Getting started

This section shows you how to install the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver and configure the ODBC data source that stores the connection details for your Sybase organization. You’re then ready to work with Sybase data in your application.

Installing the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver

Install the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver on the computer where the application you want to connect to Sybase is running.

Installing on Linux or UNIX

The installation can be done by anyone with root access.

  1. Download the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver distribution for your client application platform.

    If your client application is 64-bit, choose the 64-bit driver distribution form the Platforms list. If your client application is 32-bit, choose the 32-bit driver distribution form the Platforms list.

  2. Copy the distribution to a temporary directory on the machine where the application you want to connect to Sybase is installed.

  3. Unpack the distribution and cd into the resultant directory.

  4. As root, run:

    ./install

  5. Follow the onscreen instructions to progress through the installation.

Further information

Preinstallation requirements

To install the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver you need:

  • The Bourne shell in /bin/sh. If your Bourne shell is not located there, you may need to edit the first line of the installation script.

  • Various commonly used commands such as:

    grep, awk, test, cut, ps, sed, cat, wc, uname, tr, find, echo, sum, head, tee, id

If you do not have any of these commands, they can usually be obtained from the Free Software Foundation. As the tee command does not work correctly on some systems, the distribution includes a tee replacement.

  • Depending on the platform, you’ll need up to 10 MB of temporary space for the installation files and up to 10 MB of free disk space for the installed programs. If you also install the unixODBC Driver Manager, these numbers increase by approximately 1.5 MB.

  • For Easysoft licensing to work, you must do one of the following:

    • Install the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver in /usr/local/easysoft.

    • Install the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver elsewhere and symbolically link /usr/local/easysoft to wherever you chose to install the software.

The installation will do this automatically for you so long as you run the installation as someone with permission to create /usr/local/easysoft.

  • Install the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver elsewhere and set the EASYSOFT_ROOT environment variable. For more information about setting the EASYSOFT_ROOT environment variable, refer to Post installation steps for non-root installations.

    • An ODBC Driver Manager.

Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver distributions include the unixODBC Driver Manager.

  • You do not have to be the root user to install, but you will need permission to create a directory in the chosen installation path. Also, if you are not the root user, it may not be possible for the installation to:

    1. Register the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver with unixODBC.

    2. Create the example data source in the SYSTEM odbc.ini file.

    3. Update the dynamic linker entries (some platforms only).

If you are not root, these tasks will have to be done manually later.

We recommend that you install all components as the root user.

What you can install

This distribution contains:

  • The Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver.

  • The unixODBC Driver Manager.

You need an ODBC Driver Manager to use the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver from your applications. The distribution therefore contains the unixODBC Driver Manager. Most (if not all) UNIX and Linux applications support the unixODBC Driver Manager. For example, Perl DBD::ODBC, PHP, Python, and so on.

You do not have to install the unixODBC Driver Manager included with this distribution. You can use an existing copy of unixODBC. For example, a version of unixODBC installed by another Easysoft product, a version obtained from your operating system vendor or one that you built yourself. However, as Easysoft ensure that the unixODBC distributed with the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver has been tested with that driver, we recommend you use it.

If you choose to use an existing unixODBC Driver Manager, the installation script will attempt to locate it. The installation script looks for the ODBC Driver Manager in the standard places. If you have installed it in a non-standard location, the installation script prompts you for the location. The installation primarily needs unixODBC’s odbcinst command to install drivers and data sources.

Where to install

This installation needs a location for the installed files. The default location is /usr/local.

At the start of the installation, you’re prompted for an installation path. All files are installed in a subdirectory of your specified path called easysoft. For example, if you accept the default location /usr/local, the product will be installed in /usr/local/easysoft and below.

If you choose a different installation path, the installation script tries to symbolically link /usr/local/easysoft to the easysoft subdirectory in your chosen location. This allows us to distribute binaries with built in dynamic linker run paths. If you are not root or the path /usr/local/easysoft already exists and is not a symbolic link, the installation will be unable to create the symbolic link. For information about how to correct this manually, refer to Post installation steps for non-root installations.

Note that you cannot license Easysoft products until either of the following is true:

  • /usr/local/easysoft exists either as a symbolic link to your chosen installation path or as the installation path itself.

  • You have set EASYSOFT_ROOT to installation_path/easysoft.

Changes made to your system

The installation script installs files in subdirectories of the path requested at the start of the installation, Depending on what is installed, a few changes may be made to your system:

  1. If you choose to install the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver into unixODBC, unixODBC’s odbcinst command will be run to add an entry to your odbcinst.ini file. You can locate this file with odbcinst -j. (odbcinst is in installation_path/easysoft/unixODBC/bin, if you are using the unixODBC included with this distribution.)

