The Firebird client library
The Firebird client library provides an Application Programming
Interface (API) with functions for connecting to servers and working with
databases. The library functions communicate with the server(s) using a
dedicated Firebird client/server protocol that sits on top of the general
network protocol provided by the OS.
All client applications and middleware must use the API in some way
to access Firebird databases. The Firebird API is backwardly compatible
with the InterBase API. The InterBase API Guide
(available at http://www.ibphoenix.com/downloads/60ApiGuide.zip)
contains extensive documentation on the use the API in applications.
Additional features available in the Firebird API are documented in the
Firebird release notes.
The Firebird client library files are fbclient.dll (Windows), libfbclient.so (Linux network client) and
libfbembed.so (Linux local
client with embedded engine, Classic only). In order not to break
certain existing applications, a copy of fbclient.dll with the old name gds32.dll can be installed on Windows
machines. On Linux, legacy libgds* symlinks are installed
automatically.
