DBI - The Perl Database Interface by Tim Bunce. Copyright (c) 1994,1995,1996,1997,1998 Tim Bunce England See COPYRIGHT section in DBI.pm for usage and distribution rights. WARNING: THIS IS ALPHA SOFTWARE. It is *only* 'Alpha' because the interface (API) is not finalised. The Alpha status does not reflect code quality or stability. QUICK START GUIDE: The DBI requires one or more 'driver' modules to talk to databases. Check that a DBD::* module exists for the database you wish to use. Read the DBI README then Build/test/install the DBI by doing perl Makefile.PL make make test make install Then delete the source directory tree since it's no longer needed. Use the 'perldoc DBI' command to read the DBI documentation. Fetch the DBD::* driver module you wish to use and unpack it. It is often important to read the driver README file carefully. Generally the build/test/install/delete sequence is the same as for the DBI module. The DBI.pm file now contains the DBI specification and other documentation. PLEASE READ IT. It'll save you asking questions on the mailing list which you will be told are already answered in the documentation. For more information and to keep informed about progress you can join the a mailing list via http://www.fugue.com/dbi (if you are unable to use the web you can subscribe by sending a message to dbi-users-request@fugue.com, it may take a few days to be processed). Much useful information and online archives of the mailing lists can be found at http://www.arcana.co.uk/technologia/DBI See also ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/perl/db/ and "CPAN" ftp sites. BEFORE BUILDING, TESTING AND INSTALLING this you will need to: Build, test and install Perl 5 (at least version 5.003 but preferably 5.004_04 or later). It is very important to test it and actually install it! (You can use "Configure -Dprefix=..." to build a private copy.) BUILDING perl Makefile.PL make make test make test TEST_VERBOSE=1 (if any of the t/* tests fail) make install (if the tests look okay) Do not hand edit the generated Makefile unless you are completely sure you understand the implications. Always try to make changes via the Makefile.PL command line and/or editing the Makefile.PL. You should never need to make any changes. If you do *please* let me know so that I can try to make it automatic in a later release. IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS: First, carefully read the notes at the bottom of this file. If you can't fix it your self please post details to dbi-users@fugue.com. You can CC them to me at Tim.Bunce@ig.co.uk BUT please DON'T send them just to me (I'm likely to ignore it). Please include: 1. A complete log of a complete build, e.g.: perl Makefile.PL (do a make realclean first) make make test make test TEST_VERBOSE=1 (if any of the t/* tests fail) 2. The output of perl -V 3. If you get a core dump, try to include a stack trace from it. (Try installing the Devel::CoreStack module to get a stack trace.) If the stack trace mentions XS_DynaLoader_dl_load_file then rerun make test after setting the environment variable PERL_DL_DEBUG to 2. Please don't post problems to comp.lang.perl.* or perl5-porters. This software is supported via the dbi-users mailing list. For more information and to keep informed about progress you can join the mailing list via http://www.fugue.com/dbi (if you are unable to use the web you can subscribe by sending a message to dbi-request@fugue.com, it may take a few days to be processed by hand. Please note that I do not run or manage the mailing list). It is important to check that you are using the latest version before posting. If you're not then I'm *very* likely to simply say "upgrade to the latest". You would do yourself a favour by upgrading beforehand. Please remember that I'm _very_ busy. Try to help yourself first, then try to help me help you by following these guidelines carefully. (Note specifically that I'm unlikely to answer a question that's answered clearly in the on-line documentation.) Regards, Tim Bunce. ======================================================================= If you get an error like "fatal: relocation error: symbol not found: ..." Do not use GNU as or GNU ld on Solaris. Delete or rename them, they are just bad news. In the words of John D Groenveld : Run, dont walk, to your console and 'mv /opt/gnu/bin/as /opt/gnu/bin/gas; mv /opt/gnu/bin/ld /opt/gnu/bin/gld'. You can add -v to the gcc command in the Makefile to see what GCC is using. If you get compiler warnings like "value computed is not used" and "unused variable" you can ignore them. For perl5.004_5x: If you get "`thr' undeclared" compiler error, you'll need to add "dTHR;" to the top of the function that has the error.