
This is a new version of a set of library utilities whose intention
is to provide a generic interface to SQL database engines such that your
application becomes a 3 tiered application.  The advantage is that you
can easily switch between and move to other database engines by
implementing one file for the new backend without needing to make any
changes to your applications.

Moreover you can switch between database engines on a per user basis by
changing a value in a defaults file (see the Defaults library contained
within this package).

This is MAJOR version 2, MINOR version 1.

The generic database access functions are in the file Vdb.c which uses a
set of engine specific files.  Access files are given for the mSQL
database engine and the mySQL database engine.

INSTALLING
---------

    extract the archive with 'tar xzf Vdb-dflts-${major}.${minor}.tgz'  
    this will create the following directory structure

    ./include
    ./lib
    ./libsrc/Vdb
    ./libsrc/Defaults
    ./libsrc/Vlib

    set the value of VSYSTEM in your environment according to the values
    listed in ./include/Vport.h

    cd ./libsrc/Vlib
    make install
    cd ../Defaults
    make install
    cd ../Vdb
    make install

    You can also do 'make test' in the Defaults & Vdb directories to
    make a test program.  

    The file Vdb/test.c illustrates how to use the Vdb library (it's 
    very simple).

    run the test program in the Vdb directory with

        % test "<query>"

    (the query has to be one argument and it works on the "test" database)

    Please read the README files in the Defaults directory

Additional Files
----------------

    Please see the README file in libsrc/Defaults for a description of
what that is and how to use it.

I often use a global defaults file to store default values that would
apply to any application and a group file specific to an application
which has the same name as the application.  The same can apply for
libraries and in the case of Vdb it uses a group file called 'Vdb' which
may contain a definition of the default database engine type i.e. 

    default_engine=msql

    or

    default_engine=mysql


In the future I might be able to have a per host default engine so
making it easier to mix and match different engines on different hosts.

This code builds fine with gcc with -Wall.

I am providing this code in reponse to requests from other msql/mysql
users.  It is in no way supported.  I will try to help anyone with
problems if I have the time but normally I'm really busy so I will most
likely ignore questions about it, particularly "It doesn't compile on my
<xyz> box".

I hope it is useful to you.

See the files */COPYRIGHT for details on that subject.  This may be be
changed at any time without notice.

regards

damian@cablenet.net

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.1     Use the same handle when connecting to the same host/datebase as
        an existing open connection, use new function VdbConnectDB().
        Per engine access modules are now positively compiled in.

2.0     incorporate all required files/libs into one tar archive
