                                The mSQL FAQ

$Revision: 1.21 $

$Date: 1996/07/08 08:29:03 $

                                  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

It may take a couple of days for the new versions of the FAQ to be moved
into the mSQL area. If you're desperate for the latest FAQ try looking for:

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

        or

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

For northern hemisphere users a mirror of the HTML version of the FAQ can be
found at either http://www.swl.fh-heilbronn.de/msql (thanks to Tobias
Haecker tobi@swl.fh-heilbronn.de for making this mirror available) or
http://cscsun1.larc.nasa.gov/~beowulf/msql/msql_faq.html (thanks to Jeff
Rowe <beowulf@cscsun4.larc.nasa.gov> for making this mirror available).

Notification of the FAQ's status is posted to the mSQL mailing list once a
month - on or around the 1st of the month.

Additional releases of the FAQ may occur from time to time, when necessary
patches are announced or when a new release of mSQL is made available for
example.

This FAQ is maintained by Peter Samuel <Peter.Samuel@uniq.com.au>.

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.

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 SQL?
       2. What is mSQL?
       3. What platforms will it run on?
       4. Is it free?
       5. Where can I get it?
       6. (-) What is the latest version?
       7. When will the next version be released?
       8. Why is David called Bambi?
       9. How is this FAQ prepared?

   * 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. Are there any other patches available?
       4. How do I apply patches to the mSQL source?
       5. Is online documentation available?
       6. Is there a mailing list for mSQL?
       7. (=) Is there a mailing list digest for mSQL?
       8. (-) Is there a news group for mSQL?
       9. How do I post a question to the mSQL mailing list? (PLEASE READ
          THIS!)
      10. I've found a bug. How can I tell if it's been fixed yet?
      11. How do I report a bug in mSQL?
      12. How do I contribute a patch to mSQL?
      13. How do I contribute code to the mSQL community?
      14. Where can I find examples of code that interface with mSQL?

   * Features and Limitations
       1. What support programs are bundled with mSQL?
       2. What datatypes are supported?
       3. (-) What SQL commands are supported?
       4. Does mSQL support keys?
       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?

   * 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-1.03 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. How can I make mSQL run on an Amiga running NetBSD 1.1?
      10. Why won't my third party applications compile under Solaris 2.x?
      11. (=) Why can't I run setup under Linux?

   * 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. How can I avoid running out of space when doing certain complex
          table joins?
       8. msqld is suddenly dumping core and complaining about bzero()
       9. Why does relshow drop the first two characters from its output?
      10. Why won't msqladmin work?
      11. Why does msqld crash when attempting to display real numbers on
          64-bit SGI platforms?
      12. (=) Why won't mSQL work with the compressed file system under AIX?

   * 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?

   * (-) Contributed Code and Third Party Applications

   * Web sites using mSQL

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

                             General Information

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.

There are countless books available on database design and SQL. Some good
starting point are:

    C. J. Date
    "An Introduction to Database Systems"
    Vol I, Sixth Edition, 1995
    Addison Wesley
    ISBN 0-201-54329-X

    C. J. Date and Hugh Darwen
    "A Guide to Sql Standard"
    Third Edition, 1993
    Addison Wesley
    ISBN 0-201-55822-X

    Judith S. Bowman, Sandra L. Emerson and Marcy Darnovsky
    "The Practical SQL Handbook: Using Structured Query Language"
    Second Edition
    Addison Wesley
    ISBN 0-201-62623-3

    G. M. Nijssen and T. A. Halpin
    "Conceptual Schema and Relational Database Design"
    1989
    Prentice Hall
    ISBN 0-7248-0151-0

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

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."

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.

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

Where can I get it?

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

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

Yiorgos Adamopoulos <adamo@noc.ntua.gr> has provided a mirror of the mSQL
distribution tree. It can be found at:

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

Jesper Hagen <hagen@iesd.auc.dk> has provided a mirror of the mSQL
distribution tree. It is updated weekly and can be found at:

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

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

What is the latest version?

At the time of compiling this FAQ, the latest released version was 1.0.16.
The much talked about version 2 was still being developed.

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. 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 version 2. Take the zen approach and just let it happen
:)

Just to whet your appetite, here is a "state of play" snapshot for the up
and coming 2.x release of mSQL. The snapshot was current as of February 29
1996.

