pool, hdrs[i].key), hdrs[i].val);
      }
--- 174,181 ----
        else if (!strcasecmp (hdrs[i].key, "Content-length"))
            table_set (e, "CONTENT_LENGTH", hdrs[i].val);
        else if (!strcasecmp (hdrs[i].key, "Authorization"))
!           table_set (e, "HTTP_AUTHORIZATION", hdrs[i].val);
!           /* continue; */
        else
            table_set (e, http2env (r->pool, hdrs[i].key), hdrs[i].val);
      }

To avoid conflicts with mismatched whitespace, apply this patch using the
"-l" option of patch. (That's an "el", NOT a "one" or an "eye").

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
          ---------------------------------------------------------

                              Runtime Problems

msqladmin will not let me create a database

This one is straight from the manual section on msqladmin. It states that
the only person who is allowed to create a database is the person nominated
as the "root user" during installation. If you indicated that the database
would be running as root then you must be root to create a database.

If you indicated that it would not be running as root, you would have then
nominated a username for the "root user". In that case, you must be logged
in as the user you nominated before you can perform admin functions like
creation of databases.

The manual also states that you can only perform the admin functions of
msqladmin (i.e. any function other than 'version') from the local host. For
security reasons you cannot perform administrative functions in a
client/server manner of a network.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I start msqld it complains about an ACL file

The ACL file is the file that contains Access Control Lists for mSQL. It is
located in the installation directory and is called msql.acl (e.g.
/usr/local/Minerva/msql.acl). The warning indicates that msqld couldn't
locate an ACL file. This doesn't stop mSQL from operating, it just implies
that everyone on every machine on your network has read/write access to your
databases.

A sample ACL file is installed in the installation directory. You could copy
this file to msql.acl and edit it to reflect the access you want to offer to
your databases.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I start msqld it complains about a PID file

The PID file is just a file in which msqld writes its process ID. If it
can't write to the PID file, msqld will still function correctly.

If you are seeing an error regarding the PID file, then one of the following
could be the cause:

   * The directory in which msqld is attempting to create the PID file does
     not exist.

   * The directory in which msqld is attempting to create the PID file does
     not have sufficient permissions.

During the installation, the setup program asked you where to store the PID
file:

    Top of install tree ? [/usr/local/Minerva]
    Will this installation be running as root ? [y] n
    What username will it run under ?  peters
    Directory for pid file ? [/var/adm]

You must ensure that this directory exists. The mSQL installation procedure
will NOT create this directory for you.

If you did not specify root as the mSQL administration user when you
answered the questions:

    Will this installation be running as root ? [y] n
    What username will it run under ?  peters

you must ensure that the user you specified has write permissions in the
directory in which msqld will store its PID file.

Under IRIX 5.3 the /var/adm directory can only be written to by the root
user, so if your mSQL administration user is NOT root then you'll have to
choose some other location such as /var/tmp or /var/share.

If you need to change the location of this directory, you can either rerun
the setup program, or edit the file:

    ./targets/your_architecture/site.mm

and change the line:

    PID_DIR= /var/adm

to suit your needs.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've just installed the latest version of mSQL and now my own applications
won't work!

Whenever you install a new version of mSQL you MUST remember to recompile
any third party applications - including those you developed yourself - to
ensure that they are linked with the new version of libmsql.a. You should
also recompile third party applications after installing any patches to
mSQL.

Failure to do this will almost certainly guarantee that your applications
will fail at some stage while talking to the new mSQL database server. You
may also miss out on some new feature provided by the new mSQL API.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Access control doesn't work with my setuid applications

Note: This only applies to mSQL version 1.0.10 and previous versions. mSQL
version 1.0.12 (and above) does NOT suffer from this problem. This section
will be removed in future versions of the FAQ. It is included in this
release to accommodate the transitional period following the recent release
of version mSQL 1.0.12.

Consider the following scenario:

   * User peters is the ONLY user given read and write access to the
     database test by the appropriate additions to the msql.acl file.

   * An application is created to manipulate the test database and is saved
     such that it is a setuid peters application:

         -rwsr-xr-x   1 peters   db         24576 Nov 13  1995 db_app

   * User markp wishes to use the test database using the db_app
     application. Instead of the setuid nature of the application allowing
     markp access to the database, all that happens is the error message:

         Access to database denied

This occurs because of the way in which mSQL passes user information to the
database server. It uses the getuid() system call which returns the real
user id of the calling process rather than the effective user id.

mSQL version 2 will have radically different security mechanisms.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why do I see an "Address already in use" error message when I attempt to
start msqld?

If you're running Linux or SCO Unix, this message can be seen if you killed
the msqld process WITHOUT executing:

    msqladmin shutdown

The TCP/IP port will remain bound for about 90 seconds or so. After this
time the port should be available and msqld can be started successfully.

Another possibility to consider is that something is already using the
TCP/IP port that msqld is trying to use. For a default installation these
port numbers are 1112 for a root user or 4333 for an ordinary user. In this
case user means the name of the user you entered when answering the setup
question(s):

    Will this installation be running as root ?
    What username will it run under ?

There are a number of ways you can check for something using the TCP/IP
port:

   * msql

     If the mSQL monitor program msql can connect to the mSQL database
     server msqld then you KNOW that the database server is already running.

   * Telnet

     Telnet to the database server and specify the mSQL TCP/IP port number
     using one of the following commands:

         telnet dbhost 1112

     or

         telnet dbhost 4333

     You'll see the following types of messages:

        o Nothing is using that port or something is using the port
          exclusively:

              Trying 127.0.0.1 ...
              telnet: connect: Connection refused
              telnet>

        o msqld version 1.0.10 running protocol version 6 is using the port:

              Trying 127.0.0.1 ...
              Connected to localhost.
              Escape character is '^]'.

              0:6:1.0.10

        o Something else is using the port (or a client process is still
          communicating with a running msqld process:

              Trying 127.0.0.1 ...
              Connected to localhost.
              Escape character is '^]'.

   * netstat

     If your operating system has the netstat command, you can use it to
     display the contents of various network related data structures in
     various formats, depending on the options you select. Some of the
     options that may be helpful are:

        o To determine if something is listening on port 4333, use:

              netstat -a | grep 4333

          If you see output similar to:

                *.4333    *.*     0       0       0       0       LISTEN

          then something is using that port.

        o To see if msqld is using the port, use:

              netstat -f unix

          Output similar to the following will indicate that msqld is
          already running:

              Active UNIX domain sockets
              Address  Type          Vnode     Conn Addr
              fcf8bca8 stream-ord      231        0 /tmp/msql.sock

          This may not work for all operating systems. - the above examples
          were taken from a Solaris 2.4 system. Variations on this command
          include:

              netstat -f inet

          or

              netstat -f local

If you found something using the TCP/IP port that msqld would like to use,
examine the output of your operating system's ps command to check if you
already have a running msqld process. If you have then shut it down it by
executing:

    msqladmin shutdown

If you don't have a running msqld process then something else may be using
the port that msqld is trying to use. Examine /etc/inetd.conf and
/etc/services (or the services NIS map if you're running NIS) to see if
anything else is using the port. The output from one of the netstat commands
listed above may be helpful.

If you find such a program you have two options:

  1. Change the port number the other program is using so that it doesn't
     conflict with mSQL

  2. Ensure that mSQL uses a different port number. This can be done by
     either:

        o starting msqld with the environment variable MSQL_TCP_PORT set to
          another port number. You'll also have to ensure that client
          applications use the new port number too.

        o modifying the ./src/common/site.h file and changing the section

              /*
              ** TCP port for the MSQL daemon
              */

              #ifdef ROOT_EXEC
              #define MSQL_PORT       1112
              #else
              #define MSQL_PORT       4333
              #endif

          to suit your needs. Then recompile and reinstall mSQL.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why do I see a "Can't start server : UNIX Bind : Permission denied" error
message when I attempt to start msqld?

This usually occurs because of a permission problem involving the Unix
domain socket used by msqld when it communicates with processes on the same
host as itself.

Under mSQL version 1.x this file is typically /dev/msql or /tmp/msql.sock
while under mSQL version 2.x it is typically %I/msql2.sock where %I is a
reference to the directory specified by Inst_Dir in the mSQL configuration
file.

These permission problems usually involve the socket itself or the directory
in which it resides. The general rule here is that the directory should have
read and write permission for the mSQL root user, and the socket (or named
pipe on some operating systems) should be owned by the mSQL root user.
(Note: The mSQL root user is the user you specified during the setup stage
during the installation of mSQL version 1.x or the user specified in the
msql.conf file for mSQL version 2.x).

Some operating systems, such as HP-UX 10.x, ship with dr-xr-xr-x permissions
on /dev which makes it difficult for msqld to write to the socket. In these
circumstances a better place for the socket would be /var/msql.

The installation instructions for mSQL 2.x state:

    8.      Ensure that the installation directory (and everything under it)
            is owned by the user that mSQL will run as (e.g. the msql user).
            To do this, issue a command like "chown -R msql /usr/local/Hughes".
            Substitute the correct username and installation directory if
            you are running a non-default installation.

If you decide to place the mSQL Unix domain socket in one of the temporary
directories such as /tmp /usr/tmp or /var/tmp please read the section in
this FAQ titled "Where did my mSQL socket file go?"

You should also read the section in this FAQ titled "Where did my mSQL
socket file go?" if your operating system does not ship with write
permission on /dev.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why do I see "Couldn't create temporary table" error messages?

mSQL uses a temporary area to store the results of table joins while it is
processing a query. This area lives in the directory:

    msqldb/.tmp

under the directory in which you elected to install mSQL.

If the .tmp directory does not exist, or doesn't have permissions that allow
the mSQL super user to create files then you'll see the "Couldn't create
temporary table" message.

To fix this, check for the existence of the directory and ensure that it has
permissions:

    drwxr-xr-x   2 owner  group      512 Jan 28 16:10 .tmp

where owner is the user name of the mSQL super user and group is whatever is
appropriate to the way in which you want to run your system (in other words
it isn't terribly important in this case).

If you're going to do really big table joins then have a look at the section
in the FAQ titled "How can I avoid running out of space when doing certain
complex table joins?".

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How can I avoid running out of space when doing certain complex table joins?

Some mSQL operations involving table joins can consume large amounts of
temporary disk space. You can change the location of this temporary storage
area using the following procedure:

   * Shutdown the mSQL database server.

         msqladmin shutdown

   * Remove the msqldb/.tmp directory from your mSQL installation directory.
     For example, if you installed mSQL in /usr/local/Minerva run the
     following command:

         rm -rf /usr/local/Minerva/msqldb/.tmp

   * Create a symbolic link from a directory with lots of space to the
     msqldb/.tmp directory:

         ln -s /lots/of/space /usr/local/Minerva/msqldb/.tmp

   * Restart the mSQL database server.

         msqld &

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

msqld is suddenly dumping core and complaining about bzero()

Rasmus Lerdorf writes:

    This looks to me like you have compiled your msqld binary on a
    machine with bzero() in your libc but you are running it on a
    machine that does not have the bzero() function in its libc. Could
    it be that you compiled on a Solaris 2.5 box, but you are running
    it on a Solaris 2.4 machine? Sun made the brilliant decision to add
    bzero, bcopy and rindex to the Solaris 2.5 libc which means that
    Solaris 2.5 and 2.4 are not completely binary compatible anymore.
    When you compile msql on Solaris 2.5 it will see that bzero and
    bcopy are available and thus try to use them.

    The fix is to either link your msqld statically with the Solaris
    2.5 libc, or perhaps more preferable, recompile msql to not use the
    silly bzero, bcopy, bcmp and rindex functions.

    Edit common/config.h and make sure you do not have HAVE_BCOPY and
    HAVE_RINDEX defined. If you do, comment out these definitions and
    recompile. The resulting binary should then run on both target
    machines.

The exact error message you'll see when running a Solaris 2.5 compiled msqld
on a Solaris 2.4 machine is:

    peters@wheel[710] ./msqld

    mSQL Server 1.0.10 starting ...

    ld.so.1: ./msqld: fatal: relocation error: symbol not found: bzero:
    referenced in ./msqld
    Killed

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why does relshow drop the first two characters from its output?

Desmond writes:

    Wonder if anyone encountered this weird display while using relshow?

    relshow bookmarks

    Database = bookmarks

    +---------------------+
    |       Table         |
    +---------------------+
    | okmarks             |
    | st                  |
    +---------------------+

    notice that the first two letters of the table names are missing.
    Please help. Thanks in advance!

David Hughes replies:

    I've seen this on Solaris if you link against the oh so broken BSD
    compatibility library (libbsd.a). Please make sure that libbsd.a
    isn't mentioned in your site.mm file.

And from the comp.unix.solaris FAQ:

    6.19) Why doesn't readdir work?  It chops the first two characters of
        all filenames.

        You're probably linking with libucb and didn't read question
        6.18. Readdir in libucb.so wants you to include sys/dir.h,
        but many SunOS 4.1.x programs included <dirent.h>,
        consequently, you're mixing native <dirent.h> struct dirent
        with libucb readdir(). The symptom of this mixup is that the
        first two characters of each filename are missing. Make sure
        you use the native compiler (default /opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc,
        which may not be in your PATH), and not /usr/ucb/cc.

If you haven't shelled out the cash for Sun's compiler you can substitute
gcc for /opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc above.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why won't msqladmin work?

