libdbi - Database Independent Abstraction Layer for C
Copyright (C) 2001-2013, David Parker, Mark Tobenkin, Markus Hoenicka.
http://libdbi.sourceforge.net


INTRODUCTION:
-------------

libdbi implements a database-independent abstraction layer in C, similar to the
DBI/DBD layer in Perl. Writing one generic set of code, programmers can
leverage the power of multiple databases and multiple simultaneous database
connections by using this framework.

The plugin architecture allows for new database drivers to be easily added by a
third party with flexbile licensing. See the libdbi-drivers project
(http://libdbi-drivers.sourceforge.net) for the drivers officially
supported by libdbi.

        *** The libdbi sources do not contain any drivers ***

The framework and the drivers have to use the same internal API
version. Starting from libdbi version 0.8.0, the major version number
(in this case 0.8) denotes the API version. Any libdbi release 0.8.x
will work with any libdbi-drivers release 0.8.x. 'x' will be
incremented independently and denotes bugfix or upgrade releases that
do not change the internal API.


INSTALLATION:
-------------

Perform the regular ./configure, make, make install. See INSTALL for the
generic details of each step. See ./configure --help for more libdbi
configuration options.

If you are building libdbi on Win32, see README.win32.
If you are building libdbi on OSX, see README.osx.


FEATURES:
---------

 * Database-level abstraction:
   Your programs don't need to deal with the arbitrary interfaces and oddities
   of each database library. libdbi handles all the details for you, you just
   tell it what you want the database to do.

 * Modularity:
   Since database code written with libdbi is not tied to one specific database
   server, you can effortlessly switch databases or give your users the option
   to specify their own database settings.

 * Clean interface:
   With ample documentation describing libdbi and its well thought out
   object-oriented design, programming with libdbi should be less painful than
   programming with native database libraries. And you only need to learn it
   once instead of learning each database library's syntax.

 * Accommodates coder apathy:
   libdbi is written to do The Right Thing(tm), not just some quick hack that
   does the job in a half-assed fashion. This saves tons of your $100/hour time
   from debugging, so that you can mess around having fun during the hours that
   clients are paying you to debug.  It also strives to reduce the worldwide
   crisis of carpal tunnel syndrome, so it uses constructs such as this one to
   pack multiple function calls into one line, saving you the bother of typing
   more than you have to:
   dbi_result_get_fields(result, "id.%i firstname.%s lastname.%s fractional_value.%f", &id, &firstname, &lastname, &floatval);

 * Plugin interface:
   The dynamic linking used by libdbi allows for driver authors to license
   their drivers however they please - they are not restricted to the GPL or
   LGPL. Drivers are easy to write, and require no special installation.

 * Error handling:
   Instead of checking every single database call for errors, libdbi gives
   programmers the option of registering an error handler callback, similar to
   a signal handler. Because we know you'll "forget" to check for errors
   otherwise :)

 * Convenience:
   Spend your time writing clever code, not reinventing the wheel with your own
   single-use, #define-abusing, less featureful database interface.


SUPPORTED PLATFORMS:
--------------------

libdbi has been written with cross-platform availability in mind. To date, it
has been successfully tested with:

Linux: Debian, RedHat/Fedora Core, Slackware, Gentoo
Windows: 98, NT4, 2000, XP
FreeBSD: 4.3 through 9.0
SunOS: 2.8
Solaris: 7, 10
AIX: 4.2, 4.3 and 5.1
OS X: 10.2-10.4.9

If you are using libdbi on a platform not listed here, please notify the
mailing list! (see below)


MODIFICATIONS AND REDISTRIBUTION (LGPL):
----------------------------------------

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free
Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any
later version.

This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU Lesser General Public License for more
details.

See the file COPYING or http://www.gnu.org for more details.


DOCUMENTATION:
--------------

If you want to write programs that use libdbi to access database
engines, please see the Libdbi Programmer's Guide in the doc/
directory. It is provided in PDF and HTML formats. This API reference
also includes example source code and a quickstart guide to using
libdbi.

If you want to write a driver for a database engine not yet supported
by libdbi, please see the Driver's Guide in the doc/ directory.


MAILING LISTS:
--------------

http://libdbi.sourceforge.net/maillists.php

 * libdbi-users: libdbi-users@lists.sourceforge.net
   Go here if you have any general questions, ideas, or problems with using
   libdbi in your program.

 * libdbi-devel: libdbi-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
   Discussion about development of the core library and DBD interface.

