[Pkg-firebird-general] Firebird packages...

[Remco Seesink]

On Tue, 7 Sep 2004 21:44:39 +0200
"SH Solutions" <info@sh-solutions.de> wrote:

> Hi
> 
> I just found the firebird debian packages.
> However, they are called firebird2-{super,classic}-server.
> 
> This raises some questions:
> 1. Why are they called firebird_2_ ?
Quote from:
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=251458

"Development on the Firebird 2 codebase began early in Firebird 1
development, with the porting of the Firebird 1 C code
(http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/firebird/interbase/) to C++ and the
first major code-cleaning. Firebird 1.5 is the first release of the Firebird
2 codebase (http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/firebird/firebird2/). It
is a significant milestone for the developers and the whole Firebird
project, but it is not an end in itself. As Firebird 1.5 goes to release,
major redevelopment continues toward the next point release on the journey
to Firebird 2."

Second practical reason was that at the time we wanted to have 1.0.x and
1.5.x to coexist in the archive. But because of bug #251458 firebird1 got
removed.

> 2. Are they current?
Yes. 

> 3. Will they be kept current?
Well, that is the reason for the existence of this alioth project and
mailinglist.

> Until now, I installed firebird 1.5.1 manually on sarge, with the binary
> installers that are downloadable from sourceforge.
> Is it safe to switch to the debian packages or do I have to take care on
> something?

I never tried that, but you would be wise to do backups with the old install
and restore them with the new install. You will lose your user security
database, but you might be able to restore them "by hand" (copying)

If you really want stability wait until sarge is released. That way you'll be
sure it is supported in stable sarge. On the other hand, if you want your
software to work with the packages you should test them now and report
problems before sarge is released.

Cheers,
Remco.