DBI - The Perl5 Database Interface by Tim Bunce.

Copyright (c) 1995, Tim Bunce

You may distribute under the terms of either the GNU General Public
License or the Artistic License, as specified in the Perl README file.


WARNING: THIS IS ALPHA SOFTWARE. IT IS POSSIBLY UNRELIABLE!


This DBI interface is not yet fully specified. The current development
work is focused on writing drivers, such as DBD::Oracle, which also
implement emulations of old perl4 database interfaces, e.g., oraperl.
This strategy enables the DBI and drivers to serve a useful purpose
whilst allowing the real interface to evolve with experience behind the
emulation interface.


If you wish to use this sofware please join the perldb mailing list.
Send a request to join to:

	perldb-interest-request@fugue.com

For background information, old (sadly out of date) specs and the
(very large) mailing list archive take a look in:

	ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/perl/db/


BEFORE BUILDING, TESTING AND INSTALLING this you will need to:

    Build, test and install Perl 5 (at least version 5.001m).
    It is very important to test it and install it!

BUILDING

    If Perl5 is installed do:

	perl Makefile.PL

    If Perl5 is NOT installed do:

    perl Makefile.PL PERL_SRC=/path/to/perl/source/dir

    Then do:

    make
    make test
    make test TEST_VERBOSE=1   (if any of the t/* tests fail)

    make install (if the tests look okay)

Do NOT hand edit the generated Makefile unless you are completely sure
you understand the implications! Always try to make changes via the
Makefile.PL command line and/or editing the Makefile.PL.
 
You should never need to make any changes. If you do *please* let me
know so that I can try to make it automatic in a later release.
 

IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS:

Please post details to perldb-interest@fugue.com and CC them to me at
Tim.Bunce@ig.co.uk.  Please include:

1. A complete log of a complete build, e.g.:

    perl Makefile.PL           (do a make realclean first)
    make
    make test
    make test TEST_VERBOSE=1   (if any tests fail)

2. The output of:
    perl -e 'use Config; print Config::myconfig()'
   together with the version number of GCC (should be 2.5.8 or later)

3. If you get a core dump, try to include a stack trace from it.
   If the stack trace mentions XS_DynaLoader_dl_load_file then rerun
   make test after setting the environment variable PERL_DL_DEBUG to 2.

4. Please DON'T post problems to comp.lang.perl.misc or perl5-porters.

5. If you are not currently subscribed to the mailing list please
   also send a subscription request to perldb-interest-request@fugue.com.


Regards,
Tim Bunce.

=======================================================================

Drivers planned or being developed:

Oracle		- Tim Bunce <Tim.Bunce@ig.co.uk>
Ingres		- Tim Bunce <Tim.Bunce@ig.co.uk>
mSQL		- Alligator Descartes <descarte@mcqueen.com>
Informix	- Alligator Descartes <descarte@mcqueen.com> 
Interbase	- Bill Karwin <bkarwin@interbase.borland.com>
DB2  		- Mike <mhm@austin.ibm.com>

Please communicate about these via the perldb-interest mailing list.
Thanks.

Tim.
