Performing a client-only install

Windows
Linux and some other Posix clients

Each remote client machine needs to have the client library – libgds.so on Posix clients, gds32.dll on Windows clients – that matches the release version of the Firebird server.

Some extra pieces are also needed for the client-only install.

Windows

At present, no compact installation program is available to assist with installing the client pieces on a Windows client. If you are in the common situation of running Windows clients to a Linux or other Posix Firebird server (or another Windows machine), you need to download the full Windows installation kit that corresponds to the version of Firebird server you install on your Linux or other server machine.

Fortunately, once you have the kit, the Windows client-only install is easy to do. Run the installation program, just as though you were going to install the server – but select the CLIENT ONLY option from the install menu.

Linux and some other Posix clients

A small-footprint client install program for Linux clients is not available either. Additionally, some Posix flavors – even within the Linux constellation – have somewhat idiosyncratic requirements for filesystem locations. For these reasons, not all *x distributions for Firebird even contain a client-only install option.

For most Linux flavors, the following procedure is suggested for a Firebird client-only install. Log in as root for this.

Look for libgds.so.0 in /opt/interbase/lib on the server where Firebird server is installed. Copy it to /usr/lib on the client.
Create the symlink libgds.so for it, using the following command:

ln -s /usr/lib/libgds.so.0 /usr/lib/libgds.so
Copy the interbase.msg file to /opt/interbase
In the system-wide default shell profile, or using setenv() from a shell, create the INTERBASE environment variable and point it to /opt/interbase, to enable the API routines to locate the messages.