  2. The installation script installs an example data source into unixODBC. This data source will be added to your SYSTEM odbc.ini file. You can locate your SYSTEM odbc.ini file by using odbcinst -j. The data source will look similar to this:

  3. Dynamic linker. On operating systems where the dynamic linker has a file listing locations for shared objects (Linux and FreeBSD), the installation script will attempt to add paths under the path you provided at the start of the installation to the end of this list.

    • On Linux, this is usually the file /etc/ld.so.conf.

    • On FreeBSD this is usually the file /etc/defaults/rc.conf.

Installing alongside other existing Easysoft product installations

Each Easysoft distribution contains common files shared between Easysoft products. These shared objects are placed in installation_path/easysoft/lib. When you run the installation script, the dates and versions of these files are compared with the same files in the distribution. The files are only updated if the files being installed are newer or have a later version number.

You should ensure that nothing on your system is using Easysoft software before starting an installation. This is because on some platforms, files in use cannot be replaced. If a file cannot be updated, you get a warning during the installation. All warnings are written to a file called warnings in the directory you unpacked the distribution into.

If the installer detects you’re upgrading a product, the installer will suggest you delete the product directory to avoid having problems with files in use. An alternative is to rename the specified directory.

If you are upgrading, you will need a new license from Easysoft to use the new driver.

Gathering information required during the installation

During the installation, you’re prompted for various pieces of information. Before installing, you need to find out whether you have unixODBC already installed and where it is installed. The installation script searches standard places like /usr and /usr/local.

However, if you installed the Driver Manager in a non-standard place and you do not install the included unixODBC, you will need to know the location.

Unpacking the distribution The distribution for UNIX and Linux platforms is a tar file. To extract the installation files from the tar file, use:

tar -xvf odbc-sybase-1.3.0-linux-x86_64-ul64.tar

This creates a directory with the same name as the tar file (without the .tar postfix) containing further archives, checksum files, an installation script and various other installation files.

Change into the directory created by unpacking the tar file to run the installation script. For example:

# cd odbc-sybase-1.3.0-linux-x86_64-ul64

License to use

The end-user license agreement (EULA) is in the file license.txt. Be sure to understand the terms of the agreement before continuing, as you’re required to accept the license terms at the start of the installation.

Answering questions during the installation

Throughout the installation, you’re prompted to answer some questions. In each case, the default choice displays in square brackets and you need only press Enter to accept the default. If there are alternative responses, these are shown in round brackets; to choose one of these, type the response and press Enter.

For example:

Do you want to continue? (y/n) [n]:

The possible answers to this question are y or n. The default answer when you type nothing and press Enter is n.

Running the installer

If you are considering running the installation as a non root user, we suggest you review this carefully as you will have to get a root user to manually complete some parts of the installation afterwards. We recommend installing as the root user. (If you’re concerned about the changes that will be made to your system, refer to Changes made to your system.)

To start the installation, run:

./install

You need to:

  • Confirm your acceptance of the license agreement by typing "yes" or "no". For more information about the license agreement, refer to License to use.

  • Supply the location where the software is to be installed.

We recommend accepting the default installation path.

For more information, refer to Where to install.

Locating or installing unixODBC

We strongly recommend you use the unixODBC Driver Manager because:

  • The installation script is designed to work with unixODBC and can automatically add Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver and data sources during the installation.

  • Most applications and interfaces that support ODBC are compatible with unixODBC. The Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver and any data sources that you add during the installation are automatically available to your applications and interfaces therefore.

  • The unixODBC project is currently led by Easysoft developer Nick Gorham. This means that there is a great deal of experience at Easysoft of unixODBC in general and of supporting the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver running under unixODBC. It also means that if you find a problem in unixODBC, it’s much easier for us to facilitate a fix.

The installation starts by searching for unixODBC. There are two possible outcomes here:

  1. If the installation script finds unixODBC, the following message displays:

    Found unixODBC under path and it is version n.n.n

  2. If the installation script can’t find unixODBC in the standard places, you will be asked whether you have it installed.

If unixODBC is installed, you need to provide the unixODBC installation path. Usually, the path required is the directory above where odbcinst is installed. For example, if odbcinst is in /opt/unixODBC/bin/odbcinst, the required path is /opt/unixODBC.

If unixODBC is not installed, you should install the unixODBC included with this distribution.