When running msqladmin you may occasionally see error messages:

    mSQL command failed!
    Server error = Permission denied

msqladmin has the following restrictions:

  1. it can only be run by the msql root user. That is the user you
     specified when you compiled msql. This is a security feature.

  2. it can only be run on the machine on which msqld is running - it will
     NOT work via tcp/ip connections. This is a security feature.

The exception to the above restrictions is

    msqladmin version

this command can be run by any user, even over a network connection.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why won't mSQL work with the compressed file system under AIX?

It seems that mSQL will corrupt its database files if they are stored using
the compressed file system running under AIX. The reasons are not yet clear
but may be related to AIX's implementation of mmap().

The corruption can be avoided by ensuring that the database files are not
stored in a compressed file system.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why do I see "Protocol mismatch" errors under HP-UX?

The following error message:

    Protocol mismatch. Server Version = 0 Client Version = 6

may indicate that the version of index() being used is broken. This is true
with some implementations of HP-UX 9.x.

mSQL's autoconf build procedure will use index() if it finds it. The fix is
to modify:

    ./targets/your_architecture/common/config.h

and remove (or comment out) the line that reads:

    #define HAVE_RINDEX 1

Then recompile mSQL.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why do I see "Can't start server : UNIX Bind : Invalid argument" errors
running msqld under a MachTen BSD Unix system?

Mark Murphy <markm@desktop.tyrell.com> writes:

    At 12:10 PM 9/17/96, I wrote:
    >I'm trying to install mSQL on a MachTen BSD unix system and am having
    >problems. The compile and installation went great (with only a warning
    >that it could not detect 'uname' on the system). But when I tried to start
    >the server from root with:
    >
    >/usr/local/Minerva/bin/msqld&
    >
    >I get the following:
    >
    >Can't start server : UNIX Bind : Invalid argument
    >
    >Anyone have any suggestions on what I am doing wrong or what is missing?


    Thought I'd let everyone know what the problem was in case anyone else is
    thinking of using MachTen BSD Unix

    There's a bug in the <sys/un.h> file.  It reads:

    /*
     * Definitions for UNIX IPC domain.
     */
    struct  sockaddr_un {
            short   sun_family;             /* AF_UNIX */
            char    sun_path[108];          /* path name (gag) */
    };


    And it should be:

    /*
     * Definitions for UNIX IPC domain.
     */
    struct  sockaddr_un {
            short   sun_family;             /* AF_UNIX */
            char    sun_path[106];          /* path name (gag) */
    };


    It seems sun_path was a little too long and the call to 'bind' in msqld
    does a check on the parameter's structure size... thus giving an invalid
    argument error.

    On another note....

    After I got that bug fixed, the server started, but when exercising the
    tests, msql crashed MachTen!  YES... I mean crash!  So much for protected
    memory!

    But the real problem is yet another bug with MachTen.

    It seems MachTen's mmap function "has not been fully
    tested" (as one tech support person finally admitted). So
    while mmap exists, it really doesn't work.

    Borrowing from the msql FAQ:

        >Version 1.3 or greater of the Linux operating system has full mmap support.
        >If you're using such a version of Linux, mSQL will work perfectly well using
        >mmap.
        >
        >If you have an earlier version of Linux you can either upgrade or ensure that
        >mmap support in mSQL is disabled by running the 'setup' program and then
        >editing
        >
        >    ./targets/your-architecture/site.mm
        >
        >and ensuring the mmap directive reads:
        >
        >    MMAP=
        >
        >and then recompile the mSQL package.

    This also works for MachTen since it seems mmap is "not fully tested"...
    and in reality it damn well crashed the machine.

    These two issues took two full days to resolve.... with calls to Tenon tech
    support in the morning, suggestions that were nowhere near fixing the
    problem during the day... and the "real" answers coming near 5pm when tech
    support closes... that these are bugs in MachTen.

    While their tech support staff was always nice and tried to be very
    helpful, I wish they would have been able to answer my questions when I
    first called.  It would have saved me two days of work on these issues.

    They had me try all kinds of things until the call was elevated to another
    tech (he doesn't get in until late afternoon) who had the answers... it's a
    MachTen bug!

    Very frustrating.

    However on a positive point, MachTen has been running very good as my
    internet server for the past six months or so without a glitch.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Where did my mSQL socket file go?

Consider these two scenarios:

  1. Your machine has just been rebooted and suddenly applications running
     on the same host cannot connect to msqld. After some investigation you
     discover that /tmp/msql.sock has been removed - why?

  2. Your mSQL database server has been running fine for a week or so and
     suddenly applications running on the same host cannot connect to msqld.
     After some investigation you discover that /tmp/msql.sock has been
     removed - why?

You've probably been bitten by an operating feature and/or some good system
administration practise. Firstly some background.

The two classic temporary areas under most flavours of Unix are /tmp and
/usr/tmp (/var/tmp in some systems). They are usually on different file
systems but don't have to be.

Under some versions of Unix, /tmp is cleared whenever the system is
rebooted. Other versions don't do this. Most versions of Unix do NOT clear
/usr/tmp on reboot.

Some operating systems - such as Solaris 2.x and SunOS 4.x under certain
configurations - take advantage of unused portions of the swap partition to
provide /tmp. (This happens by default under Solaris 2.x and can be turned
on using the TMPFS file system under SunOS 4.x). Because this area is not a
real file system /tmp only has a transient lifetime and is guaranteed to be
empty after each reboot.

While the system is running, some versions of Unix regularly clear /tmp and
possibly /usr/tmp of files older than some arbitrary period (usually a few
days or more). This procedure is handled by root via cron. Some versions of
Unix are shipped with a root crontab to perform this cleanup, others aren't.
Often the entry in crontab is draconian enough to remove everything older
than the required period - including directories, named pipes, sockets etc.
Other entries will only remove files. In is not unusual for system
administration staff to add a similar entry to root's crontab if it doesn't
already exist.

So what this boils down to is that files in /tmp and /usr/tmp (/var/tmp) are
TEMPORARY and should be treated as such. If you need to create a socket for
mSQL you should follow these simple rules:

  1. If root is your mSQL master user, the socket should go in /dev. This
     happens by default under both mSQL version 1.x and 2.x.

     However some operating systems such as HP-UX 10.x ship with dr-xr-xr-x
     permissions on /dev. In this case, you should choose a different
     location entirely for the mSQL Unix domain socket. /var/msql is one
     possible choice.

     For both mSQL version 1.x and 2.x this can be accomplished by editing:

         ./targets/your-architecture/site.h

     and modifying the value of

         #define MSQL_UNIX_ADDR  "/dev/msql"

     for mSQL version 1.x, or

         #define MSQL_UNIX_ADDR  "/dev/msql2"

     for mSQL version 2.x.

     Then re-compile.

  2. If root is not your mSQL master user, the socket should go in a
     directory that the mSQL master user can read/write but not one of the
     temporary directories /tmp, /usr/tmp or /var/tmp.

        o For both mSQL version 1.x and 2.x this can be accomplished by
          editing

              ./targets/your-architecture/site.h

          and modifying the value of

              #define MSQL_UNIX_ADDR  "/tmp/msql.sock"

          Then re-compile.

        o For mSQL version 1.x you can also start msqld with the environment
          variable MSQL_UNIX_PORT set to the new location of the mSQL
          socket. There is no need to recompile in this case. You will have
          to ensure that this environment variable is set for ALL programs
          that wish to communicate with msqld - including msql, msqladmin,
          relshow, MsqlPerl, etc etc.

        o For mSQL 2.x you can also edit the mSQL config file

              msql.conf

          and change the value of

              UNIX_PORT

          By default this is %I/msql2.sock where %I is the directory in
          which you installed mSQL 2.x. There is no need to recompile in
          this case.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why does it take such a long time to connect to the mSQL database server?

Sometimes you may have difficulty in connecting to the mSQL database server
- msqld.

msqld is a single threaded application and therefore can only deal with one
SQL query at a time. If msqld is busy servicing an SQL query you may not be
able to make another connection until the SQL query has finished. mSQL
version 1.x is extremely inefficient in performing table joins. So an SQL
query with only a single table join may take many minutes to complete.

There is no solution to this problem in mSQL version 1.x. The only possible
workaround is to ensure that your database schema is designed in such a way
as to avoid table joins at all costs.

Table joins are much more efficient under mSQL version 2.x so the problem
will rarely be encountered.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why do I see "This Beta test release expires in 57 days" when I start
msql2d?

The current releases of mSQL version 2.x are beta versions. By their very
nature, beta versions are still in development. Hughes Technologies has
released the beta versions in an attempt to leverage off the existing user
base in order to do final testing and bug fixing.

The expiration messages are reminders to the users of the beta version that
Hughes Technologies expects to have either a new beta version or a completed
version released within the time limit suggested by the message.

If the time limit has elapsed, msql2d will cease to operate and you will be
presented with a message:

    This Beta test release has expired!
    Check out www.Hughes.com.au for a new release!

This site has a few problems at present. Use http://hughes.com.au instead.

If a new version of mSQL 2.x (beta or otherwise) is not available after the
time limit has expired, it is a simple matter to disable this feature using
one of the patches listed below. Once you have applied the patch you MUST
recompile and re-install. There is no need to recompile any third party
applications as this patch only affects the operations of the database
server.

To avoid conflicts with mismatched whitespace, apply the patch using the
"-l" option of patch. (That's an "el", NOT a "one" or an "eye").

   * mSQL 2.0B1

     *** src/msql/msqld.c.orig       Mon Dec 16 19:45:33 1996
     --- src/msql/msqld.c    Wed Apr 30 10:08:49 1997
     ***************
     *** 583,589 ****
             chdir(msqlHomeDir);
             cleanTmpDir();

     !       timeRemain = (850703170 + 91*24*60*60) - time(NULL);
             if (timeRemain < 0)
             {
                     printf("\nThis Snapshot release has expired!\n");
     --- 583,589 ----
             chdir(msqlHomeDir);
             cleanTmpDir();

     !       timeRemain = (999999999 + 91*24*60*60) - time(NULL);
             if (timeRemain < 0)
             {
                     printf("\nThis Snapshot release has expired!\n");

   * mSQL 2.0B2

     *** src/msql/msqld.c.orig       Wed Apr 30 09:57:54 1997
     --- src/msql/msqld.c    Wed Apr 30 10:11:37 1997
     ***************
     *** 591,597 ****
             chdir(msqlHomeDir);
             cleanTmpDir();

     !       timeRemain = (850703170 + 91*24*60*60) - time(NULL);
             if (timeRemain < 0)
             {
                     printf("\nThis Snapshot release has expired!\n");
     --- 591,597 ----
             chdir(msqlHomeDir);
             cleanTmpDir();

     !       timeRemain = (999999999 + 91*24*60*60) - time(NULL);
             if (timeRemain < 0)
             {
                     printf("\nThis Snapshot release has expired!\n");

   * mSQL 2.0B3

     *** src/msql/msqld.c.orig       Wed Apr 30 09:57:54 1997
     --- src/msql/msqld.c    Wed Apr 30 10:11:48 1997
     ***************
     *** 595,601 ****
             chdir(msqlHomeDir);
             cleanTmpDir();

     !       timeRemain = (851999170 + 91*24*60*60) - time(NULL);
             if (timeRemain < 0)
             {
                     printf("\nThis Snapshot release has expired!\n");
     --- 595,601 ----
             chdir(msqlHomeDir);
             cleanTmpDir();

     !       timeRemain = (999999999 + 91*24*60*60) - time(NULL);
             if (timeRemain < 0)
             {
                     printf("\nThis Snapshot release has expired!\n");

   * mSQL 2.0B4

     *** src/msql/msqld.c.orig       Wed Apr 30 09:57:54 1997
     --- src/msql/msqld.c    Wed Apr 30 10:11:58 1997
     ***************
     *** 600,606 ****
             chdir(msqlHomeDir);
             cleanTmpDir();

     !       timeRemain = (854763970 + 91*24*60*60) - time(NULL);
             if (timeRemain < 0)
             {
                     printf("\nThis Snapshot release has expired!\n");
     --- 600,606 ----
             chdir(msqlHomeDir);
             cleanTmpDir();

     !       timeRemain = (999999999 + 91*24*60*60) - time(NULL);
             if (timeRemain < 0)
             {
                     printf("\nThis Snapshot release has expired!\n");

   * mSQL 2.0B5

     *** src/msql/msqld.c.orig       Wed Apr 30 09:57:54 1997
     --- src/msql/msqld.c    Wed Apr 30 10:12:08 1997
     ***************
     *** 651,657 ****
             chdir(msqlHomeDir);
             cleanTmpDir();

     !       timeRemain = (858088800 + 60*24*60*60) - time(NULL);
             if (timeRemain < 0)
             {
                     printf("\nThis Beta test release has expired!\n");
     --- 651,657 ----
             chdir(msqlHomeDir);
             cleanTmpDir();

     !       timeRemain = (999999999 + 60*24*60*60) - time(NULL);
             if (timeRemain < 0)
             {
                     printf("\nThis Beta test release has expired!\n");

   * mSQL 2.0B6

     *** src/msql/msqld.c.orig       Wed Apr 30 09:57:54 1997
     --- src/msql/msqld.c    Wed Apr 30 10:12:17 1997
     ***************
     *** 696,702 ****
             chdir(msqlHomeDir);
             cleanTmpDir();

     !       timeRemain = (858088800 + 60*24*60*60) - time(NULL);
             if (timeRemain < 0)
             {
                     printf("\nThis Beta test release has expired!\n");
     --- 696,702 ----
             chdir(msqlHomeDir);
             cleanTmpDir();

     !       timeRemain = (999999999 + 60*24*60*60) - time(NULL);
             if (timeRemain < 0)
             {
                     printf("\nThis Beta test release has expired!\n");

   * mSQL 2.0B7

     *** src/msql/msqld.c    Mon May 12 17:35:02 1997
     --- src/msql/msqld.c.orig       Thu May  8 11:54:23 1997
     ***************
     *** 696,702 ****
             chdir(msqlHomeDir);
             cleanTmpDir();

     !       timeRemain = (999999999 + 60*24*60*60) - time(NULL);
             if (timeRemain < 0)
             {
                     printf("\nThis Beta test release has expired!\n");
     --- 696,702 ----
             chdir(msqlHomeDir);
             cleanTmpDir();

     !       timeRemain = (863060000 + 60*24*60*60) - time(NULL);
             if (timeRemain < 0)
             {
                     printf("\nThis Beta test release has expired!\n");

   * mSQL 2.0B7.1

     *** src/msql/msqld.c    Mon May 12 17:35:08 1997
     --- src/msql/msqld.c.orig       Thu May  8 11:54:23 1997
     ***************
     *** 696,702 ****
             chdir(msqlHomeDir);
             cleanTmpDir();

     !       timeRemain = (999999999 + 60*24*60*60) - time(NULL);
             if (timeRemain < 0)
             {
                     printf("\nThis Beta test release has expired!\n");
     --- 696,702 ----
             chdir(msqlHomeDir);
             cleanTmpDir();

     !       timeRemain = (863060000 + 60*24*60*60) - time(NULL);
             if (timeRemain < 0)
             {
                     printf("\nThis Beta test release has expired!\n");

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Can I use IP addresses in the mSQL ACL file?