       Complete code reorganisation                     completed

       Removal of all memory leaks                      completed

       Use of B-Trees for keys                          completed

       Support for compound keys                        completed

       API modifications                                completed

       Support for secondary indices                    90% completed

       Support for variable length chars                90% completed

       Central server configuration file                completed

       New server architecture (100 client connections) 50%

       Threaded back end server (multiple query paths)  designed

       Extended scalar types (date, time etc)           designed

       Functions (min, mac, avg etc)                    designed

       Full expression support in conditions            planned

       Enhanced security (SSL)                          planned

       Sequence generator                               planned

       Locking / transactions                           planned

A preliminary 2.x performance teaser follows:

David Hughes writes:

    On the mSQL-2 front, it's coming along well. The new file format,
    varchar, index, and query-plan code is running and not dumping core
    any more (the most positive sign I've had in a while). I've been
    running a few tests on a 35,000 row table and it looks good.

    Joins using the new indices are great. I did a join of the above
    table onto itself and provided a condition like "where
    A.name='foo' and B.name='ZZZ'" (there were no matching rows
    for the second part of the condition). Using mSQL-1 it took 5
    minutes on the dot to do the join (i.e. 35,000 * 35,000
    reads, merges, matches etc) and produced a result table with 0 rows
    as expected. Using mSQL-2 it took 0.4 seconds! It realised that the
    index of the inner loop didn't produce anything so it never
    actually read an inner row or did any of the real work of the
    join.

    Anyway, I'm rambling (staring at code for too long me thinks), but
    it is starting to look good.

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

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 2.02 the Netscape
Navigator running under HP-UX 9.04. The HTML syntax is checked using version
1.016 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.khoral.com/staff/neilb/weblint.html for more details on
weblint).

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

                              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.

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

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.

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

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-1.0.14

   * Case insensitive searching. You can use statements like:

         select name from table where name ilike 'Manu%'

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

     Available from the mSQL mailing list archives for the month of February
     1996.

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

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

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

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.

Wojciech Tryc <wojtek@solaris.tryc.on.ca> has begun to archive the mailing
list messages in HTML format. They are available from:

    http://www.tryc.on.ca

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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is there a news group for mSQL?

No.

This question comes up about every three months or so - usually from new
subscribers 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 higher 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.

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

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

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.

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

                          Features and Limitations

What support programs are bundled with mSQL?

mSQL is bundled with the following programs:

          msqld    the mSQL database server.

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

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

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

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

For more details see the documentation that comes with mSQL.

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

What datatypes are supported?

mSQL supports the following datatypes:

    char
    int         (4 bytes)       -2147483647 <= i <= 2147483648
    real        (8 bytes)       -9223372036854775807 <= x <= 9223372036854775808

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.

For more details see the documentation that comes with mSQL.

mSQL version 2 will support more data types.

Note: The storage of real numbers is highly machine dependent. If you store
the number 10.0 don't be surprised if it is actually stored as either 10 or
10.00000000001 or 9.99999999999.

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) 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 SQL commands are supported?

mSQL supports the following SQL commands:

  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 [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.

mSQL version 2 will support more SQL commands.

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

Does mSQL support keys?

Yes. Any single field of a table can be designated as the primary key. These
keys are, by definition, unique. In its current implementation, mSQL does
not support multiple keys within a table.

For more details see the documentation that comes with mSQL.

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

What functions does the mSQL API provide?

The mSQL API provides the following functions and macros:

       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.

Note: The PostScript documentation that comes with mSQL 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?

Yes.

Consider the SQL query:

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

Under the current release of mSQL, 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'

The current release of mSQL does NOT support parentheses in logical
expressions, so there is NO way to change this parsing.

Future versions of mSQL may support user defined levels of associativity.

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

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.

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

                            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.

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

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-1.03 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 */

   * 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, apply the 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().

*** 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 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.

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

How can I make mSQL run on an Amiga running NetBSD 1.1?

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.

George Harvey writes:

    Portability problem with 64bit ints and mmap() (with solution).

    I don't expect many people will be using an Amiga but this might
    apply to some other environments as well...

    In order to be able to take some of my work home, I needed to
    install mSQL 1.0.10 on my home system, which happens to be an Amiga
    3000T running NetBSD 1.1. The setup and compiles ran without a
    hitch but when I tried to run the 'killer' test, the server died
    with a signal 11.

    I noticed that setup had selected the MMAP option so I tried
    re-compiling without MMAP and everything worked. Since as far as I
    know, NetBSD is supposed to have a working mmap, I then looked a
    little deeper to see why it was falling over. After some fiddling
    around adding 'printf()s', I found the reason. This version of
    NetBSD defines 'size_t' as 32 bits and 'off_t' as 64 bits. The size
    argument to mmap() should be of type size_t but the value it was
    being given was an off_t. I have added a couple of casts to lines
    1505 and 1525 in msqldb.c to fix it and all seems well. I will now
    be running some further tests to see if any other problems show
    up.

    Casting a 64bit value into a 32bit value seems to be a bad thing to
    have to do but given the definition of mmap(), I can't see any
    alternative.

    Hope this may be of some use to somebody, ...

