libfq - C API wrapper for Firebird

May 3, 2024 ยท View on GitHub

libfq provides a number of functions which act as convenience wrappers around the native Firebird C API, which is cumbersome to use.

It is loosely based on PostgreSQL's libpq and provides a subset of that API's functions - names beginning with FQ rather than PQ - with more-or-less identical function signatures. It also provides some Firebird-specific functions.

While basically functional, libfq is still work-in-progress and the API definitions may change between releases in an incompatible way. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Requirements and compatibility

libfq should work on any reasonably POSIX-like system; see the INSTALL.md file for details.

It has been developed against Firebird 3 ~ Firebird 5, and should work with Firebird 2.5 and later.

Installation

RPM packages for CentOS and derivatives, and current Fedora versions, are available via the Fedora "copr" build system; for details see here: https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/ibarwick/libfq/

For installation from source, see file INSTALL.md.

Documentation

sgml documentation is available in the doc subdirectory and can be built with the Makefile contained therein.

An online version of the documentation is available here: libfq documentation

Applications

Following applications make use of libfq:

  • firebird_fdw - a foreign data wrapper for PostgreSQL
  • fbsql - a command-line client inspired by PostgreSQL's psql

KNOWN ISSUES

  • Data types

    • BLOB (other than SUB_TYPE TEXT) not supported
    • ARRAY datatype currently not handled

  • Parameterized queries (function FQexecParams()):

    • NUMERIC/DECIMAL: may overflow if more digits than permitted are supplied