Whats the difference between the Sybase and FreeTDS connections?
The sqlr-connection-sybase program is compiled against Sybase ctlib; the libraries that come with Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise. They use a protocol called TDS (Tabular Data Stream) to talk to the database. The sqlr-connection-freetds program is compiled against FreeTDS, an open-source implementation of the TDS protocol and ctlib. Older versions of Microsoft SQL Server are compatible with Sybase ctlib, but newer versions are not. FreeTDS is compatible with all versions of Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise and Microsoft SQL Server. Unfortunately, FreeTDS is an incomplete implementation of TDS. Several features are buggy, inconsistent or non-existent. For example… • Programs compiled against FreeTDS<0.53 crash when fetching MONEY and SMALLMONEY datatypes. SQL Relay handles this by preventing queries which fetch MONEY or SMALLMONEY datatypes from running if it's compiled against FreeTDS<0.53. • Programs compiled against FreeTDS<0.53 crash when attempting to find out how many rows we