Yes.

I. Chazakis <ioannis@acropolis.net> reports:

    I've been using ip addresses in acl files since day one, without
    any problems in version 1.xx, so I guess it should work for you as
    well.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

What does the "Protocol mismatch. Server Version = 22 Client Version = 6"
error mean?

Messages similar to this mean that your client software is attempting to
connect to an mSQL database server which is running a different version of
the mSQL protocol. This could be a result of an old client attempting to
talk to a new server or a new client attempting to talk to an old server.

The numbers mentioned in the message give an indication of which versions of
mSQL each end of the session is using. In the example given, the client was
compiled with mSQL version 1.x (specifically 1.0.16) because the protocol
version is less than 10, and the server is mSQL version 2.x because the
protocol version is greater than 20.

This problem can be rectified by recompiling your third party mSQL code
(that is any client code that did NOT come with the mSQL distribution,
including software such as MsqlPerl etc) against the latest version of mSQL
available to you.

Also see the section in the FAQ titled "I've just installed the latest
version of mSQL and now my own applications won't work!".

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why does mSQL take longer to return the same results when I change the order
of my query?

Michael Wiedmer <mwiedmer@eso.org> writes:

    mSQL behaves like a charm - mostly. That is, depending on the ordering
    of the tables in the FROM clause of a SELECT query, mSQL will return
    the results in different time scales - if at all!

    These two SELECT queries only differ in the FROM clause. You will
    notice that the "component" table comes last and first, respectively.

      SELECT component.location
        FROM instrument, has_dpr, data_product, component
       WHERE instrument.ins_id LIKE 'SUSI'
         AND instrument.ins_id = has_dpr.comp_id
         AND has_dpr.dpr_id = data_product.dp_id
         AND component.comp_id = data_product.comp_id
         AND data_product.type = 'PRG'


      SELECT component.location
        FROM component, instrument, has_dpr, data_product
       WHERE instrument.ins_id LIKE 'SUSI'
         AND instrument.ins_id = has_dpr.comp_id
         AND has_dpr.dpr_id = data_product.dp_id
         AND component.comp_id = data_product.comp_id
         AND data_product.type = 'PRG'

    In version 1.0.16, the latter fails miserably (it returns after 5
    minutes or so), whereas the former completes the query correctly
    within seconds.

    In version 2.0 beta 6, the latter returns after 30 seconds, whereas
    the former completes the query wrongly!!

    Could you tell me whether this is a known feature and whether there
    are any workarounds or fixes? Of course, I'd gladly be informed of any
    nonsense in my queries.

Robert Sum replies:

<sumrn@crd.ge.com>

    A two part answer:

      Part 1.  Neither version of mSQL has a particularly aggressive
    optimiser and they default to following the FROM and WHERE lines in
    the order in which they are entered while performing the query.
    Joins generally result in the formation of temporary tables (on the
    disk); consequently, they are highly sensitive to the amount of
    data processed.  If the order of the query is such that the
    temporary tables are large (i.e., the first clauses to be processed
    don't reduce the overall amount of data by much), then it will be
    slower.  Therefore, if one knows what tables and clauses will
    result in the smallest sizes for intermediate results, a query
    written with those tables and clauses considered first will run
    faster than other possible queries.  Though not apparent in these
    examples, some versions of mSQL 2.0 Bx also have a glitch in the
    query mechanism that causes extra parenthesis to generate extra
    temporary tables.  So, it is best to use parentheses only when
    necessary.  (mSQL 1.x does not do parentheses.)  Finally, there is
    an initialisation overhead whenever a table must be read/mapped
    into memory which will often cause the first time a query is
    executed to be slower than succeeding times, provided that
    preceding queries have not used the same tables.

      Part 2.  Each of mSQL 1.x and 2.0 Bx have various bugs in their
    LIKE operations: one of them being the ability to run off the end
    of the data into mismatch and core-dump lands.  While trying not to
    blow my own horn, the mailing list archives have my patches that
    fix most the problems.  However, the use of a bug-free LIKE in
    these specific examples would only be a performance penalty
    because  "LIKE 'SUSI'" is the same as "= 'SUSI'".

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why don't my SELECT statements work across multiple tables?

Jonathan Loh <jloh@netjet.com> writes:

    I'm trying to do a join and each time it gives me an error.

        select * from t1,t2 where t1.key=t2.key

    This always gives me:

        Reference to un-selected table ""

    I'm using the 1.0.16 version

Chris Lambrou <chrislambrou@internetmci.com> replies:

    There's one I've never seen! Try this instead:

        select t1.*, t2.* from t1,t2 where t1.key=t2.key

And Joshua Kugler <jkugler@inreach.com> also replies:

    I found it in the UMBC mSQL Tutorial, at

        http://www.cs.umbc.edu/~finin/461/msql:

    Minor limitation: can't use "SELECT *" over multiple tables

    In mSQL's SELECT you can not use * for the fields you want in the
    answer if there are two or more tables involved. Note that this
    limitation does not reduce the "expressive power" of mSQL
    but it is somewhat annoying. Here is an example. Suppose we define
    T1 and T2 as:

      create table t1 (a int, b int)
      create table t2 (b int, c int)
      insert into t1 values (1,2)
      insert into t2 values (2,3)

    Then these queries generate errors:

      mSQL > select * from t1, t2 where t1.b=t2.b \g
      ERROR : Reference to un-selected table ""

      mSQL > select * from t1,t2 \g
      ERROR : Reference to un-selected table ""

    But explicitly specifying the fields to return works:

      mSQL > select t1.a,t1.b,t2.b,t2.c from t1, t2 \g

       +----------+----------+----------+----------+
       | a        | b        | b        | c        |
       +----------+----------+----------+----------+
       | 1        | 2        | 2        | 3        |
       +----------+----------+----------+----------+

      mSQL > select t1.a,t1.b,t2.c from t1, t2 where t1.b=t2.b \g

       +----------+----------+----------+
       | a        | b        | c        |
       +----------+----------+----------+
       | 1        | 2        | 3        |
       +----------+----------+----------+

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
          ---------------------------------------------------------

                                How do I ...?

How do I embed single quotes in a field?

To handle a single quote, escape it with a backslash character. So the
string

    'Bambi's'

would be entered as

    'Bambi\'s'.

Note: This applies when using msql - the database monitor program. If you're
developing your own application you may have to escape other characters that
are special to the language you're using - for example perl, C or tcl.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

What other characters need special treatment?

When specifying table or field names or when inserting values into fields,
the only other character that requires special handling is the mSQL escape
character backslash. To handle a backslash, escape it with another
backslash. So the string

    c:\windows\system\

would be entered as

    'c:\\windows\\system\\'

When using regular expressions in queries of the form:

    SELECT table.column FROM table WHERE table.column LIKE 'regexp'

the following rules apply:

             Use this table for mSQL versions 1.0.13 and below

     To search for   Use this or this  To search for   Use this  or this
    this character   string   string  this character   string    string

           $          \\\\$    [$]           [          \\\\[     [[]

           %           \\%     [%]           \        \\\\\\\\   [\\\\]

           '               \'                ^          \\\\^     [^]

           (          \\\\(    [(]           _               \\_

           )          \\\\)    [)]           |          \\\\|     [|]

           ?          \\\\?    [?]

             Use this table for mSQL versions 1.0.14 and above

         To search for  Use this  To search for        Use this
        this character  string   this character        string

              $           [$]           [                [[]

              %          [\\%]          \        cannot be searched

              '           \'            ^        cannot be searched

              (           [(]           _                \\_

              )           [)]           |                [|]

              ?           [?]           ]                []]

Note: This applies when using msql - the database monitor program. If you're
developing your own application you may have to escape other characters that
are special to the language you're using - for example perl, C or tcl.

If you are using mSQL via web interfaces, you may wish to use special HTML
characters instead. For example, a single quote can be represented as:

    &#39;

A complete list of the HTML coded characters can be found at:

    http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MarkUp/html-spec/html-spec_13.html

While we're on the topic of regular expressions, this explanation from
Robert Sum <sumrn@crd.ge.com> may shed some light on what happens inside
mSQL:

Robert writes:

    In mSQL 1.0.x, any time you use LIKE, you use an unusual form of
    "regular expressions" which are the way they are because of some
    historical implementation decisions that, in retrospect, were,
    perhaps, not the right ones. Consequently, mSQL 1.0.x does the
    following for a LIKE pattern which is somewhere between globbing
    and full regular expressions:

    1. it tries to force a match of the whole data string by implicitly
       prepending the pattern with the beginning-of-pattern operator ^
       and appending the end-of-pattern operator $ to the pattern
       (which makes the use/non-use of these operators a little quirky
       [see below]),
    2. it does NOT allow the ., *, and + regexps (they are plain characters),
    3. it does allow character classes using [] (i.e., any single
       character within the [] is matched unless the first char is ^ in
       which case any single character not in the [] is matched),
    4. it does allow alternation using |,
    5. it does allow grouping using (),
    6. it does allow optional characters or groups using ?,
    7. it allows _ to represent any single character (what would
       ordinarily be the . above),
    8. it allows % to represent any string of characters (what would
       ordinarily be the combination .*),

    As you can derive from above, the characters

        ^, $, [, ], |, (, ), ?, _, %, \

    are all special in one way or another. There is a way to search for
    everything, it just might not be completely obvious. For instance,
    using the msql program, one can use

       \\_ to match _
       \\% to match %
       \\^ to match ^
       \\$ to match $
       \\\\ to match \

    Basically, there are three places where \ is used as the escape
    character:

      1. The msql program (always treats \ as an escape character),
      2. The translation process (treats \ as an escape only when
         followed by % or _), and
      3. The regular expression evaluator (always treats \ as an escape
         character).

    In the first two examples above, steps 1 and 2 strip backslashes.
    In the next three examples, steps 1 and 3 strip backslashes.
    Things are actually a bit more consistent than folks realize, I
    think. (Note:  If you are using Perl or Tcl or some such, then
    replace 1. with appropriate activity of that application.)

    Furthermore, a recent message asked about

        SELECT * FROM doc_info
        WHERE foo LIKE 'x' or foo LIKE 'y' or foo LIKE 'z'
        and bar LIKE 'a' or bar LIKE 'b' or bar LIKE 'c'

    to which I replied, try

        SELECT * FROM doc_info
        WHERE foo LIKE '(x)|(y)|(z)'
        AND bar LIKE '(a)|(b)|(c)'

    Well, I forgot about rule number 1. above, which means this
    conversion may not be quite right and the original sender may need
    to fudge things a bit using either an additional set of parenthesis
    to force a match of the whole data string as in

        SELECT * FROM doc_info
        WHERE foo LIKE '((x)|(y)|(z))'
        AND bar LIKE '((a)|(b)|(c))'

    or if he really wants a match anywhere within the string

        SELECT * FROM doc_info
        WHERE foo LIKE '$|(x)|(y)|(z)|^'
        AND foo <> ''
        AND bar LIKE '$|(a)|(b)|(c)|^'
        AND bar <> ''

    then this should work, but as noted, one must be careful about the
    empty string. (If you want the empty string, just leave out the
    not equal clauses.)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How do I handle null fields?

For the NULL values, just use the NULL keyword.

