Installing Firebird

Installation drives
Installation script or program

Installation drives

Firebird server – and any databases you create or connect to – must reside on a hard drive that is physically connected to the host machine. You cannot locate components of the server, or any database, on a mapped drive, a filesystem share or a network filesystem.

Note

You can mount a read-only database on a CD-ROM drive but you cannot run Firebird server from one.

Installation script or program

Although it is possible to install Firebird by a filesystem copying method – such as “untarring” a snapshot build file or decompressing a structured WinZip .zip file – it is strongly recommended that you use the distributed release kit the first time you install Firebird. The Windows executable installation script, the Linux rpm (RPM Package Manager, originally RedHat Package Manager) program and the official .tar.gz for other Posix platforms perform some essential setup tasks. Provided you follow the instructions correctly, there should be nothing for you to do upon completion but log in and go!

Windows platforms

If you install Firebird 1.03 or higher under Windows 95/98/ME, uncheck the option to install the Control Panel applet. It doesn't work on these platforms. We'll give you a link to a usable applet later on in this guide.

On server platforms – Windows NT, 2000 and XP – the Firebird service will be running when the installation completes. Next time you boot up your server machine, it will be started automatically.

The non-server Windows platforms – Windows 95, 98 and ME – do not support services. The installation will start Firebird server as an application, protected by another application known as the Guardian. If the server application should terminate abnormally for some reason, the Guardian will attempt to restart it.

Posix platforms

In all cases, read the release notes that pertain to the version of Firebird that you are going to install. There may be significant variations from release to release of any Posix operating system, especially the open source ones. Where possible, the build engineers for each Firebird version have attempted to document any known issues.

Tip

If you do not find a copy of the release notes in your kit, go back to the Downloads page of the Firebird website at http://firebird.sourceforge.net and download a copy from there.

If you have a Linux distribution that supports rpm installs, consult the appropriate platform documentation for instructions about using RPM Package Manager. In most distributions you will have the choice of performing the install from a command shell or through a GUI interface.

For Linux distributions that cannot process rpm programs, and for the various UNIX flavors, use the .tar.gz kit. You will find detailed instructions in the release notes.

Shell scripts have been provided. In some cases, the release notes may instruct you to modify the scripts and make some manual adjustments.