SYNOPSIS

The freetds.conf file describes Sybase and Microsoft database servers to the FreeTDS library. It comprises sections headed by a servername, followed by a list of connection properties denoted as name-value pairs. Defaults are defined via a Bq global section. This file supersedes the interfaces file that Sybase defines for the same purpose, although the latter is still supported.

DESCRIPTION

A section begins with a servername --- the name of the server --- in square brackets. The servername is chosen at the client's descretion. (One exception: with Sybase ASA the servername must match the database name to be used.)

Sections contain properties, one per line, in the form

name = value

where name is the connection property to be described. Servernames and properties are not case sensitive. Values are case-preserving i.e., copied literally. Comments begin with either a semicolon (So ; Sc or pound sign ) (So # Sc and continue to end of line. Blank lines are ignored. Whitespace surrounding the ) So = Sc is ignored.

PROPERTIES

client charset

encoding of client data; overrides locale(1) settings

Domain:

iconv character set names

Default:

ISO-8859-1

connect timeout

seconds to wait for response from connect request

Domain:

0 to MAX_INT

Default:

none

debug flags

logging granularity

Domain:

32-bit integer

Default:

0x4fff

dump file

specifies location of a logfile and turns on logging

Domain:

valid file name

Default:

none

dump file append

log data appended to file instead of re-writing for each connection

Domain:

yes/no

Default:

no

emulate little endian

forces big endian machines to act as little endian to communicate with Microsoft Servers

Domain:

yes/no

Default:

no

encryption

off

disables encryption (default)

request

use if available

required

allow encrypted connections only

host

Name of the host the server is running on.

Domain:

host name or IP address

Default:

SYBASE

initial block size

maximum size of a protocol block

Domain:

multiple of 512

Default:

512

instance

name of Microsoft SQL Server instance to connect to (supersedes port

Domain:

instance name

Default:

none

port

port number that the server is listening to

Domain:

any valid port

Default:

TDS 5.0, 5000; TDS 7.0 and up, 1433

tds version

TDS protocol version to use

Domain:

4.2, 5.0, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2

Default:

--with-tdsver value (5.0 if unspecified)

text size

default value of TEXTSIZE, in bytes

Domain:

0 to 4,294,967,295

Default:

4,294,967,295

timeout

seconds to wait for response to a query

Domain:

0 to MAX_INT

Default:

none (wait forever)

Do not define both Fa port and Fa instance Ns . One implies the other.

Boolean property values may be denoted as on/off, true/false, or 1/0.

DEBUG FLAGS

The log's granularity can be controlled with the debug flags property.

Value Ta Meaning

  0x02    severe error

  0x04  error

  0x08 warning

  0x10       network

  0x20information level 1

  0x40information level 2

  0x80function trace and info

0x1000show pid

0x2000show time

0x4000show source level info (source file and line)

0x8000thread id (not implemented).

NAMES AND LOCATIONS

The file is normally named
/etc/freetds.conf or ${HOME}/.freetds.conf That name can be overridden with the FREETDSCONF environment variable.

FreeTDS will search conf files for a servername in the following order:

1. a filename set programatically via dbsetifile() that is in .conf format
2. a filename in the environment variable FREETDSCONF that is in .conf format
3. ${HOME}/.freetds.conf if extant
4. @sysconfdir@/freetds.conf

The search stops with the first file containing the servername.

If no conf file is found, FreeTDS searches for an interfaces file in the following order:

1. a filename set programatically via dbsetifile() that is in interfaces format
2. ${HOME}/.interfaces
3. $SYBASE/interfaces (where $SYBASE is an environment variable)

If the requested servername is not found in any configuration file, the fallback mechanism is:

1. attempt to convert the name to an IP address with inet_addr(3), else
2. attempt to convert the name to an IP address with gethostbyname(3), else
3. attempt to look up the literal name ``SYBASE''

FILES

@sysconfdir@/freetds.conf , ${HOME}/.freetds.conf

HISTORY

.conf files first appeared with version 0.53 of FreeTDS.