For example

    insert into foo values ( NULL, 1, 2, 'some text' )

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How do I perform case insensitive matches?

mSQL uses Henry Spencer's regular expression library with a few
modifications. To perform case insensitive searches, your query should take
the form

    SELECT * FROM my_table WHERE my_field LIKE '[Ss][Oo][Mm][Ee]
    [Vv][Aa][Ll][Uu][Ee]'

Sol Katz's <skatz@blm.gov> Object Oriented HTML API includes a C routine
that converts a string into its case insensitive form. You may wish to use
this in any C code that you write. See the section below on "Contributed
Code and Third Party Applications"

Alternatively, you can create an additional field in each table that will
hold a single case version of the information you are likely to be searching
for.

For perl users, Michael Cowden <cowden@leithaus.leitess.com> has contributed
this code example:

    The following statement turns mSQL into [mM][sS][qQ][lL]

    $string = "mSQL";
    $string =~ s/(.)/\[\L$1\E\U$1\E\]/g;

Vivek Khera <khera@kci.kciLink.com> suggests a simpler method for perl
users:

    Personally, I use this in Perl, as there is no need to complicate
    the regular expression with non-alpha characters.

       $string =~ s/([A-Za-z])/\[\L$1\U$1\]/gi;

Rasmus Lerdorf's <rasmus@vex.net> Personal Home Page Construction Kit
includes built in operations for case insensitive searches by way of its
msql_RegCase(string) command.

Version 2 of mSQL will support functions similar to upper() and lower()
which will obviate the need for the above.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How do I add a column to an existing table?

You can't! Once a table is created it must stay the way it is.

One possible solution is to use msqldump to create an ASCII dump of the
entire database. Then edit this dump file by hand and add the extra field to
the CREATE clause. You'll also need to edit each INSERT clause to ensure
that the new field is referenced. Once you've modified the dump file, drop
and recreate the database using msqladmin and re-populate the new database
using the dump file and msql.

This procedure could be automated by a shell or perl script.

Note: Use the -c option to msqldump to ensure that a complete dump of the
table is produced.

As an example consider this output from msqldump

    #
    # mSQL Dump  (requires mSQL-1.0.6 or better)
    #
    # Host: localhost    Database: test
    #--------------------------------------------------------


    #
    # Table structure for table 'test'
    #
    CREATE TABLE test (
      name CHAR(40),
      num INT
    ) \g


    #
    # Dumping data for table 'test'
    #

    INSERT INTO test VALUES ('item 999',999)\g
    ...
    INSERT INTO test VALUES ('item 0',0)\g

If you wish to insert a field, say "discount", then you will need to modify
the dump file as follows:

    #
    # mSQL Dump  (requires mSQL-1.0.6 or better)
    #
    # Host: localhost    Database: test
    #--------------------------------------------------------


    #
    # Table structure for table 'test'
    #
    CREATE TABLE test (
      name CHAR(40),
      num INT,
      discount REAL
    ) \g


    #
    # Dumping data for table 'test'
    #

    INSERT INTO test VALUES ('item 999',999,0.0)\g
    ...
    INSERT INTO test VALUES ('item 0',0,0.0)\g

Notice that every insert clause MUST be changed as well as the table
definition.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

When should I call msqlConnect() in a parent/child situation?

If both the parent and child processes want to talk to the mSQL server then
you must call msqlConnect() AFTER you fork. They mustn't share the same
socket.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Can I use mSQL reserved words as field or table names?

No. The mSQL parser gets very confused if you attempt to use reserved words
as the name of a table or field. The full list of reserved words for both
version 1.x and 2.x (as obtained from msql_lex.c) is:

                         Reserved words in mSQL 1.x

          <  >=   by     distinct integer not      real     update

          <= all  char   drop     into    null     select   values

          <> and  create from     key     or       set      where

          =  as   delete insert   like    order    smallint

          >  asc  desc   int      limit   primary  table

                        Reserved words in mSQL 2.0B6

 <   all by      delete    insert  limit  on       select   sum     update

 <=  and char    desc      int     max    or       sequence table   value

 <>  as  clike   distinct  integer min    order    set      text    values

 =   asc count   drop      into    money  primary  slike    time    where

 >   avg create  from      key     not    real     smallint uint

 >=  avl date    index     like    null   rlike    step     unique

Remember that mSQL reserved words are case insensitive so UPPER case or
MiXeD cAsE reserved words are also forbidden in table or field names.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How do I find the maximum or minimum value in a table?

To obtain the maximum value use:

    SELECT number FROM table ORDER BY number DESC LIMIT 1

To obtain the minimum value use:

    SELECT number FROM table ORDER BY number LIMIT 1

This will only work with mSQL 1.0.9 and above unless you have applied the
unofficial LIMIT patch to earlier versions. See the mSQL mailing list
archives for details on this patch. (Before searching for this unofficial
patch, you should seriously consider upgrading to the latest version of
mSQL).

Note: Rasmus Lerdorf writes:

    The LIMIT statement limits the number of records actually
    transferred from the server to the client. It doesn't limit the
    scope of the search at all in any way. That means that if you are
    looking for the maximum value in a table with 30,000 entries, the
    query will first build the entire sorted result in memory in the
    server, but when it comes time to transferring the result to the
    client, it only sends the first item.

    In many cases, especially when you have a lot of fields, or long
    fields, the time it takes to transfer the data from the server to
    the client is actually many times that of the actual search. And
    the msqld daemon is tied up and not available to other clients
    while it is wasting time sending result records that will never be
    used. So, if you do queries and you know you will only be looking
    at the first couple of them, you should use the limit clause and
    cut down on the amount of useless records being sent across the
    socket.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How can I determine the structure of a database?

Use the relshow application that comes bundled with the mSQL software
distribution.

   * To discover which databases are available use:

         relshow

     or

         relshow -h host

     This will return output similar to:

             +-----------------+
             |    Databases    |
             +-----------------+
             | test            |
             | photos          |
             | patches         |
             +-----------------+

   * To discover which tables are contained within a database use:

         relshow dbname

     or

         relshow -h host dbname

     This will return output similar to:


         Database = test

             +---------------------+
             |       Table         |
             +---------------------+
             | test_table          |
             | addresses           |
             | telephone           |
             +---------------------+

   * To discover the structure of a particular table use:

         relshow dbname tablename

     or

         relshow -h host dbname tablename

     This will return output similar to:

         Database = test

         Table    = test_table

             +-----------------+----------+--------+----------+-----+
             |     Field       |   Type   | Length | Not Null | Key |
             +-----------------+----------+--------+----------+-----+
             | name            | char     | 40     | N        | N   |
             | num             | int      | 4      | N        | N   |
             +-----------------+----------+--------+----------+-----+

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

What happens when the mSQL server goes down between requests?

If the mSQL database server process, msqld, dies and is subsequently
restarted, or the host on which it was running is rebooted, any processes
that were connected to the mSQL database server MUST be reconnected. This is
not unique to mSQL, the Oracle database server behaves in a similar manner.

Programs that were connected to the mSQL database server should be either
restarted or have some internal mechanism whereby they notice the server has
died and attempt a reconnection.

One possible method for checking the status of the database server would be
to examine the return status of the msqlSelectDB() call.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Can I run more than one copy of msqld on the same CPU?

Steve A. Olson writes:

    I'm looking for a way to provide the full 25 connections to each of
    many mSQL databases running on a single box. Here's an idea, will
    it work? or is there a better way?

    (korn shell example)
    $ export MSQL_TCP_PORT=3000; msqld
    $ export MSQL_TCP_PORT=3001; msqld
    $ export MSQL_TCP_PORT=3002; msqld

    Then connect to the database as follows:
    $ export MSQL_TCP_PORT=3000; msql db_a

    While the above runs, another user connects:
    $ export MSQL_TCP_PORT=3001; msql db_b

David Hughes replies:

    Well, sort of. By running 'msql db_a' you are using the local UNIX
    socket not the TCP socket so you'd have to use MSQL_UNIX_PORT not
    MSQL_TCP_PORT.

    The other thing is that you should run 3 MSQL_HOME areas
    (/usr/local/Minerva for example). If two of these servers __ever__
    access the same database at the same time then you are stuffed.

    So, something like

    export MSQL_UNIX_PORT=/dev/msql_1; export MSQL_HOME=/Minerva1; msqld&
    export MSQL_UNIX_PORT=/dev/msql_2; export MSQL_HOME=/Minerva2; msqld&

    and

    export MSQL_UNIX_PORT=/dev/msql_1; msql db_a
    export MSQL_UNIX_PORT=/dev/msql_2; msql db_b

    would do the job.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How can I automatically ensure that each record receives a unique primary
key?

mSQL version 1.x does not have an automatic key assignment functionality. A
number of solutions to this problem are available.

   * Use Pascal Forget's unique sequence number generator.

   * Build the unique key assignment and management into your application.

     One suggestion on how to implement this comes from Vivek Khera
     <khera@kci.kciLink.com>.

     Vivek writes:

         What I do is take some of the fields in the record, tack on a salt
         like the current time and generate a hash (either SHA or MD5) of
         it. I use part of the the hash string value as the key.

     Another solution is provided by Rasmus Lerdorf <rasmus@vex.net>.

     Rasmus writes:

         The issue here is not so much how to generate a key, but how to
         ensure it is unique. The way I have done it in the past is to
         associate a lock file with each table. Each table has a counter
         record. With the table locked, I pull out the current counter
         value, increment it, and put it back. Then I unlock the table. This
         is not the most efficient way to do it, but it does work nicely for
         systems that do not get pounded with queries.

     Others have suggested using a timestamp with milli second granularity.
     This approach has its pitfalls.

        o Not all client side operating systems have access to the
          gettimeofday() calls (or its equivalent).
        o Not all systems can determine the system time to the milli second.
        o Because the timestamps are being determined by the clients, it is
          possible for two clients to arrive at the same timestamp. This
          problem is amplified if you have a number of clients running on
          different machines which are not synchronised. This can be avoided
          by recalculating the timestamp if an insert operation fails due to
          a duplicate key error.
        o Clocks may drift backwards causing old timestamps to be reused.
          Sites that use time synchronisation methods such as rdate or xntp
          may be prone to this.

   * Use a patch provided Jochem Wiedmann <wiedmann@wiedmann.neckar-alb.de>.
     This patch allows you to declare a key as:

         AUTO PRIMARY KEY

     This patch is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLpatches/msql-auto-pkey.patch.gz
         (6329 bytes)

   * Marcantonio Magnarapa <marcantonio@magnarapa.com> submits this
     suggestion for those of you with web interfaces to your mSQL databases:

     Marcantonio writes:

         I have found a quick and dirty method that works for most
         situations. In my case, I include in the web form where I insert
         something into the database a HIDDEN field whose value is
         determined by a webpage hit counter. Any text-based server-side
         include hit counter is fine. For instance, in my page I have
         something like:

         <input type=hidden name=id value="<!--#exec cgi-bin/counter.pl>" >

         the ID field is always different, although it may not be sequential.
         this didn't require a single line of code because I already had a
         hitcounter, and this is supposed to work for many situations.

mSQL version 2.x has an automatic sequence number associated with each
table. More on this in later FAQs.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How can I avoid compiler redefinition errors when compiling my own mSQL
applications?

When building your own mSQL applications you may encounter compiler errors
similar to:

    /usr/local/Minerva/include/msql.h:30: redefinition of `m_row'
    /usr/local/Minerva/include/msql.h:32: redefinition of `struct field_s'

This occurs because the mSQL header file msql.h has been included more than
once.

To avoid this, apply the following patch to msql.h contributed by Vesa Tuomi
<vesa@cardinal.fi>

*** ./src/msql/msql.h.orig Wed Mar  6 09:27:20 1996
--- ./src/msql/msql.h      Thu Mar  7 10:29:46 1996
***************
*** 16,21 ****
--- 16,23 ----
  **
  */

+ #ifndef       __MSQL_H__
+ #define       __MSQL_H__

  #if defined(__STDC__) || defined(__cplusplus)
  #  define __ANSI_PROTO(x)     x
***************
*** 109,111 ****
--- 111,115 ----
  #ifdef __cplusplus
        }
  #endif
+
+ #endif        /* __MSQL_H__ */

and rerun the make install phase of the mSQL installation procedure. This
will remake all the core mSQL applications and install the modified msql.h
file in your installation include directory. It will also reinstall the core
mSQL applications in your installation bin directory. There is NO need to
recompile any other third party applications.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How do I link the mSQL library with my own code?

Most compilers will search a well defined list of standard directories for
include and library files. These are typically /usr/include, /usr/lib, /lib
and occasionally /usr/local/include and /usr/local/lib. If you wish to use
files that are outside these locations you must tell your compiler which
directories to search.

Most C compilers understand the command line arguments:

    -Iinclude_directory

and

    -Llibrary_directory

to mean "search the directory include_directory for include files and search
the directory library_directory for libraries".

If you wish to compile a program that will communicate with the mSQL
database server you must tell the compiler where the mSQL include and
library files were installed. Assuming you installed mSQL in
/usr/local/Minerva and you use gcc, the syntax would resemble:

    gcc -c -I/usr/local/Minerva/include your_prog.c
    gcc -o your_prog your_prog.o -L/usr/local/Minerva -lmsql

Note: Libraries MUST be specified last. Most compilers will give strange
errors if you specify the library paths and libraries before any .c or .o
files.

Note: that the mSQL library name has been truncated. The actual mSQL library
file name is libmsql.a. However, the compiler (and the link loader) only
need the unique part of the file name so the lib and .a components should be
removed when passing the library name on the command line.