If you already have unixODBC installed, you do not have to install the unixODBC included with the distribution, but you might consider doing so if your version is older than the one we provide.

The unixODBC in the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver distribution is not built with the default options in unixODBC’s configure line.

Option Description

--prefix=/etc

This means the default SYSTEM odbc.ini file where SYSTEM data sources are located is /etc/odbc.ini.

--enable-drivers=no

This means other ODBC drivers that come with unixODBC are not installed.

--enable-iconv=no

This means unixODBC does not look for libiconv. Warnings about not finding an iconv library were confusing our customers.

--enable-stats=no

Turns off unixODBC statistics, which use system semaphores to keep track of used handles. Many systems do not have sufficient semaphore resources to keep track of used handles.

--enable-readline=no

This turns off readline support in isql. We did this because it ties isql to the version of libreadline on the system we build on. We build on as old a version of the operating system as we can for forward compatibility. Many newer Linux systems no longer include the older readline libraries and so turning on readline support makes isql unusable on these systems.

--prefix=/usr/local/easysoft/unixODBC

This installs unixODBC into /usr/local/easysoft/unixODBC.

Installing the Easysoft ODBC driver

The Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver installation script:

  • Installs the driver.

  • Registers the driver with the unixODBC Driver Manager.

    If the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver is already registered with unixODBC, a warning displays that lists the drivers unixODBC knows about. If you’re installing the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver into a different directory than it was installed before, you need to edit your odbcinst.ini file after the installation and correct the Driver and Setup paths. unixODBC’s odbcinst doesn’t update these paths if a driver is already registered.

  • Creates an example Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver data source. If unixODBC is installed and you registered the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver with unixODBC, the installation script adds example data source to your odbc.ini file.

Licensing

The installation_path/easysoft/license/licshell program lets you obtain or list licenses.

Licenses are stored in installation_path/easysoft/license/licenses.

After obtaining a license, you should make a backup copy of this file.

The installation script asks you if you want to request an Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver license:

Would you like to request a Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver license now (y/n) [y]:

You do not need to obtain a license during the installation, you can run licshell after the installation to obtain or view licenses.

If you answer y, the installation runs the licshell script.

To obtain a license automatically, you need to be connected to the Internet and allow outgoing connections to license.easysoft.com on port 8884. If you’re not connected to the Internet or don’t allow outgoing connections on port 8884, the License Client can create a license request file that you can email to us.

When you start the License Client, the following menu displays:

[0] exit
[1] view existing license
[n] obtain a license for the desired product.

To obtain a license, select one of the options from [2] onwards for the product you’re installing. The License Client then runs a program that generates a key that’s used to identify the product and operating system (we need this key to license you).

After you have chosen the product to license (Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver), you need to supply:

  • Your full name.

  • Your company name.

  • An email contact address. This must be the email address that you used when you registered on the Easysoft web site.

  • A reference number (also referred to as an authorization code). When applying for a trial license, press Enter when prompted for a reference number. This field only applies to full (paid) licenses.

You’re then asked to choose how you want to obtain the license.

The choices are:

  • [1] Automatically by contacting the Easysoft License Daemon

    This requires a connection to the Internet and the ability to support an outgoing TCP/IP connection to license.easysoft.com on port 8884.

  • [2] Write information to file

    The license request is output to license_request.txt.

  • [3] Cancel this operation

If you choose to obtain the license automatically, the License Client true to open a TCP/IP connection to license.easysoft.com on port 8884 and send the details you supplied along with your machine number. No other data is sent. The data sent is transmitted as plain text, so if you want to avoid the possibility of this information being intercepted by someone else on the Internet, you should choose [2] and send the the request to us. The License daemon returns the license key, print it to the screen and make it available to the installation script in the file licenses.out.

If you choose option [2], the license request is written to the file license_request.txt. You should then exit the License Client by choosing option [0] and complete the installation. After you have sent the license request to us, we’ll return a license key. Add this to the end of the file installation_path/easysoft/license/licenses.

Post installation steps for non-root installations

If you installed the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver as a non-root user (not recommended), there may be some additional steps you to do manually:

  1. If you attempt to install the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver under the unixODBC Driver Manager and you do not have write permission to unixODBC’s odbcinst.ini file, the driver can’t be added.

    You can manually install the driver under unixODBC by adding an entry to the odbcinst.ini file. Run odbcinst -j to find out the location of the DRIVERS file then append the lines from drv_template file to odbcinst.ini. (drv_template is in the directory where the Easysoft distribution was untarred to.)