    I've run the standard test programs and my own application and not
    found any other problems so here are the diffs, the only change is
    to add a couple of 'size_t' casts to the mmap() call.

    These diffs are for msql 1.0.10 running under NetBSD 1.1 on an
    Amiga 3000T.

*** ./src/msql/msqldb.c.orig    Mon Nov 13 14:37:24 1995
--- ./src/msql/msqldb.c Wed Jan 24 11:19:37 1996
***************
*** 1502,1510 ****
                        if (cacheEntry->size)
                        {
                                cacheEntry->dataMap = (caddr_t)mmap(NULL,
!                                       cacheEntry->size,
                                        (PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE),
!                                       MAP_SHARED, cacheEntry->dataFD, 0);
                                if (cacheEntry->dataMap == (caddr_t)-1)
                                        return(-1);
                        }
--- 1502,1510 ----
                        if (cacheEntry->size)
                        {
                                cacheEntry->dataMap = (caddr_t)mmap(NULL,
!                                       (size_t)cacheEntry->size,
                                        (PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE),
!                                       MAP_SHARED, cacheEntry->dataFD, (off_t)0);
                                if (cacheEntry->dataMap == (caddr_t)-1)
                                        return(-1);
                        }
***************
*** 1522,1530 ****
                        if (cacheEntry->keySize)
                        {
                                cacheEntry->keyMap = (caddr_t) mmap(NULL,
!                                       cacheEntry->keySize,
                                        PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED,
!                                       cacheEntry->keyFD, 0);
                                if (cacheEntry->keyMap == (caddr_t)-1)
                                        return(-1);
                        }
--- 1522,1530 ----
                        if (cacheEntry->keySize)
                        {
                                cacheEntry->keyMap = (caddr_t) mmap(NULL,
!                                       (size_t)cacheEntry->keySize,
                                        PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED,
!                                       cacheEntry->keyFD, (off_t)0);
                                if (cacheEntry->keyMap == (caddr_t)-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").

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

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.

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

                              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.

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

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

Note: The section dealing with mSQL version 1.0.10 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.

Some mSQL operations involving table joins can consume large amounts of
temporary disk space.

mSQL version 1.0.10 uses the /tmp directory to store its temporary files. As
this directory is also used by many other applications, it may not have
sufficient space for mSQL. You can change the location of this temporary
storage area using the following procedure:

   * Shutdown the mSQL database server.

         msqladmin shutdown

   * Apply the following patch to ./src/msql/msqldb.c

*** ./src/msql/msqldb.c.orig    Mon Nov 13 14:37:24 1995
--- ./src/msql/msqldb.c Wed Jan 31 14:39:52 1996
***************
*** 1009,1015 ****
                tmpfile = cp+1;
        }
        (void)sprintf(path,"%s/msqldb/.tmp/%s.dat",msqlHomeDir,tmpfile);
-       (void)sprintf(path,"/tmp/%s.dat",tmpfile);


        /*
--- 1009,1014 ----
***************
*** 1172,1178 ****

          msqlTrace(TRACE_IN,"freeTmpTable()");
        (void)sprintf(path,"%s/msqldb/.tmp/%s.dat",msqlHomeDir,entry->table);
-       (void)sprintf(path,"/tmp/%s.dat",entry->table);
        freeTableDef(entry->def);
        entry->def = NULL;
        *(entry->DB) = 0;
--- 1171,1176 ----

   * Recompile and install mSQL. As this change only affects the database
     server there is NO need to recompile any third party applications you
     may be using.

   * 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 &

The patch listed above has been applied to the mSQL version 1.0.12
distribution. If you find yourself running out of space during table joins
with version 1.0.12 (or later), follow this procedure.

   * 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.

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

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.

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

                                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. Note: This table applies for version 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 version 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.

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

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 repopulate the new database
using the dump file and msql.

This procedure could be automated by a shell or perl script.

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 (as
obtained from msql_lex.c) is:

          <  >=   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

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

mSQL 2 will include this feature.

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

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.

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

                Contributed Code and Third Party Applications

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: There is often a delay of a day or so for files to be moved from the
Incoming directory to the Contrib directory on the ftp server bond.edu.au.
If you can't find the software in the Contrib directory, try the Incoming
directory.

       ESL                          NeXTSTEP EOF

       w3-msql                      Object Oriented HTML API

       Apache                       OCX

       Bind                         ODBC

       Command Line Tool            Onyx

       Dbadmin                      OS/2

       DBASE                        Perl

       DBI/DBD                      Python

       Dbview                       REXX

       Digger                       Simple SQL

       Emacs                        SQLBase

       Flatfile Importer            Tcl

       Home Page Construction Kit   Time and date utilities

       HTML Interface to mSQL       tkmSQL

       ICI                          Unique sequence number generator

       Java                         Visual Basic

       MS Access and dBase III      WDB

       mSQLexpire                   Websql

       mSQL-Export                  XfSQL

       MS Windows                   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.tar.gz
         (30203 bytes)

     At the time of compiling this FAQ, version 1.1 was being prepared.