If you are using an SVR4 version of Unix (such as Solaris 2.x) you may also
have to include some networking libraries:

    gcc -o your_prog your_prog.o -lsocket -lnsl -L/usr/local/Minerva -lmsql

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How can I find the number of rows in a table?

If you're writing code in C, the following will work:

    msqlQuery(dbsocket, "SELECT * from blah");
    result = msqlStoreResult();
    number = msqlNumRows(result);
    msqlFreeResult(result);

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How can I delete all the rows in a table without destroying the table
structure?

If you wish to clear the contents of a table without actually dropping the
table, use the following syntax:

    DELETE FROM table_name\g

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How can I import flat files or other database formats into an mSQL table?

For users of mSQL version 1.x, use Pascal Forget's <pascal@wsc.com>
msql-import utility. Details on how to obtain this utility can be found in
the "Contributed Code and Third Party Applications" section. Look for the
subsection titled "Flat File Importer".

msql-import is bundled with mSQL version 2.x.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How can I determine the number of rows affected by my last query?

David Hughes <bambi@hughes.com.au> writes:

    In mSQL 2.0 the return value from msqlQuery() tells you the number
    of rows "touched" by the query (i.e. deleted for a
    DELETE, returned for a SELECT, modified for an UPDATE etc).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How can I get w3-msql to work with w3-auth?

Jason Hudgins <hudginsj@smtp.dancooks.com> has written a paper on "The
Unofficial Guide to W3-AUTH". It is available from:

    http://www.dancooks.com/~jason/w3-msql/w3auth.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
          ---------------------------------------------------------

                Contributed Code and Third Party Applications

Note: Many of the URLs in this section have changed to reflect a directory
reorganisation at ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib. The packages
in question will not be flagged as changed unless the package itself has
been updated since the last release of the FAQ.

A number of people have contributed additional software that works with
mSQL. The contributed software falls into two categories - that developed by
David Hughes (mSQL's author) and that developed by others.

Note: Please consult the documentation that comes with each of these
applications to determine the licensing obligations that may be involved in
their use.

Note: Some of these applications are available via anonymous ftp from the
mSQL contributed code directory ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib.
There is often a delay of a day or so for newly released files to be moved
from the ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Incoming directory to the
ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib directory.

    ESL                      mSQL Tools

    w3-msql                  mSQL User Interface for Windows

    Lite                     (=) msutil - an alternative C API for mSQL

    Addf-Secure              MS Windows

    Apache                   NeXTSTEP EOF

    Applixware               Object Oriented HTML API

    Backup Script            OCX

    Bind                     ODBC

    Command Line Tool        Onyx

    Dbadmin                  (=) Open Systems Cafe

    DBASE                    OS/2

    DBI/DBD                  Perl

    DBunk                    PHP - Home Page Construction Kit

    Dbview                   PTS

    Digger                   Python

    Emacs                    RADIUS

    Flat File Importer       REXX

    HTML Interface to mSQL   Simple SQL

    ICI                      SQLBase

    Jate                     Tcl

    Java                     Time and date utilities

    Jio                      tkmSQL

    LISP/Scheme              Unique sequence number generator

    Lite Repository          Virtual Database

    Meta-HTML                VirtuFlex

    MS Access to mSQL        Visual Basic

    MS Access and dBase III  WDB

    mSQL CGI                 Websql

    mSQLexpire               Wojciech Tryc's Repository

    mSQL Export              XfSQL

    mSQL Keeper              Xsqlmenu

    mSQL Summary             Z Classes for C++

ESL
     David developed mSQL as the database component of a larger network
     management project called Minerva (Minerva was the Roman goddess of
     knowledge and information). Another component of Minerva is an
     Extensible Scripting Language called ESL. This has a C like syntax and
     provides support for the complete mSQL API as well as full SNMP
     support. It is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/esl/esl-0.3.tar.gz
         (407046 bytes)

W3-mSQL
     David has also developed W3-mSQL which is an interface between the
     World-Wide Web and mSQL. It is a mechanism that can be used to greatly
     simplify the use of an SQL database behind a web server. Using W3-mSQL,
     you can embed SQL queries within your pages and have the results
     generated on the fly. It is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/w3-msql/w3-msql-1.0.3.tar.gz
         (54811 bytes)

     W3-mSQL version 2.0 is bundled with mSQL 2.x. It uses the bundled Lite
     language embedded within HTML tags.

     W3-mSQL version 2.0 is incompatible with version 1.x.

     More details on version 2.0 of W3-mSQL can be found in the
     documentation distributed with mSQL 2.x.

Lite
     Bundled with mSQL version 2.x is Lite. Lite has a C like syntax and is
     designed as a stand alone scripting language for use with mSQL.

     More details on Lite can be found in the documentation distributed with
     mSQL 2.x.

Addf-Secure
     Max Levchin <mlevchin@ampere.scale.uiuc.edu> has written a utility that
     will allow you to securely add a new column to an mSQL table. More
     details can be found at:

         http://ampere.scale.uiuc.edu/~mlevchin/addf

Apache
     Dirk van Gulik <Dirk.vanGulik@jrc.it> has developed some code for use
     with HTML and HTTP servers with specific reference to the Apache HTTP
     server. It is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://ftp.ceo.org/pub/ewse-mSQL-apache-demos/apache-msql-demo.1.0.1.tar.gz
         (12723 bytes)

     If you require a module that allows the Apache httpd daemon to perform
     authentication via an mSQL database, grab the file:

         http://www.apache.org/dist/contrib/modules/mod_auth_msql.c
         (9269 bytes)

Applixware
     Cameron Newham <cam@sspl.demon.co.uk> has written a shared library and
     query utility for Applixware, interfacing to MSQL 2.0. You can find
     more details at:

         http://www.iinet.com.au/~cam/applix.html

Backup Script
     C Latham <clatham@nerosworld.com> has written a shell script that will
     backup mSQL databases. It is reprinted here in full:

     #!/bin/sh
     #       $Id: faq.txt,v 1.2 1998/02/10 21:18:49 joey Exp $
     #       by: clatham@nerosworld.com
     #
     #       usage: msqlbckp [-h host] 'backup directory'
     #
     #   This script creates daily backups of mSQL databases. Input parameters are
     #   host machine (if msqld is not running on local machine) and the pathname
     #   of a directory where the backups will be made. The backups will be named:
     #   {table name}.{day of week}.gz  (They are gzipped).
     #
     #   The structure of the backup files are in a format that can be read
     #   by the 'msql' program to completely restore the database, by first
     #   dropping the corrupt table, then recreating the table and populating it
     #   with data (it is required that the database itself already exists, which
     #   may require the database administrator to use msqladmin to create the
     #   database in extreme circumstances).
     #
     #   Access is required to msqldump, relshow and gzip.
     #
     #   Set crontab to execute this script at, say, 4 am every day, every other
     #   day, or however often you want backups of your databases.
     #

     err( ) {
             echo usage: msqlbckp [-h host] 'backup directory'
             exit 1
     }

     case $# in
     1)
             bdir=$1
             ;;
     3)
             if [ $1 = "-h" ]
             then
                     host="-h "$2
             else
                     err
             fi
             bdir=$3
             ;;
     *)
             err
             ;;
     esac

     dow=`date '+%A'`   # Get the day of the week

     # Use relshow to get a list of the available databases, and pare that down
     # into a file listing one database name per line...
     relshow ${host} | \
             sed -n -e '/^....[ \-].*/d' -e 's/  \| //' -e 's/ *\|//p' \
             >${bdir}/db.names

     # Get each database name from the file for table processing
     dbline=1
     while [ 1 ]     # Do forever until no more db names
     do
             dodb=`cat ${bdir}/db.names | sed -n "${dbline}p"`
             if [ "${dodb}" = "" ]   # if no more db names to do
             then
                     break
             fi

             cf=${bdir}/${dodb}.${dow}       # Define current working file

     echo "#
     # mSQL Dump of Database: ${dodb}
     #
     # Begin by dropping all tables
     #---------------------------------------------

     " > ${cf}

             # Now add commands to 'drop' each table in the database
             relshow ${host} ${dodb} | \
             sed -n -e '/^....[ \-].*/d' -e 's/  \| //' -e 's/ *\|//p' | \
             awk '($0 !~ /^$/) { print "DROP TABLE", $1, "\\g" }' >> ${cf}

             echo " " >> ${cf}

             # Dump the database structure and data into the backup file
             msqldump ${host} ${dodb} >> ${cf}

             # Finally, gzip the file
             gzip -f ${cf}

             # Next database name
             dbline=`expr ${dbline} + 1`
     done

     rm ${bdir}/db.names     # Get rid of temp file

Bind
     Chris Seawood <mgrcls@nextwork.rose-hulman.edu> has extended the DNS
     naming service - BIND - to support mSQL databases. It is available in
     the contrib/msql directory of the current release of BIND which can be
     obtained via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://ftp.vix.com/pub/bind/release/bind-4.9.3-REL.tar.gz
         (1682741 bytes)

     Chris has also released a beta version of msql_bind that works with
     mSQL version 2.x. For more details see:

         http://www.seawood.org/msql_bind

Command Line Tool
     Kai Mysliwiec <kvm@camelot.de> has developed an mSQL tool that allows
     you to send SQL queries from the command line. It is available from:

         http://www.camelot.de/~kvm/progs/sql.tar.gz
         (14083 bytes)

Dbadmin
     James Harrell <gt4960a@prism.gatech.edu> has developed a CGI
     application that allows database administration using a web based form
     interface. A demonstration can be seen at:

         http://bauhaus.skiles.gatech.edu/~jharrell

     Source code is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/dbadmin/dbadmin_v1.0.1.tar.gz

DBASE
     Maarten Boekhold <M.Boekhold@et.tudelft.nl> has written a dbase to mSQL
     conversion utility. It handles the dbf data types string, num, real and
     date. It does not yet handle memo-fields because mSQL 1.x lacks support
     for variable length char fields. Maarten is aware that this may be
     insufficient for some users' needs but he is releasing the utility as
     'do-whatever-you-want' software. It is available via anonymous ftp
     from:

         ftp://ftp.nerosworld.com/pub/SQL/dbf2sql/dbf2sql-2.2.tar.gz
         (18207 bytes)

DBI/DBD
     Tim Bunce <Tim.Bunce@ig.co.uk> is working on a generic database driver
     (DBI) which allows perl to interface to any database in a standardised
     way. Details of Tim's work are available from:

         http://www.hermetica.com

     Alligator Decartes <descarte@hermetica.com> has added an mSQL driver to
     Tim's work and his contributions can be obtained via anonymous ftp
     from:

         ftp://ftp.mcqueen.com/pub/dbperl

     It is also available from any CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network)
     site in the "modules" directory. For more information about CPAN see:

         ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN

     The latest blurb describing Alligator's work can be obtained from:

         http://www.hermetica.com/technologia/DBI

DBunk
     Dave Shevett <shevett@homeport.org> has written DBunk - a Java based
     graphical front end to mSQL. Source code is available from:

         http://www.homeport.org/~shevett/dbunk.tar.gz

Dbview
     Gian Paolo Ciceri <gp.ciceri@it.net> has written a utility similar to
     relshow.

     It shows the structure of an mSQL database as well as indicating the
     number of records in the tables.

     It is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/dbview/dbview.c.lsm
         (563 bytes)

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/dbview/dbview.c
         (16933 bytes)

Digger
     The folks at Bunyip Information Services (the current maintainers of
     the mSQL mailing list) have used mSQL as the database component of
     their Digger system.

     Digger is a Distributed Directory Service for the Internet based on
     Whois++ technology. For more information about digger send mail to
     <digger-info@bunyip.com> or have a look at Bunyip's web pages:

         http://www.bunyip.com/products/digger

Emacs
     Igor Romanenko <igor@frog.kiev.ua> has contributed some lisp code to
     provide emacs with hooks into mSQL. It allows the msql monitor to run
     in an emacs window, so you can use emacs for editing and command
     recall. It is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLEmacs/sql-mode.tar.gz
         (6883 bytes)

Flat File Importer
     Pascal Forget <pascal@wsc.com> has contributed a program that will
     import flat file databases directly into mSQL databases. It supports
     both the version 1.x and 2.x releases of mSQL. It is available via
     anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://ftp.wsc.com/pub/freeware/msql/msql-import-0.1.4.tar.gz
         (14281 bytes)

     Notwithstanding any bug fixes, this will be the last "stand alone"
     release of msql-import that can be used with mSQL version 1.x. Future
     versions will be bundled with mSQL version 2.x.

HTML Interface to mSQL
     Sol Katz <skatz@blm.gov> has written some C code that demonstrates an
     HTML interface to mSQL. Unlike other applications, this program does
     not need to be modified when new mSQL tables or databases are created.
     All required information is contained in the html.

     It is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLCGI/msqlc2.zip
         (29002 bytes)

     and also from:

         ftp://ftp.blm.gov/pub/gis/msqlc2.zip
         (29002 bytes)

     It can be seen in operation at:

         http://www.blm.gov/gis/msql/vertical/test2.html

ICI
     Yiorgos Adamopoulos <Y.Adamopoulos@noc.ntua.gr> has written an mSQL
     extension for the ICI programming language. It is available via
     anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://ftp.ntua.gr/pub/lang/ici/iciMsql.tar.gz
         (249077 bytes)

     Yiorgos has set up a mailing list for iciMsql. Questions can be sent
     to:

         iciMsql@noc.ntua.gr

Jate
     Josef <ht@aiace.lnf.infn.it> has developed Jate - a CGI program that
     builds HTML interfaces to mSQL databases. More details can be found at:

         http://aiace.lnf.infn.it/~ht/JATE.html

(-) Java
     Darryl Collins <darryl@minmet.uq.oz.au> has developed a version of the
     mSQL API for the Java programming language.

