Connecting to MS SQL server from Linux / Unix

allyc has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi Monks,

Could any one help me with this Perl problem that I am having. I need to be able to query, and most importantly insert rows into a table that is hosted on a MS SQL Server on a NT Box.

I have now tried DBI:Sybase, but I cant get it to work properly on my Linux Box. The biggest problem I have is that I need this to work on a Suse Linux box and a HP- UX Unix box and I will struggle to get things installed on the HP64 box!

Would any one have any suggestions that would point me in the right direction because I would be very grateful!

Thanks

AllyC

Comment on Connecting to MS SQL server from Linux / Unix

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Re: Connecting to MS SQL server from Linux / Unix by impossiblerobot (Deacon) on Jan 21, 2003 at 23:23 UTC
You didn't mention what TDS driver you are trying to use, but I've used FreeTDS successfully with DBD::Sybase. There are some links to FAQs on setting up FreeTDS for use with the Perl DBI, as well as how to set up your FreeTDS configuration for use with MS SQL Server, at freetds.org And here's an example from this site using DBD::ODBC, if you decide to go that route. Update: Here's a link to some more useful information. Impossible Robot	[reply]
Re: Connecting to MS SQL server from Linux / Unix by LD2 (Curate) on Jan 22, 2003 at 01:21 UTC
You may want to look at the following nodes: MS SQL and perl MS SQL Connectivity Connecting to MS SQL Server from Perl-Linux hope these help. also, check out Super Seach	[reply]
Re: Connecting to MS SQL server from Linux / Unix by jplindstrom (Monsignor) on Jan 21, 2003 at 23:12 UTC
I did this once: http://use.perl.org/~jplindstrom/journal/5413 DBD::Sybase can use either ct-lib (the Sybase Open Client lib) or FreeTDS. You say you couldn't get DBD::Sybase to work. In what way did it not work? /J	[reply]
Re: Connecting to MS SQL server from Linux / Unix by mpeppler (Vicar) on Jan 21, 2003 at 23:25 UTC
Are you using FreeTDS? If so, you are likely getting a run-time error with a missing cs_ctx_global symbol missing. The fix is to either get the latest CVS snapshot for FreeTDS, or to edit DBD::Sybase's dbdimp.c file and change any occurance of cs_ctx_global to cs_ctx_alloc and rebuild DBD::Sybase. Michael	[reply]
Re: Connecting to MS SQL server from Linux / Unix by Gilimanjaro (Hermit) on Jan 22, 2003 at 10:43 UTC
We have done exactly what you need at our office, using the DBD::JDBC driver with DBI. DBD::JDBC will require you to have access to the Microsoft's JDBC drivers (which are freely available). You'll have to run a small java-executable that comes with DBD::JDBC on your Unix system which relays request from the Perl module to the jdbc driver. The only problem we had was that the java-executable sometimes just decided to die. Because we only needed access for a batch job, we decided have our perl script start and stop the executable and the respective beginning and end of the job... Nicest about this solution is you only use a plain perl module, and plain java and the MSSQL jdbc-jar, so you can easily do this on any platform without compiling a thing.	[reply]
Re: Connecting to MS SQL server from Linux / Unix by BazB (Priest) on Jan 21, 2003 at 22:57 UTC
I've not got any experience connecting to MS SQL Server, however, might I suggest you look at DBD::ODBC? Cheers. BazB If the information in this post is inaccurate, or just plain wrong, don't just downvote - please post explaining what's wrong. That way everyone learns.	[reply]