Chapter?9.?Getting Help
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# Chapter?9.?Getting Help

Help?me?if?you?can,?I'm?feeling?down
And?I?do?appreciate?you?being?'round.
Help?me?get?my?feet?back?on?the?ground,
Won't?you?please,?please?help?me?

?Beatles

In the battle against frustration and wasted motion, this manual is our first defense. Our documentation is intended to make it possible for a knowledgeable user to, well, use FreeTDS without further assistance. We strive to include all known features and behaviors here, so you can work quickly and anonymously, and go home before 5:00. Would that it were always thus.

## Reconfirm the installation

For initial setup and login problems, review Confirm the installation. Distinguish between network and server issues, between finding the server and logging into it. The `TDSDUMPCONFIG` log will show how the servername is being looked up, what address & port is being used, what TDS version is being used. The `TDSDUMP` log will show quite clearly whether or not the server accepted the connection, and whether or not the login succeeded.

Remember compiled-in defaults can be displayed with tsql:

    $ tsql -C

    Compile-time settings (established with the "configure" script)
                                Version: freetds v1.1
                 freetds.conf directory: /usr/local/etc
         MS db-lib source compatibility: no
            Sybase binary compatibility: no
                          Thread safety: yes
                          iconv library: yes
                            TDS version: auto
                                  iODBC: no
                               unixodbc: no
                  SSPI "trusted" logins: no
                                Keberos: no
                                OpenSSL: yes
                                 GnuTLS: no
                                   MARS: yes

For `ODBC` setup issues, the osql script is intended to confirm the configuration files are all sane. If it fails to report a problem, please post a message describing the problem to the mailing list. Thanks.

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