  2. No example data sources can be added into unixODBC if you do not have write permission to the SYSTEM odbc.ini file. Run odbcinst -j to find out the location of the SYSTEM DATA SOURCES file then add your data sources to this file.

  3. On systems where the dynamic linker has a configuration file defining the locations where it looks for shared objects (Linux and FreeBSD), you need to add:

    installation_path/easysoft/lib
installation_path/easysoft/unixODBC/lib

    The latter entry is only required if you installed the unixODBC included with this distribution. Sometimes, after changing the dynamic linker configuration file, you need to run a program to update the dynamic linker cache. (For example, /sbin/ldconfig on Linux.)

  4. If you didn’t install the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver in the default location, you need to do one of the following:

    • Link /usr/local/easysoft to the easysoft directory in your chosen installation path.

      For example, if you installed in /home/user, the installation creates /home/user/easysoft and you need to symbolically link /usr/local/easysoft to /home/user/easysoft:

      ln -s /home/user/easysoft /usr/local/easysoft

    • Set and export the EASYSOFT_ROOT environment variable to installation_path/easysoft.

  5. If your system doesn’t have a dynamic linker configuration file, you need to add the paths listed in step 3 to whatever environment path the dynamic linker uses to locate shared objects. You may want to add these paths to a system file run whenever someone logs. For example, /etc/profile.

    The environment variable depends on the dynamic linker. Refer to your ld or ld.so man page. It is usually:

    LD_LIBRARY_PATH, LIBPATH, LD_RUN_PATH, or SHLIB_PATH.

Uninstalling on Linux or UNIX

There is no automated way to remove the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver in this release. However, removal is quite simple. To do this:

  1. Change directory to installation_path/easysoft and delete the product directory. installation_path is the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver installation directory, by default /usr/local.

  2. If you had to add this path to the dynamic linker search paths (for example, /etc/ld.so.conf on Linux), remove it. You may have to run a linker command such as /sbin/ldconfig to get the dynamic linker to reread its configuration file. Usually, this step can only be done by the root user.

  3. If you were using unixODBC, the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver entry needs to be removed from the odbcinst.ini file. To check whether the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver is configured under unixODBC, use odbcinst -q -d. If the command output contains [SYBASE], uninstall the driver from unixODBC by using:

    odbcinst -u -d -n SYBASE

If a reduced usage count message is displayed, repeat this command until odbcinst reports that the driver has been removed.

  1. If you created any Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver data sources under unixODBC, you may want to delete these. To do this, first use odbcinst -j to locate USER and SYSTEM odbc.ini files. Then check those files for data sources that have the driver attribute set to SYBASE.

  2. Remove the install.info for the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver from the /usr/local/easysoft directory.

Connecting to Sybase

Applications that support ODBC interface with an ODBC Driver Manager, which is included with the operating system, and also the Easysoft ODBC driver distribution on some platforms. One of the jobs that the ODBC Driver Manager does is to manage ODBC data sources. A data source specifies which ODBC driver to load, which data store to connect to, and how to connect to it.

Before setting up a data source, you must have successfully installed the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver.

Connecting from Linux or UNIX

Creating an ODBC data source

There are two ways to create a data source to your Sybase data:

  • Create a SYSTEM data source, which is available to anyone who logs on to the computer where the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver is installed.

    – Or –

  • Create a USER data source, which is only available to the user who is currently logged on to the computer where the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver is installed.

By default, the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver installation creates a sample SYSTEM data source named demo-sybase. If you’re using the unixODBC included in the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver distribution, the SYSTEM odbc.ini file is in /etc.

If you built unixODBC yourself, or installed it from some other source, SYSTEM data sources are stored in the path specified with the configure option --sysconfdir=directory. If sysconfdir was not specified when unixODBC was configured and built, it defaults to /usr/local/etc.

If you accepted the default choices when installing the Sybase, USER data sources must be created and edited in $HOME/.odbc.ini.

Notes

  • To display the directory where unixODBC stores SYSTEM and USER data sources, type odbcinst -j.

  • By default, you must be logged in as root to edit a SYSTEM data source defined in /etc/odbc.ini.

You can either edit the sample data source or create new data sources.

Each section of the odbc.ini file starts with a data source name in square brackets [ ] followed by a number of attribute=value pairs.

The Driver attribute identifies the ODBC driver in the odbcinst.ini file to use for a data source. When the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver is installed into unixODBC, it places a SYBASE entry into the odbcinst.ini file. You should always have Driver = SYBASE in your Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver data sources therefore.