     MsqlJava for mSQL version 1.x is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://dada.minmet.uq.edu.au/pub

     MsqlJava for mSQL version 2.x is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://dada.minmet.uq.edu.au/pub/MsqlJava-1.2.0.tar.gz
         (23483 bytes)

     For more details see:

         http://www.minmet.uq.oz.au/msqljava

     George Reese <borg@imaginary.com> has developed a Java Database
     Connection (JDBC) class library using MsqlJava. It is available via
     anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://ftp.imaginary.com/pub/Java/database/mSQL-JDBC.tar.gz
         (33063 bytes)

     For more details see:

         http://www.imaginary.com/Java

     Douglas Beeson <beesond@ecworld.org> reports:

         Sun has just released its Java Servlets API that includes, among other
         things, a Java runtime that works from within Netscape servers, similar
         to a plug-in. The same servlet runner is available for ISAPI and the
         Apache server. With a servlet written in Java and using the Java-mSQL
         package cited in the FAQ, you can open a connection to an mSQL database
         on the local or remote server, query the DB and return the result as
         HTML using an http response object pre-defined in the servlet API.
         Best of all, the servlets API is free.

         http://jserv.javasoft.com/products/java-server/sdk/index.shtml

Jio
     Simon Kenyon <S.Kenyon@koala.ie> has developed Jio which is a dynamic
     web content generation system written as a Java servlet. It uses JDBC
     to connect to mSQL which contains the data. All generated pages are
     created using templates. Source code is included and it is free for
     commercial use. See the COPYRIGHT file included with the Jio
     distribution for details.

     It is available via anonymous ftp from:

         http://www.koala.ie/jio/dist/jio-1.3.tar.gz
         (35104 bytes)

LISP/Scheme
     George J. Carrette <gjc@world.std.com> has developed SIOD which is "a
     small-footprint implementation of the Scheme programming language that
     is provided with some database, unix programming and cgi scripting
     extensions". SIOD provides interfaces to Oracle, Sybase, mSQL and
     Digital RDB databases.

     Details of the current release of SIOD can be found at:

         http://people.delphi.com/gjc/siod.html

     The latest copy of SIOD can usually be found at:

         ftp://ftp.std.com/pub/gjc/siod.tgz
         (156846 bytes)

     or

         http://people.delphi.com/gjc/siod.tgz
         (156730 bytes)

     George has used SIOD as part of a system to:

         abstract html tricks from programming tricks by considering html
         files, or portions of html files, to be templates or chunks of html
         upon which simple substitutions are made

     More details of "Chunk HTML" can be found at:

         http://people.delphi.com/gjc/chtml.html

Lite Repository
     Jeanne Gold <goldj@Ix.netcom.com> has established a site for Lite
     contributions. For more details see:

         http://www.gold-cousins.org/lite_site

Meta-HTML
     Universal Access Inc has released a version of their Meta-HTML
     scripting language which has extensions for connecting to mSQL
     databases.

     Henry Minsky <hqm@ua.com> writes:

         <Meta-HTML> is a programming language specifically designed
         for working within the World Wide Web environment. Although it is a
         genuine programming language, suitable for large-scale symbolic
         manipulation, it provides the most commonly wanted Web
         functionality as built-in primitives, so you don't have to write
         them.

     More details (including source code) can be found at:

         http://www.metahtml.com

     There is also an anonymous ftp site for those of you without web
     access:

         ftp://ftp.metahtml.com/pub

MS Access to mSQL
     Brian Andrews <brian@informate.co.nz> has written a function for use
     with MS Access version 7. This function will take an Access 7 database
     and generate the appropriate mSQL INSERT statements for importing the
     Access 7 data into an mSQL database.

     Brian's original function is available from the mSQL mailing list
     archives for the month of January 1997.

     Jon Hilton <jon@hisa.org.au> has taken Brian's work and corrected a few
     bugs and included support for mSQL version 2.x.

     Jon's function is available from the mSQL mailing list archives for the
     month of February 1997. It is also included here in full:

     Function export_mSQL()

         ' Exports the database contents into a file in mSQL format
         ' IS NOT SELECTIVE! (exports ALL tables)

         Dim dbase As DATABASE, tdef As Recordset, i As Integer, fd As Integer

         Set dbase = CurrentDb()

         ' Open the export file
         Open "E:\cota\infocom1.txt" For Output As #1

         Print #1, "# Converted from MS Access to mSQL "
         Print #1, "# by Brian Andrews, (c) InforMate Technologies, 1997"
         Print #1, ""

         ' Go through the table definitions


         For i = 0 To dbase.TableDefs.Count - 1
             Print #1, "# TableDefs.Count - 1 =" & dbase.TableDefs.Count - 1
             Print #1, "# This is table " & i
             ' Let's take only the visible tables

             If ((dbase.TableDefs(i).Attributes And DB_SYSTEMOBJECT) Or
     (dbase.TableDefs(i).Attributes And DB_HIDDENOBJECT)) Then

             Else

                 ' We DROP the table in case it already exists
                 ' and then create it again

                         tname = "" & dbase.TableDefs(i).Name
                         Print #1, "# Access table " & tname

                 'remove spaces from tablename

                             For j = 1 To Len(tname)

                             If j < Len(tname) Then

                             If Mid$(tname, j, 1) = " " Then


                             s = Left$(tname, j - 1)
                             's = s & "" & Right$(t.Fields(j), Len(t.Fields(j)) - i + 1)
                             s = s & "" & Right$(tname, Len(tname) - j)
                             j = j + 1
                             found = True
                             tname = s
                             'Exit For

                             End If
                             End If

                             Next j

                 'restrict tablename to 19 chars

                 tname = Left$(tname, 19)

                 Print #1, ""
                 Print #1, ""
                 Print #1, "DROP TABLE " & tname & " \p\g"
                 Print #1,
                 Print #1, "CREATE TABLE " & tname & "("


                 ' Step through all the fields in the table

                 For fd = 0 To dbase.TableDefs(i).Fields.Count - 1

                 'All fields are char at the moment - can be changed

                     Dim tyyppi As String, pituus As Integer, comma As String
                     Select Case dbase.TableDefs(i).Fields(fd).Type
                         Case DB_BOOLEAN
                             tyyppi = "char (8)"
                         Case DB_INTEGER, DB_BYTE, DB_LONG
                             tyyppi = "int"
                         Case DB_DOUBLE, DB_SINGLE, DB_CURRENCY
                             tyyppi = "real"
                         Case DB_TEXT
                             pituus = dbase.TableDefs(i).Fields(fd).Size
                             tyyppi = "char (" & pituus & ")"
                    ' Need to leave enough room in date fields for date & time
                         Case DB_DATE
                              tyyppi = "char (17)"
                    ' For some reason, DB_GUID doesn't seem to be noticed - 15 is the value
                         Case DB_MEMO, DB_GUID, DB_LONGBINARY, 15

                    'Special case fields - specific to one of my projects

                             If dbase.TableDefs(i).Fields(fd).Name = "Fund Summary " Then
                             tyyppi = "char (1500)"
                             ElseIf dbase.TableDefs(i).Fields(fd).Name = "Fund Analysis " Then
                             tyyppi = "char (3000)"
                             Else
                             tyyppi = "text (100)"
                             End If

                     End Select

                     ' Don't print the separating comma after the last field

                     If fd < dbase.TableDefs(i).Fields.Count - 1 Then
                         comma = ","
                     Else
                         comma = ""
                     End If

                     ' Print the field definition

                     'remove spaces from fieldname

                            stuff = "" & dbase.TableDefs(i).Fields(fd).Name

                             For j = 1 To Len(stuff)

                             If j < Len(stuff) Then

                             If Mid$(stuff, j, 1) = " " Then


                             s = Left$(stuff, j - 1)
                             's = s & "" & Right$(t.Fields(j), Len(t.Fields(j)) - i + 1)
                             s = s & "" & Right$(stuff, Len(stuff) - j)
                             j = j + 1
                             found = True
                             stuff = s
                             'Exit For

                             End If
                             End If

                             Next j

                    stuff = Left$(stuff, 19)

                    'mSQL 1 primary key declaration - always on first field
                    'mSQL 2 - now we need to use CREATE INDEX. Don't bother for now.

                    'If fd = 0 Then
                     'Print #1, "     " & stuff & " " & tyyppi & " primary key" & comma
                     'Else
                     Print #1, "     " & stuff & " " & tyyppi & comma
                    'End If

                 Next fd

                 Print #1, ")\p\g"
                 Print #1, ""


                 Dim recset As Recordset
                 Set recset = dbase.OpenRecordset(dbase.TableDefs(i).Name)

                 ' Step through the rows in the table
                 reccount = recset.RecordCount
                 If reccount <> 0 Then
                 recset.MoveFirst
                 Do Until recset.EOF
                     Dim row As String, it As String

                     row = "INSERT INTO " & tname & " VALUES ("

                     ' Go through the fields in the row

                     For fd = 0 To recset.Fields.Count - 1
                         Dim is_string As String

                         is_string = ""
                         stuff = "" & recset.Fields(fd).Value
                         Select Case recset.Fields(fd).Type
                   ' For some reason, DB_GUID doesn't seem to be noticed - 15 is the value
                         Case DB_TEXT, DB_MEMO, DB_GUID, DB_DATE, DB_LONGBINARY, DB_BOOLEAN, 15
                             is_string = "'"
                         Case Else
                              If stuff = "" Then
                                 stuff = "0"
                              End If
                         End Select




                         '**** escape single quotes
                         x = InStr(stuff, "'")
                         While x <> 0
                                 s = Left$(stuff, x - 1)
                                 s = s & "\" & Right$(stuff, Len(stuff) - x + 1)
                                 stuff = s
                                 x = InStr(x + 2, stuff, "'")
                         Wend

                         row = row & is_string & stuff & is_string
                         If fd < recset.Fields.Count - 1 Then
                             row = row & ","
                         End If
                     Next fd

                     ' Add trailers and print

                     row = row & ")\p\g"
                     Print #1, row

                     ' Move to the next row

                     recset.MoveNext
                 Loop

                 recset.Close
                 Set recset = Nothing

             End If
         End If
         Next i



         Close #1

         dbase.Close
         Set dbase = Nothing

     End Function

MS Access & dBase III
     Brian Bartholemew <bb@wizard.pn.com> has written some scripts that
     translate dBase III tables saved from MS Access into tab-separated
     formats.

     Brian writes:

         Here are three scripts, the first two are clean ones that break out
         tables saved from access in dBaseIII format into a tab-separated
         format that a set of database-operator scripts called rdb can use.
         The first breaks out .dbf files and the second breaks out .dbt
         files which contain the text of variable-length-text memo fields;
         the .dbf and .dbt can be joined by the block offset number given in
         the text field. These scripts have only been tested on the field
         types my database happens to have. Since the first one breaks out
         the table definitions it's the obvious candidate to generate table
         definitions for msql. The third script is a hack to get data into
         msql so I can play with msql, but it's a starting point. The first
         two scripts were written to be free of data-dependent bugs, the
         third is somehow confused about null fields in Pascal's msql-import
         program which I've hacked around to enter the complaining fields as
         the text "NULL"; debugging is welcomed. The third script
         needs rdb, available from rand.org:/pub/RDB-hobbs. I do MS Access
         -> rdb -> msql because I use rdb as a prototyping tool, the
         format is trivial to generate and modify, I have a forms-based
         emacs front-end to rdb, and the tables compress nicely in rcs.
         However, someone may wish to modify these scripts, (a) so that they
         generate msql dump files instead of rdb files, thereby bypassing
         the msql-import bug and the rdb dependency and probably some data
         dependencies with maximum portability, or (b) so that they talk to
         the database directly. If so please post diffs. Trigger the new
         behaviour by a command-line option so the non-msql-perl behaviour
         continues to run under vanilla perl. These programs are gpl'ed.

     They are available from the mSQL mailing list archives for the month of
     February 1996.

mSQL CGI
     Alex Tang <altitude@petrified.cic.net> has written an mSQL front end as
     a CGI program. For more details see:

         http://petrified.cic.net/MsqlCGI

mSQLexpire
     Scott Burkett <scottb@dcicorp.com> has developed an mSQL utility that
     provides a mechanism for automatic expiration of records based on age.
     Further details can be seen at:

         http://www.dcicorp.com/~scottb/projects/msqlexpire

mSQL-Export
     Kerry Garrison <garrison@delta.net> has developed a Perl script that
     will export an mSQL table to a delimited text file. Further details can
     be seen at:

         http://design.delta.net/msqltools

mSQL Keeper
     Chris Lambrou <chrislambrou@ineternetmci.com> has written an mSQL
     maintenance utility called mSQL Keeper.

     "mSQL Keeper is a collection of perl scripts that enables easy
     management of an mSQL database. It requires no knowledge of SQL. All
     database maintenance functions are executed through a GUI front end,
     and SQL statements are built and submitted to the mSQL engine from mSQL
     Keeper."

     mSQL Keeper currently supports mSQL 1.x databases. Chris has plans for
     an mSQL 2.x version once mSQL 2.x stabilises.

