Chapter 4. Preparing ODBC
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# Chapter 4. Preparing ODBC

## Background and Terminology

To connect to a database server, a library such as FreeTDS needs some information about the connection. By server, which IP address and port is do you mean? Which user is requesting the connection, and what authentication does he offer? Every database library needs a way to capture and convey that information.

ODBC was conceived as a general interface definition, not tied to any particular database or access library. For that reason, ODBC also needs to know which driver to use with a given server.

The original ODBC solution to this conundrum employed the `odbc.ini` file. `odbc.ini` stored information about a server, known generically as a Data Source Name (DSN). ODBC applications connected to the server by calling the function `SQLConnect(DSN, UID, PWD)`, where `DSN` is the Data Source Name entry in `odbc.ini`, `UID` is the username, and `PWD` the password. Any and all information about the DSN was kept in `odbc.ini`. And all was right with the world.

The ODBC 3.0 specification introduced a new function: `SQLDriverConnect`. The connection attributes are provided as a single argument, a string of concatenated name-value pairs. `SQLDriverConnect` subsumed the functionality of `SQLConnect`, in that the name-value pair string allowed the caller to pass — in addition the the original `DSN`, `UID`, and `PWD` — any other parameters the driver could accept. Moreover, the application can specify which driver to use. In effect, it became possible to specify the entire set of DSN properties as parameters to `SQLDriverConnect`, obviating the need for `odbc.ini`. This led to the use of the so-called DSN-less configuration, a setup with no `odbc.ini`.

But FreeTDS did not start out as an ODBC driver (remember `DB-Library` and `CT-Library`), and has always had its own way to store server properties: `freetds.conf`. When Brian added the FreeTDS ODBC driver, he began by supporting the old `SQLConnect`, using `odbc.ini` to describe the DSN. That choice complied with the expectations of the Driver Managers, and minimized the amount of duplicated information in the configuration files. But it can be a little confusing, too, because `odbc.ini` in effect points to `freetds.conf`. We call this configuration ODBC-combined, because it supports all three FreeTDS libraries.

As progress on the the FreeTDS ODBC library progressed, the driver was made able to read the connection attributes directly from `odbc.ini`, rather than leaning on `freetds.conf`. For installations that don't need `DB-Library` and `CT-Library`, this ODBC-only setup is simpler.

More recently, `SQLDriverConnect` was added to FreeTDS. As described above, this function allows the application to specify connection attributes with reference to either, or neither, configuration file. It's your choice. In making that choice, keep the following terms clear in your mind:

Important FreeTDS ODBC terms

`SERVERNAME`

  specifies the `[`servername`]` entry in `freetds.conf`.

`SERVER`

  specifies the real server i.e., the TCP/IP name of the machine hosting the database server.

`DSN`, `Driver`

  In your connection string, you can decide to use a DSN entry in `odbc.ini` using the `DSN` attribute, or to specify the driver you want with the `Driver` attribute.

In sum, FreeTDS supports three ODBC choices:

ODBC configuration choices

DSN-less

  No connection information is specified in `odbc.ini`. Advantageous if you're using more of FreeTDS than just the ODBC driver.

ODBC-only

  All connection information is specified in `odbc.ini`, without the need for `freetds.conf`. This is the “traditional” ODBC setup.

ODBC-combined

  Connection information maintained in `freetds.conf`. `odbc.ini` contains DSN entries that refer to servernames in `freetds.conf`.

| Library or Driver?
What's a library and what's a driver? Technically, they're the same thing: bodies of subroutines whose names are exported to a linker (static or runtime). By convention, a “library” is used directly by an application, whose programmer will require documentation and header files. A “driver”, by contrast, is defined by a binary API and is used in some kind of framework, hence printer driver and video driver. An ODBC driver is a hybrid. For the most part, an application relies on a driver manager to define manifest constants, and links to the DM's library. But because the ODBC specification leaves behavior up to the driver, the application is forced to include the driver's header files, too, to exploit driver-specific functions.

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