Re: [Firebird-devel] Firebird version and Interbase/third-party tools compatibility for v1.0 and beyond

[Danny M. <dma...@co...>]

Mark,

Could I suggest that it may be a good idea to have FB listen on a new port
with every major version change. This would allow people to run multiple
versions of FB as they switch over from one version to another. This has
been a big problem in the past. Some other changes would also be needed on
the server and client but this is the most serious sticking point. What I
have in mind is that the 'services' file would contain entries like:

    fb_db1    3051    #FB Version 1
    fb_db2    3052    #FB Version 2
    fb_db3    3053    #FB Version 3
    :

Probably we could cycle the port numbers every 5 or 10 major versions. The
server and client installs should take care of updating the 'services' file
accordingly.

Regards,
Danny.

P.S. Do you think our overseas friends would understand the reference to
"The FAT"?  :-)

"Mark O'Donohue" <mar...@lu...> wrote in message
news:3BA...@lu......
>
> Hi All
>
> Along with the discussions about the details of the next release and the
> Admin group has also been discussing the best methods of addressing the
> current Firebird compatibility issues for third-party tools and path for
> a longer term solution.
>
> Here are the decisions which we arrived at:
>
> 1 - For v1.0, the "version string" returned by the server will be fixed
> as "6.2.0.xxx".  The engine and install packages will, however, carry the
> version number of "v1.0.0"
>
> 2 - The Windows install packages will be changed to ensure that they
> will overwrite any existing client libraries, regardless of version.
> Thus, ensuring that the latest Firebird client has been installed
> (instead of keeping the old IB 4.x/5.x/6.x version). And if possible the
> install will rename the existing dll rather than deleting it.
>
> 3 - The v1.0 Server/Client API will be extended to allow for tools to
> interogate the server to determine the engine flavor (Firebird vs.
> Interbase) and the 'real' Firebird version number (i.e. "1.0.0.xxx").
> Full details of the API changes will be made available in the next
> couple of days.
>
> 4 - To address backward compatibility, the next major release of
> Firebird will listen on two ports: 3050 for InterBase(r) compatible
> clients, where the engine will provide an InterBase(r) compatible
> interface; and another port, yet to be decided upon, for new Firebird
> client connections.  The new port will return "1.0.0" version strings,
> and allow the introduction of Firebird specific features (such as
> compressed over-the-wire protocol, more robust logon protocol, etc...)
> that would otherwise break backward compatibility.   It is expected the
> name of the Firebird client shared object/dynamic link library will also
> change to a Firebird specific name at this time.  The new Firebird
> client will allow connection to either the compatible 3050 port or the
> new FirebirdSQL server port.
>
>
> Thanks to all who participated in the discussion and helped resolve
> these issues.
>
>
> Posted on behalf of:
>
> The Firebird Admin Team (The FAT)
>
> by Mark.
>
> --
> Your database needs YOU!
> http://www.firebirdSQL.org
>
>
>
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