     More details can be found at:

         http://www.cglis.com/msql_keeper

mSQL Summary
     David Perry <deperry@nerosworld.com> had someone write a program for
     him that takes an SQL select statement (such as select distinct
     fieldname, fieldname2, fieldnameN from tablename order by fieldname)
     and propagates a second table with the results. It is available via
     anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://ftp.nerosworld.com/pub/msql/Contrib/mSQLsummary/mSQL_summary.tar

mSQL Tools
     Kerry Garrison <garrison@delta.net> has setup a site that catalogues a
     number of mSQL tools. It can be found at:

         http://design.delta.net/msqltools

mSQL User Interface for Windows
     Chris Mai <chrissde@aol.com> has developed a user interface for
     Microsoft Windows that will connect to mSQL databases. It is available
     via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLui/msql-ui.zip

(=) msutil - an alternative C API for mSQL
     Rich Bryant <rbb@iseek.com> has developed an alternate C API for use
     with mSQL. Details on msutil can be found at:

         http://iseek.com/biztek/docs/msutil

MS Windows
     Dean Fuqua <fuqua@niehs.nih.gov> has contributed an mSQL API for MS
     Windows platforms. To use this software you need some Winsock compliant
     stack. (i.e. Trumpet Winsock, MS TCP/IP-32, Chameleon, etc.) It is
     available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLwinapi/winapi.zip
         (87211 bytes)

     Not included in winapi.zip is an msql.ini file. Its contents should
     resemble

         [Server]
         IP=your.server.host.name
         Port=1112
         Username=YourUsername

     There also appears to be a later version of Dean's work which includes
     compiled executables in

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/Win-mSQL/winmsql7.zip
         (306827 bytes)

     Peter Tillemans <pti@net4all.be> has taken Dirk Ohme's
     <dohme@transtec.de> OS/2 port of mSQL and used it to produce a Windows
     95/NT version of mSQL. This port can be obtained via anonymous ftp
     from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/Win-mSQL/msql116b-w32.zip
         (755355 bytes)

     Peter Tillemans <pti@net4all.be> and Fernando Lozano <bl@blnet.com>
     have created the "mSQL PC Home-Page". Their work can be seen at:

         http://blnet.com/msqlpc

NeXTSTEP EOF
     Mark Onyschuk <ask-oa@oa.guild.org> has developed an NeXTSTEP EOF
     adaptor for mSQL.

     An Enterprise Object Framework (EOF) is an object framework that allows
     object oriented access to relational databases, where each row is
     considered an object. Besides a few limitations, it basically makes a
     relational database look like an OO database to the developer. By means
     of an adaptor, EOF can be used with virtually any database. The adaptor
     is responsible to transform the generic OO messages in database
     specific queries by subclassing a generic adaptor and modifying its
     behaviour.

Object Oriented HTML API
     Sol Katz <skatz@blm.gov> has developed an object oriented HTML API for
     mSQL.

     It is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://ftp.blm.gov/pub/gis/msql_api.tar.gz
         (10317 bytes)

     An example can be found at

         http://www.blm.gov/gis/msql/dbs6.html

OCX
     Shayne Hughes <shayne@vgl.ucdavis.edu> has created a 32-bit OCX control
     that exposes all of the mSQL API (based on 1.0.12) with only slight
     modifications to make it work with pointer impaired languages like
     Visual Basic. It is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://vgl.ucdavis.edu/pub/mSQL/ocxmsql-0.90.zip
         (1685189 bytes)

     Chin-Jin Phua <jojo@ttsh.gov.sg> has also developed a mSQL 32-bit OCX
     for Windows95 and WinNT. He has only tested it for Visual Basic.

         ftp://Bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLwinapi/msqlocx.zip
         (17409 bytes)

ODBC
        o Dean Fuqua <fuqua@niehs.nih.gov> has developed a collection of
          ODBC files which are available via anonymous ftp from:

              ftp://ftp.comed.com/pub/msql/odbc

          For more information on Dean's work see:

              http://alfred.niehs.nih.gov

        o Kevin Gill <kgill@kindle.ie> has extended Dean's work and
          developed ODBC software for connecting Visual Basic 3.0 to an mSQL
          server. His work can be obtained via anonymous ftp from:

              ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLODBC

          The following files give some out of date general information
          about the gorta software:

              ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLODBC/gorta.faq
              (27450 bytes)

              http://www.cyber.com.au/misc/gorta.htm

          The gorta software operates as either a 32 bit or a 16 bit ODBC
          driver. Different libraries/programs are required for each.

          For the 16 bit version (Windows 3.1 and 3.11) install:

              ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLODBC/wmsqlrts.zip
              (11693 bytes)       - Mini-SQL API DLL (Must install First)
              ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLODBC/gorta-rts.2.10.0.6.zip
              (17014 bytes)       - Gorta Driver

          For the 32 bit version (Windows 95) install:

              ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLODBC/wmsqlr32-rts.zip
              (43193 bytes)       - Mini-SQL API 32 bit DLL (Must Install First)
              ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLODBC/gorta32-rts.2.10.0.6.zip
              (22260 bytes)       - Gorta 32 bit driver

          The following test tools are available. (These are 16 bit but
          should work with the 32 bit drivers).

              ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLODBC/wmslqrs.zip
              (20257 bytes)       - A DOS/Windows version of the relshow program
              ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLODBC/gortars.1.0.zip
              (23756 bytes)       - An ODBC version of the relshow program

          To install the ODBC driver for the first time requires the use of
          an install disk. This installs version 2.10.0.3 of the gorta
          drivers. Install from this and then overwrite the gorta dll (in
          the windows/system directory) with the one in the gorta 2.10.0.6
          zip file. The install disk installs both the 16 and 32 bit
          versions of ODBC.

              ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLODBC/installd.zip
              (225019 bytes)

          The install disk tends to replace dlls with older versions. This
          is a problem if you have ODBC already running. Check the DLLs on
          the disk, and make a copy of your dlls before starting.

              ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLODBC/gortars.1.0.zip
              (23756 bytes)
              ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLODBC/gortarts.2.10.0.3.zip
              (17480 bytes)
              ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLODBC/gortasrc.2.10.0.3.zip
              (51770 bytes)
              ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLODBC/installd.zip
              (225019 bytes)
              ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLODBC/msql-1.12-dump.tar.gz
              (158282 bytes)
              ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLODBC/wmsqlrs.zip
              (20257 bytes)
              ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLODBC/wmsqlrts.zip
              (11693 bytes)
              ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLODBC/wmsqlsrc.zip
              (15089 bytes)

        o An ODBC API for Linux is available. For more details see:

              http://users.ids.net/~bjepson/freeODBC

          Dirk Ohme <dohme@transtec.de> has ported this API to OS/2, SunOS
          4.x and Solaris 2.x. This port is available via anonymous ftp
          from:

              ftp://ftp.nerosworld.com/pub/SQL/iODBC/iODBC-1.00.5.zip
              (1023149 bytes)

        o Ian Nicholls <iann@ram.net.au> of Ram Network Services has
          developed a Delphi class that will interface with mSQL version
          1.x. Ian also reports that they have a C++ version which runs
          under Linux. He stresses that the code is still only in its beta
          test phase but is "getting stronger every day".

          For more details please send some mail to Ian at
          <iann@ram.net.au>.

Onyx
     Michael Koehne <kraehe@bakunin.north.de> has developed a rapid
     prototyping tool for database applications called Onyx.

     Onyx consists of a transaction manager, a shell like 4GL and a Simple
     Database Transaction Protocol engine.

     "Onyx is designed by the Model-View-Controller paradigm, so tables are
     the model, masks are the views and transactions are the controllers
     which can be bound to an input field, a menu, function keys or the
     change of the current record in a cursor."

     It is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://ftp.uni-bremen.de/pub/unix/database/Onyx/Onyx.2.45.src.tar.gz
         (195872 bytes)

(=) Open Systems Cafe
     Rich Bryant <rbb@iseek.com> and Julian Pickard <julian@iseek.com> have
     established the Open Systems Cafe. "The Cafe is designed to be an up to
     date information clearing house for anything associated with open
     systems computing". The Cafe has a discussion area dedicated to mSQL.
     For more details see:

         http://iseek.com/Cafe

OS/2
     Dirk Ohme <dohme@transtec.de> has ported mSQL 1.0.16 to OS/2. This
     version now includes an ODBC-compliant manager/driver within the
     package. It is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://ftp.nerosworld.com/pub/msql/contrib/mSQLOS2/msql116e.lsm
         (1913 bytes)

         ftp://ftp.nerosworld.com/pub/msql/contrib/mSQLOS2/msql116e.zip
         (871729 bytes)

     Dirk has also finished a beta version of mSQL 2.0 for OS/2. This
     release is based on mSQL 2.0B6. It is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://ftp.nerosworld.com/pub/msql/contrib/mSQLOS2/msql20b6.lsm
         (2228 bytes)

         ftp://ftp.nerosworld.com/pub/msql/contrib/mSQLOS2/msql20b6.zip
         (1865128 bytes)

     This version also requires Dirk's intrinsic ODBC package. For details
     regarding this package see the "ODBC" section above.

Perl
     Andreas Koenig <a.koenig@mind.de> has contributed a Perl 5 module which
     allows perl to interface to mSQL databases. The latest version is
     available via anonymous ftp from any of the CPAN archives, for example:

         ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/modules/by-category/07_Database_Interfaces/Msql

     For more information about CPAN see:

         ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN

     There is a mailing list for MsqlPerl. Send postings to
     <msqlperl@franz.ww.tu-berlin.de>.

PHP - Home Page Construction Kit
     Rasmus Lerdorf <rasmus@vex.net> has developed a package that allows
     users to create WWW sites with mSQL databases.

     Rasmus writes:

         PHP/FI is a server-side html-embedded scripting language with
         built-in access logging, access restriction, as well as support for
         ndbm, gdbm and mSQL databases. It also implements the RFC-1867
         standard for form-based file uploads.

         The mSQL support is just a small set of functions supported by the
         package. A full set of string manipulation, regular expression,
         directory and file routines complement the script language.

     The source distribution as well as more information is available at:

         http://www.vex.net/php

PTS
     Dave Shevett <shevett@homeport.org> has developed a web based project
     tracking system - PTS. It used mSQL and PHP/FI. For more details see:

         http://www.homeport.org/~shevett/pts

Python
     Anthony Baxter <anthony.baxter@aaii.oz.au> has provided an mSQL
     extension to the Python language. It is available via anonymous ftp
     from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLPython/PymSQL.tar.gz
         (7581 bytes)

     Mark Shuttleworth <marks@aztec.co.za> has improved upon Anthony's
     original work. Mark's work is available via anonymous ftp from:

         http://www.python.org/ftp/python/contrib/Database/mSQL.tar.gz
         (6000 bytes)

     Jeffrey Ollie <jeff@ollie.clive.ia.us> has updated the Python module
     for use with both mSQL version 1.x and 2.x. More details can be found
     at:

         http://www.ollie.clive.ia.us/python/msql

RADIUS
     Tracy Snell <waz@enteract.com> has modified Livingston's RADIUS
     security server to place accounting records in an mSQL database. For
     more details see:

         http://www.enteract.com/isp

     According to Damian Hamill <damian@cablenet.net>, the RADIUS server
     bundled with Cablenet's PoP In A Box ISP server software also supports
     mSQL based accounting records. For more details see:

         http://www.cablenet.net/cablenet/popinabox

REXX
     Mark Hessling <m.hessling@qut.edu.au> has provided an mSQL extension to
     REXX under Un*x and OS/2. It is available via anonymous ftp from the
     following sites:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLREXX
         ftp://ftp.qut.edu.au/src/REXXSQL
         ftp://ftp.xylogics.com/pub/misc/REXXSQL

     You'll need to download the following files:

         rxsqldoc13.lsm (1014 bytes)
         rxsqldoc13.zip (39170 bytes)
         rxsqlmin13.lsm (1001 bytes)
         rxsqlmin13.zip (156525 bytes)
         rxsqlsam13.lsm (1014 bytes)
         rxsqlsam13.zip (25299 bytes)

Simple SQL
     Brian Jepson <bjepson@janus.saturn.net> has developed a fairly
     full-featured database management system toolkit using PHP and mSQL. It
     is available from:

         http://www.saturn.net/~bjepson/simple.html

     Brian has begun work on the successor to Simple SQL. Msql-RDBMS "will
     eventually be a complete relational database management system for
     Msql. It uses HTML forms as an interface". It is available from:

         http://www.perl.com/CPAN/modules/by-module/Msql

SQLBase
     Klaus Thiele <kth@oblib.teuto.de> has provided a wrapper to allow
     SQLBase users to interface to mSQL databases. It is available via
     anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLBase/mSQLBase-1.00.tgz

Tcl
     Hakan Soderstrom <hs@soderstrom.se> has provided an mSQL extension to
     the Tcl language. It has been tested with Tcl 7.5, Tk 4.1 and mSQL
     1.0.16 under SunOS 4.1.4. Successful ports to several other platforms
     have been reported. It is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLTCL/msqltcl-1.99.tar.gz
         (69356 bytes)

     Brad Pepers <pepersb@cuug.ab.ca> has also provided an mSQL extension to
     Tcl. According to the documentation it supports tcl7.3 and tk3.6. It is
     available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLTCL/tcl_msql.tar.gz
         (7998 bytes)

Time and date utilities
     Pascal Forget <pascal@wsc.com> has contributed a library of time and
     date conversion utilities. It is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLtime/time_library.tar.gz
         (7989 bytes)

tkmSQL
     Alligator Decartes <descarte@hermetica.com> is developing an mSQL
     interface that uses Perl 5, Tk, and DBD/DBD-mSQL. It is currently in
     alpha release for developers only but Alligator would appreciate
     feedback.

     tkmSQL requires:

        o perl 5.001m or above
        o Tk-b8

          Note: This is a perl Tk module and is NOT to be confused with Tk
          itself. It can be obtained via anonymous ftp from:

              ftp://ftp.wpi.edu/perl5

          There is also a FAQ available from:

              http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ.html

        o DBI-0.65
        o DBD::mSQL-0.60pl9

     You may obtain tkmSQL via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://ftp.mcqueen.com/pub/databases/dbatools/tkmSQL

Unique sequence number generator
     Pascal Forget <pascal@wsc.com> has contributed a unique sequence number
     generator that can be used by mSQL applications (and others) to provide
     unique identifiers. It is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLsgs/sgs-1.0.0.tar.gz
         (24216 bytes)

Virtual Database
     Damian Hamill <damian@cablenet.net> has written a virtual database
     layer that sits between your application and mSQL. This provides a
     level of abstraction between your application and the database back end
     such that it becomes a fairly simple matter to change database systems
     without changing your application code. The current version is
     available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLVdb/Vdb.tar.gz
         (61670 bytes)

     Damian is working on the next release which will include support for a
     number of different database engines such as mSQL, mysql, Sybase and
     Informix.