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)

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)

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_v1.0.tar.gz
         (20639 bytes)

DBASE
     Maarten Boekhold <boekhold@cindy.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://gopher.library.tudelft.nl/pub/misc/dbf2msql-1.02b.tar.gz
         (12219 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/CPAN

     The latest blurb describing Alligator's work can be obtained from:

         http://www.hermetica.com/technologia/DBI

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-0.7.tar.gz
         (28557 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/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 is
     available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/msql-import-0.0.9.tar.gz
         (9629 bytes)

Home Page Construction Kit - PHP
     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

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/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

Java
     Darryl Collins <darryl@minmet.uq.oz.au> has developed a version of the
     mSQL API for the Java programming language. It is available via
     anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/MsqlJava-1.1.0.tar.Z
         (15611 bytes)

     or

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/MsqlJava-1.1.0.zip
         (20346 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://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/mSQL-JDBC.0.9.3.tar.gz
         (33365 bytes)

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.

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://www.delta-design.com/msqltools

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/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/winmsql7.zip
         (306827 bytes)

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/msqlocx.zip
         (17409 bytes)

ODBC
     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

     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/ODBC

     and

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

     The following file gives some out of date general information about the
     gorta software:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/ODBC/gorta.faq
         (27450 bytes)

     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/ODBC/wmsqlrts.zip
         (11693 bytes)       - Mini-SQL API DLL (Must install First)
         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/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/ODBC/wmsqlr32-rts.zip
         (43193 bytes)       - Mini-SQL API 32 bit DLL (Must Install First)
         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/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/wmslqrs.zip
         (20257 bytes)       - A DOS/Windows version of the relshow program
         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/ODBC/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/ODBC/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/ODBC/gortars.1.0.zip
         (23756 bytes)
         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/ODBC/gortarts.2.10.0.3.zip
         (17480 bytes)
         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/ODBC/gortasrc.2.10.0.3.zip
         (51770 bytes)
         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/ODBC/installd.zip
         (225019 bytes)
         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/ODBC/msql-1.12-dump.tar.gz
         (158282 bytes)
         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/ODBC/wmsqlrs.zip
         (20257 bytes)
         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/ODBC/wmsqlrts.zip
         (11693 bytes)
         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/ODBC/wmsqlsrc.zip
         (15089 bytes)

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)

OS/2
     Dirk Ohme <dohme@transtec.de> has ported mSQL 1.0.13 to OS/2. It is
     available via anonymous ftp from:

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/msql113a-os2.lsm
         (1682 bytes)

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/msql113a-os2.zip
         (675280 bytes)

Perl
     Andreas Koenig <a.koenig@mind.de> has contributed a Perl 5 module which
     allows perl to interface to mSQL databases. It 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/MsqlPerl-1.07.tar.gz
         (21201 bytes)

     For more information about CPAN see:

         ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/CPAN

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/PymSQL.tar.gz
         (7581 bytes)

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
         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

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-1.00.tgz

     which is a symbolic link to

         ftp://bond.edu.au/pub/Minerva/msql/Contrib/msqlb-1.00.tgz
         (38136 bytes)

Tcl
     Hakan Soderstrom <hs@soderstrom.se> has provided an mSQL extension to
     the Tcl language. It has been tested with Tcl 7.3, Tk 3.6p1, TclX
     7.3a-p2; Tcl 7.4b2, Tk 4.0b2, TclX 7.4a-b2, mSQL 1.0.6 under SunOS
     4.1.3. 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-1.50.tar.gz
         (58929 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/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/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/sgs-1.0.0.tar.gz
         (24216 bytes)

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/msqlcvb.zip
         (42192 bytes)

WDB
     Bo Frese Rasmussen <bfrasmus@eso.org> 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://arch-http.hq.eso.org/wdb/html/wdb.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)

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.tar.gz
         (74596 bytes)

     Xforms is available for a number of different platforms via anonymous
     ftp from either of the following locations:

         ftp://laue.phys.uwm.edu/pub/xforms/test
         ftp://ftp.cs.ruu.nl/pub/XFORMS/test

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-2.1.tar
         (40960 bytes)

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

                            Web sites using mSQL

The following web sites are using mSQL as the database component of their
pages.

                            Web sites using mSQL

           3D Planet                        Physics Pilot

           Bishop Museum, Honolulu          QMS

           Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer               The Railway Exchange

           European Wide Service Exchange   Used gear price list

           Nerosworld

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

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

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

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.

Nerosworld
     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/


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)

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

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