 * libdbi-cvs: libdbi-cvs@lists.sourceforge.net
   Automated CVS diffs and log entries are sent to this address. Subscribe
   here if you want to track libdbi's progress at the source-code level.


CONTACT INFO:
-------------

http://libdbi.sourceforge.net
Markus Hoenicka <mhoenicka@users.sourceforge.net>
David A. Parker <david@neongoat.com>
Mark M. Tobenkin <mark@brentwoodradio.com>

$Id: README,v 1.17 2013/02/03 22:38:31 mhoenicka Exp $

libdbi - Database Independent Abstraction Layer for C
Copyright (C) 2001-2013, David Parker, Mark Tobenkin, and Markus Hoenicka.
http://libdbi.sourceforge.net


OS X-SPECIFIC INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:
----------------------------------------

LIBTOOLIZE=glibtoolize ./autogen.sh
./configure
make
sudo make install

If openjade is not available, add '--disable-docs' to configure's options.


MODIFICATIONS AND REDISTRIBUTION (LGPL):
----------------------------------------

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free
Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any
later version.

This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU Lesser General Public License for more
details.

See the file COPYING or http://www.gnu.org for more details.


$Id: README.osx,v 1.5 2013/02/03 22:38:31 mhoenicka Exp $

libdbi - Database Independent Abstraction Layer for C
Copyright (C) 2001-2013, David Parker, Mark Tobenkin, and Markus Hoenicka.
http://libdbi.sourceforge.net

WINDOWS-SPECIFIC INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
==========================================

libdbi can be compiled on any 32bit Windows platform. There's two
different methods. Choose the one that better suits your needs.

1) Cygwin

The Cygwin tools (http://www.cygwin.com/) add a POSIX layer to Windows
and provide, by shipping a comprehensive selection of familiar Unix
tools including bash and X.org, the cozy environment of a Unix
box. Choose Cygwin if you want to port Unix applications to Win32 with
the least amount of code changes. All Cygwin applications need at
least access to the cygwin1.dll which translates the Unix API calls
into Win32 API calls at runtime. libdbi drivers require the Cygwin
versions of their client libraries.

2) Mingw

The Mingw environment (http://www.mingw.org) provide a minimal GNU
environment on Windows. Choose Mingw if you want to build native Win32
applications that do not depend on other third-party libraries. libdbi
drivers require the native Win32 versions of their client libraries.


1. WINDOWS-SPECIFIC INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS FOR CYGWIN:
---------------------------------------------------------

libdbi can be compiled into DLL files on Win32 with
the Cygwin package, available at http://www.cygwin.com/. How much
bending over backwards is required depends on the versions of your
Cygwin installation. As of this writing, the following version numbers
were all fresh:

base-files-3.5.1
binutils-20050610
cygwin-1.5.18
gcc-3.4.4
libtool-1.5b

With these tools, the Unix trinity is all it takes:
./configure
make
make install

If this procedure fails to create the file

/usr/local/bin/cygdbi-0.dll

you most likely run older versions of the Cygwin tools. You're not
lost, though. Run the following commands and you should be all set:

make -f Makefile.w32
make -f Makefile.w32 install

The name of the dll file will be different from the one above, but it
is going to work anyway.


USAGE:
------

Once libdbi is compiled for Win32 and you have a DLL, you can use that DLL like
any other. The only requirement is that the Cygwin runtime DLL is available on
the target machine also, since non-Windows API functions are implemented by
Cygwin.


2. WINDOWS-SPECIFIC INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS FOR MINGW+MSYS:
-------------------------------------------------------------
libdbi can be compiled into static library libdbi.a on Win32 with
the Mingw and MSys packages, available at http://www.mingw.org

	(say, libdbi-x.x.x.tar.gz distribution is in C: drive.)
	cd /usr/local/src
	cp /c/libdbi-x.x.x.tar.gz .
	tar xvzf libdbi-x.x.x.tar.gz
	cd libdbi-x.x.x
	./configure --prefix=/usr
	make
	make install


MSYS DETAILS:
---------------

Download (from www.mingw.org) and install mingw, msys and msysDTK
(not essentially required, but recommended) from http://www.mingw.org.




MODIFICATIONS AND REDISTRIBUTION (LGPL):
----------------------------------------

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free
Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any
later version.

This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU Lesser General Public License for more
details.

See the file COPYING or http://www.gnu.org for more details.


$Id: README.win32,v 1.8 2013/02/03 22:38:31 mhoenicka Exp $