VirtuFlex
     VirtuFlex Software has added mSQL support to their web/database
     development tool VirtuFlex. More details can be seen at:

         http://www.virtuflex.com

Visual Basic
     Jim Gerace <kasi@dreamscape.com> has implemented a Visual Basic client
     API for MS Windows and mSQL. It is available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQLVB/msqlcvb.zip
         (42192 bytes)

WDB
     Bo Frese Rasmussen <bfr@dtv.dk> has developed a Web database interface
     called WDB.

     WDB is a software tool set that tremendously simplifies the integration
     of SQL based databases into the World Wide Web. WDB lets you provide
     WWW access to the contents of databases without writing a single line
     of code!

     At the moment WDB supports Sybase, Informx and mSQL. However it is
     relatively easy to port it to other SQL based databases.

     For more details on WDB see:

         http://www.dtv.dk/~bfr/wdb

     Jeff Rowe <beowulf@cscsun4.larc.nasa.gov> has published a tutorial on
     enhancing WDB. Details can be found at:

         http://cscsun1.larc.nasa.gov/~beowulf/tutor/index.html

Websql
     Henry Minsky <hqm@ua.com> has developed an mSQL Table WWW browser
     interface.

     "This is a C web CGI script to examine and modify rows in tables of an
     mSQL database. You should use Netscape or another browser which
     supports HTML 3.0 tables."

     More details and sample output are available from:

         http://www.ua.com/websql

     Source code is available from:

         http://www.ua.com/websql/websql.tar.gz
         (24225 bytes)

Wojciech Tryc's Repository
     Wojciech Tryc <wojtek@tryc.on.ca> has established a repository of mSQL
     and PHP contributed software. It can be found at:

         http://solaris.tryc.on.ca/files/files.phtml

XfSQL
     Mark Loveland <mark@zeus.mysticgrp.com> has developed an X interface to
     mSQL using the Xforms package. Mark's work is available via anonymous
     ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/XfSQL/xfsql.tar.gz
         (74596 bytes)

     Xforms is available for a number of different platforms via anonymous
     ftp from either of the following locations:

         ftp://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/pub/xforms

Xsqlmenu
     Kees Lemmens <lemmens@dv.twi.tudelft.nl> has also developed an X
     interface to mSQL using the Xforms package. Xsqlmenu can be obtained
     via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://ta.twi.tudelft.nl/pub/dv/lemmens/xsqlmenu_1.02s.tar.gz
         (14973 bytes)

     A pre compiled binary for Linux is also available via anonymous ftp
     from:

         ftp://ta.twi.tudelft.nl/pub/dv/lemmens/xsqlmenu_1.02LinuxBin.tar.gz
         (130945 bytes)

     Xforms is available for a number of different platforms via anonymous
     ftp from either of the following locations:

         ftp://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/pub/xforms

     Kees has upgraded Xsqlmenu to support mSQL 2.x. Source code is
     available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://ta.twi.tudelft.nl/pub/dv/lemmens/xsqlmenu.2.01b.tar.gz
         (18601 bytes)

Z Classes for C++
     Dean Fuqua <fuqua@niehs.nih.gov> has also contributed a set of C++
     classes to provide access to both Oracle and mSQL databases. It is
     available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/zmSQL/zmsql-2.1.tar
         (40960 bytes)

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                            Web sites using mSQL

The following web sites are using mSQL as the database component of their
pages.

 3D Planet                          ISP Listing

 Allen's Flowers                    Kelloggs

 Aussie Index                       Kids Health

 Bishop Museum, Honolulu            Matthew Ahrens' Address Book

 Bond University Staff Index        Mondo-DB Project

 Borsen                             Nero's World

 CanadaIT                           NetCal!

 Cinema Brazil                      Newshare Corporation

 Conservation Ecology               North Carolina Insurance Database

 CyberClip                          Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse

 DMX Cable Systems                  Paulina Springs Book Company

 Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer                 Physics Pilot

 EUROPRACTICE                       QMS

 European Wide Service Exchange     QUERRI Bibliographic Server

 First Byte Data Systems            The Railway Exchange

 Government Contractor Resource
 Center                             Used gear price list

 (=) Internet Employment Cafe       Web Ventures

 The IQ NOW Member Directory        Web Integrated Software metrics
                                    Environment

3D Planet
     Mark Mazur <mark@opencad.com> uses mSQL and The Personal Home Page
     Construction Kit to enable users to find the nearest 3D Planet store.
     This page can be seen at:

         http://www.3dplanet.com/d5.html

Allen's Flowers
     As you might expect, Allen's Flowers sells flowers. They use mSQL to
     drive their ordering system. Their web site can be seen at:

         http://www.allensflowers.com

Aussie Index
     Aussie.com.au uses mSQL to collate its list of Australian Web sites.
     Their web page can be seen at:

         http://www.aussie.com.au

Bishop Museum, Honolulu
     Jeffrey Sue <jysue@aloha.net> has used mSQL and Rasmus Lerdorf's PHP
     package to create the first of several web based biology related
     databases. The first database is the arthropod checklist, a list of all
     known arthropods found in the Hawaiian Islands. The next databases will
     be additional checklists, starting with flowering plants. It can be
     seen at:

         http://www.bishop.hawaii.org/bishop/HBS/arthrosearch.html

Bond University Staff Index
     The staff index at Bond University, Queensland Australia uses mSQL to
     power its staff address database. See their web page for more details:

         http://www.Bond.edu.au/Bond/General/MParse/mparse.html

Borsen
     This Danish site uses mSQL as its databases for searches. I can't give
     more information as it is all in Danish and my Danish is truly awful.
     For more details visit:

         http://www.borsen.dk

CanadaIT
     CanadaIT limited uses mSQL. Their web page can be seen at:

          http://www.CanadaIT.com

Cinema Brazil
     Marcos Manhaes Marins <cinemabrazil@ax.apc.org> has used mSQL to power
     the search engine behind the Cinema Brazil web site. For more details
     see:

         http://www.ibase.org.br/~cinemabrazil

Conservation Ecology Journal
     Darryl Staflund <dstaflun@ccs.carleton.ca> uses mSQL behind the online
     journal Conservation Ecology. It can be seen at:

         http://www.consecol.org

CyberClip
     CyberClip uses mSQL to power its Shopper's Index search engine. Their
     web page can be seen at:

         http://www.cyberclip.com

DMX Cables
     Digital Music Express uses mSQL to allow users to search for DMX cable
     service providers in their area. Their web site can be seen at:

         http://www.dmxmusic.com

Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer
     Dave Gymer <dgymer@gdcarc.co.uk> has used mSQL and Dean Fuqua's zclass
     C++ classes to provide a web based database system for his collection
     of compact discs. The CD collection and the source code can be seen at:

         http://www.mal.com/~dgymer/gizmo/music.html

EUROPRACTICE
     EUROPRACTICE is an ASIC manufacturing service. Their home page can be
     found at:

         http://www.imec.be/europractice/europractice.html

European Wide Service Exchange
     The European Wide Service Exchange uses mSQL extensively. Apart from a
     user registration and customization service, complex relational tables
     allow context sensitive searching, both by geographic area as well as
     by 'free text'. Further functionality relying on mSQL includes urn->urc
     resolution services, calendars and an automatic 'what is new page'.
     What makes this site unique however is the ability for the user to add,
     modify or remove data entries from the databases through a web
     interface.

     Their home page can be found at:

         http://ewse.ceo.org

First Byte Data Systems
     First Byte Data Systems uses mSQL to power its product search engine.
     Their home page can be seen at:

         http://www.first-byte.com

Government Contractor Resource Center
     The Government Contractor Resource Center provides information for
     companies wishing to provide contractual services to United States
     Government bodies. Their web site can be seen at:

         http://www.govcon.com

(=) Internet Employment Cafe
     The Employment Services Department of the University of Western Ontario
     has established an Internet Employment Cafe powered by mSQL. It can be
     seen at:

         http://cafe.sdc.uwo.ca

The IQ Now Member Directory
     IQ Now provides information on healthcare services. Their web site is
     at:

         http://www.iqnow.com

ISP Listing
     Rasmus Lerdorf <rasmus@vex.net> has used mSQL and PHP/FI to maintain a
     list of Internet Service Providers. His work can be seen at:

         http://www.vex.net/isp

Kelloggs
     Kelloggs (the Corn Flakes people) use mSQL. Their web site can be seen
     at:

         http://www.kelloggs.com

Kids Health
     KidsHealth is a resource centre for matters relating to children's
     health. See their home page at:

         http://KidsHealth.org

Matthew Ahrens' Address Book
     Matthew Ahrens <matt@callnet.com> has written a Web based address book.
     It uses Perl and mSQL. It can be found at:

         http://www.callnet.com/~matt

Mondo-DB Project
     Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology is using mSQL to manage much of its
     Unix networking data. Their work can be seen at:

         http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~allard/Mondo-DB/oindex.html

Nero's World
     David Perry <deperry@nerosworld.com> uses mSQL extensively to drive his
     web server. Examples of his work can be seen at:

         http://www.nerosworld.com/realestate/
         http://www.nerosworld.com/business/
         http://www.nerosworld.com/tradingpost/
         http://www.nerosworld.com/fstop/
         http://www.nerosworld.com/nero/zipcode.htm
         http://www.nerosworld.com/romancing_the_web/


NetCal!
     NetCal! is an interactive calendar system. It can be found at:

         http://www.itribe.net/netcal

Newshare Corporation
     Newshare Corporation is an internet news broker. Their home page can be
     seen at:

         http://www.newshare.com

North Carolina Insurance Database
     North Carolina Insurance Database provides a registry of insurance
     providers in North Carolina. They can be found at:

         http://www.nc-insurance.com

Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse
     Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse provides a resource centre for
     community based programs. Their home page can be found at:

         http://www.opc.on.ca

Paulina Springs Book Company
     The Paulina Springs Book Company uses mSQL and PHP/FI to help drive
     it's web site. Visit it at:

         http://www.paulinasprings.com

Physics Pilot
     Kenneth Holmlund <Kenneth.Holmlund@TP.UmU.SE> from the Department of
     Theoretical Physics at Umee University in Sweden has used mSQL and The
     Personal Home Page Construction Kit to create the "The Internet Pilot
     to Physics". It can be seen at:

         http://www.tp.umu.se/TIPTOP

QMS
     James Hill <james_hill@iscclink.is.qms.com> has used mSQL and The
     Personal Home Page Construction Kit to create a searchable web based
     FAQ for QMS printers. It can be seen at:

         http://www.qms.com/www/faq

     James has made the source code available via anonymous ftp. It can be
     downloaded from:

         ftp://ftp.qms.com/pub/mktg/outgoing/SupportBase.tar.gz
         (5509 bytes)

QUERRI Bibliographic Server
     QUERRI or "Questions on University Regional Resource Information" is an
     online database with bibliographic information on more than 15,000
     educational resources within the United States. It can be accessed at:

         http://idea.exnet.iastate.edu:8080

The Railway Exchange
     Lester Hightower <hightowe@scri.fsu.edu> uses mSQL to power his web
     pages on model railway equipment. They can be seen at:

         http://www.railwayex.com/

Used gear price list
     Neil Bradley <neil@synthcom.com> has used mSQL to provide a price list
     for second hand music equipment. A demonstration of this system is
     available at

         http://www.synthcom.com/cgi-bin/gear

     and the source code can be obtained via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://ftp.synthcom.com/pub/stuff

Virtubank

         http://w3.e-sense.net/e-sense/Experimental/Virtu

Web Ventures
     Web Ventures provides WWW services to business. Their home page can be
     seen at:

         http://www.webventures.com.au

Web Integrated Software metrics Environment
     The Web Integrated Software metrics Environment (WISE) is a project
     management system with a WWW interface and an mSQL back end. Details
     can be found at:

         http://research.ivv.nasa.gov/projects/WISE/wise.html

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