xref: /dports/databases/dbf/dbf-core/FAQ

Official FAQ for dbf
====================

Author: Bjoern Berg, clergyman@gmx.de
Date: 17/01/2003

More information and an up-to-date FAQ you find on
http://anubisnet.sf.net/support.php


Topics:
-------

I. 	User-contributed questions
II.	Information for developers


I. User-contributed questions
-----------------------------

1) How to install dbf

This document contains general installation instructions for dbf.
Most of the information published here you also find in the added
README of any software package you can download from an anubisnet
server.

Installation instruction for dbf 0.2 - 0.3.1

These versions do not contain Makefiles or any other sort of
installation script. Therefore you have to compile dbf yourself, using
gcc or any other compiler, you have installed. We will describe, how
to handle gcc.

Use gcc as follows:

Linux:
gcc -o dbf dbf.c

Windows:
gcc -o dbf.exe dbf.c

Copy the created binary to a place which is in your $PATH and execute
dbf by invoking "dbf" at the command line.

For newer versions have a look at the documents README and INSTALL
delivered with the downloaded package.

####

2) Compiling on Windows

This page describes how to compile dbf from the source with other
compilers than gcc on Windows

Compiling with Microsoft C/C++ Compiler

The Microsoft C/C++ Compiler is delivered with Microsoft Visual Studio. If you
have selected the Default installation, it should be found in
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin and is called "cl.exe".
Run "cl \dbf.c" and dbf should compile fine.

####

3) Compiling on Linux

Since version 0.3.2, dbf comes with a Makefile which helps you to easily
compile and install dbf on any UN*X based system. In the following we will describe
how to get a clean installation with dbf-packages less or more recent version 0.3.2.

Versions before 0.3.2

Unpack any source package to a directory called dbf, because otherwise the complete
package would be extract to the current directory without a sub-directory for dbf.

Now switch into the directory and type:
gcc -o dbf dbf.c
to compile dbf. If everything went fine, copy the binary to a directory in your PATH,
e.g. /usr/local/bin, /usr/bin.

Version 0.3.2 and higher

Version 0.3.2 comes with a Makefile which makes compiling and installing much more easier.
You can extract the archive to your current directory, because it will create its own
sub-directory, called dbf-$VERSION.

Switch into this directory and type
make
to build the binary. With "make clean" you can remove this built binary. To install the
binary to the generic (prefix) path (/usr/local/bin) type
make install
With "make install" you can remove your complete installation.

####

4)  I get silly output from dbf!

You are trying to display or convert the content of a dBASE-file, but all you get is a mess.
This can have several reasons:

a) The codepage used in your dBASE-file is not yet supported with dbf. This concerns files
using eastern european and asian encodings

b) The file you want to convert is not dBASE-compliant. This could happen when the file
was exported from StarOffice, Excel or MS Access into any kind of format of dBASE.

c) Uwe Steinmann reported us, affecting version 0.3.2 and less, that on not intel-based
architectures dbf produces mess. dbf is in its current version not yet endianness-save,
which means that dbf expects the major byte at the beginning of a long or a short. We will
try to fix this with the next release.

####

5) SQL statements are not created properly.

You are using a version of dbf equal or higher than 0.6 and SQL export does not do what you have
expected?! Please note that SQL export is in an experimental stadium, so that we cannot guarantee
for a working implementation.
Please send a detailed report to clergyman@gmx.de and we will try to help you.

########################################################################

II. Information for Developers
------------------------------

1) G E N E R A L

If you want to contribute to the dbf-project at anubisnet you can contact me, writing an
email to clergyman@gmx.de.

There is a lot to do and a structured release plan is available. What I need for the moment
is someone who can build binary packages for platforms like AXP, SPARC, etc. For this
platforms we need also developers and testers whose job will be to check if the current
version is interoperabel and endianess-save (see point 4 of the user contributed FAQs).

I also need someone who uses dbf daily and keep the documentation up to date if
something changes.

A good start to get familar with dbf and its current development status is to read the
CHANGELOG and the README.

I am very glad, when I get a feedback from developers or end-users. So don't hesitate
and write me an email. Criticism is heavily desired.

More information on how to contribute to dbf an anubisnet you find on the
anubisnet website: http://anubisnet.sf.net/volunteer/index.php

###

2) P A C K A G E  B U I L D I N G

2.1) LINUX

Building a binary package of dbf on Linux is very easy. The Makefile I have added to dbf
has mechanisms to build automatically source or binary packages including the complete
documentation coming with dbf. At the moment you are able to build packages for i386 (ELF),
Alpha / RISC (AXP) and PPC:

	a) Download the current stable source of dbf.
	b) I assume that you want to use gcc to compile dbf, otherwise edit the Makefile
	c) Now use one of the following commands to build a binary package:
		- make elf-dist (i386, ELF)
		- make axp-dist (AXP, Alpha, RISC)
		- make ppc-dist (PPC, MAC)
	  NOTE: You have to rename the current source directory of dbf from "dbf-<version>" to
	  dbf. Otherwise the Makefile will cancel the action.
	d) Send the ready binary package to clergyman@gmx.de


2.2) WINDOWS

A detailed and easy instruction how to build binary packages for Windows will follow soon.


2.3) MacOS X

A detailed and easy instruction how to build binary packages for MacOS X will follow soon.