3.5. Performing a client-only install

Each remote client machine needs to have the client library — libfbclient.so on Posix clients, fbclient.dll on Windows clients — that matches the release version of the Firebird server.

Firebird can install symlinks or copies named after the 1.0 libs (with the “old” InterBase names), to maintain compatibility with third-party products which need these files.

Some extra pieces are also needed for the client-only install.

3.5.1. Windows

At present, no separate installation program is available to install only the client pieces on a Windows machine. If you are in the common situation of running Windows clients to a Linux or other Unix-like Firebird server (or another Windows machine), you need to download the full Windows installation kit that corresponds to the version of Firebird server you install on your server machine.

Fortunately, once you have the kit, the Windows client-only install is a breeze. Just run the installation program and when you arrive at the “Select Components” screen, choose one of the client-only options from the drop-down list or uncheck the “Server Components” checkbox.

3.5.2. Linux and some other Posix clients

A small-footprint client install program for Linux clients is not available either. Additionally, some Posix flavours — even within the Linux constellation — have somewhat idiosyncratic requirements for filesystem locations. For these reasons, not all *x distributions for Firebird even contain a client-only install option.

For most Linux flavours, the following procedure is suggested for a manual Firebird client-only install. Log in as root for this.

1. Look for libfbclient.so.3.0.n (n being the patch version number) in /opt/firebird/lib on the machine where the Firebird server is installed. Copy it to /usr/lib on the client (or /usr/lib64 if both server and client are 64-bits).

2. Create chained symlinks using the following commands:

   ln -s /usr/lib/libfbclient.so.3.0.n /usr/lib/libfbclient.so.2
   ln -s /usr/lib/libfbclient.so.2 /usr/lib/libfbclient.so

   …replacing 3.0.*n* with your version number, e.g. 3.0.0 or 3.0.4

   If you’re running applications that expect the legacy libraries to be present, also create the following symlinks:

   ln -s /usr/lib/libfbclient.so /usr/lib/libgds.so.0
   ln -s /usr/lib/libfbclient.so /usr/lib/libgds.so

3. Copy firebird.msg to the client machine, preferably into the /opt/firebird directory. If you place it somewhere else, create a system-wide permanent FIREBIRD environment variable pointing to the right directory, so that the API routines can locate the messages.

4. Optionally copy some of the Firebird command-line tools — e.g. isql — to the client machine.

Instead of copying the files from a server, you can also pull them out of a Firebird tar.gz kit. Everything you need is located in the /opt/firebird tree within the buildroot.tar.gz archive that’s packed inside the kit.