To configure a Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver data source, in your odbc.ini file, you need to specify:

  • The database name (Database).

  • The database user name (User).

  • The database password (Password).

  • The host name or IP address of the computer on which the Sybase server is running.

  • The port on which the Sybase server is listening, which is 4100 by default. For Sybase ASE Express Edition, the default port is 5000. For SAP SQL Anywhere 17, the default port is 2638.

For example:

[demo-sybase]
Driver                  = SYBASE
Description             = Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver
Server			        = localhost
Port			        =
Keyspace                =
User                    =
Password                =
Logging     	        = 0
LogFile     	        =
Encrypt                 =
TrustServerCertificate  =
Consistency             =
CertificateFile         =
PublicKeyFile           =
PrivateKeyFile          =

Connection attributes

These optional attributes may also be set in odbc.ini.

Attribute Description

Description

Some applications display this to help users identify a particular data source.

METADATA_ID

When turned on (set to 1), the default value of the SQL_ATTR_METADATA_ID connection attribute is set to SQL_TRUE. + By default, METADATA_ID is off.

METADATA_DONT_CHANGE_CASE

When turned on (set to 1), the case of the parameter values passed to metadata calls do not change.

TEXTSIZE

Sets the maximum size, in bytes, of text or image data returned from the server. The default size is 32000. If data is larger than this value, the data will be truncated, without any indication that it has been truncated.

QUOTED_IDENTIFIERS

This attribute switches the html5 database quoted_identifier setting to on. This enables support for quoted identifiers and also changes the appropriate SQLGetInfo values returned.

CHARSET

Sets the character encoding for the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver. For example, CHARSET=ISO8859-15.

LANGUAGE

Sets the language for the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver. For example, LANGUAGE=uk_english.

The Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver must be able to find the following shared objects:

  • libodbcinst.so

    By default, this is located in /usr/local/easysoft/unixODBC/lib/libodbcinst.so.

  • libeslicshr.so

    By default, this is located in /usr/local/easysoft/lib/libeslicshr.so.

  • libessupp.so By default, this is located in /usr/local/easysoft/lib/libessupp.so.

You may need to set and export LD_LIBRARY_PATH, SHLIB_PATH, or LIBPATH (depending on your operating system and run-time linker) to include the directories where libodbcinst.so, libeslicshr.so, and libessupp.so are located.

The isql query tool lets you test your Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver data sources. To test the Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver connection:

  1. Change directory into /usr/local/easysoft/unixODBC/bin.

  2. Enter ./isql -v data_source, where data_source is the name of the target data source.

  3. At the prompt, enter an SQL query. For example:

    SQL> SELECT * FROM systypes;

    –Or–

  4. Enter help to return a list of tables:

    SQL> help

DSN-less connections

Some applications allow you to make an ODBC connection without configuring a data source. To do this, you supply a connection string that contains the ODBC driver name and other driver-specific attribute-value pairs.

Here’s an example Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver connection string:

Driver={SYBASE};SERVER_HOST=myserver;SERVER_PORT=2638;DB=pubs;UID=myuser;PWD=mypassword;

Logging

If you report an issue to us, we may ask you to turn on ODBC Driver Manager or Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver logging, to help us diagnose the cause of the issue.

To turn on logging, refer to the following sections.

If your application is a service (for example, Oracle or SQL Server), you may need to restart the service before enabling logging takes effect. To do this on Linux or UNIX, use service, systemctl, or a vendor-supplied script. To do this on Windows, use the Windows Services app.

ODBC Driver Manager logging on Linux or UNIX

For the unixODBC Driver Manager, add the following attributes to the [ODBC] section (create one if none exists) in odbcinst.ini.

Trace = Yes
TraceFile = /path/filename

For example:

[ODBC]
Trace = Yes
TraceFile = /tmp/sql.log

Ensure that the user who’s running the application to log has write permission to TraceFile (and to the directory containing it), otherwise no logging information will be produced.

Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver logging on Linux and UNIX

Driver manager trace files show all the ODBC calls an application makes, including their arguments and return values. Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver logging is specific to the Easysoft driver and is of most use when making a support call.

To turn on Easysoft ODBC-Sybase Driver logging, edit your ODBC data source in odbc.ini. For example:

[demo-sybase]
.
.
.
LOG = /tmp/easysoft-odbc-driver.log

The value shown in the example specifies a log file named /tmp/easysoft-odbc-driver.log. Ensure that the user who’s running the application to log has write permission to the log file (and to the directory containing it), otherwise no logging information will be produced.