[Gllug] Accessing MS SQL Server from linux

[Russell Howe]

On Thu, Feb 22, 2007 at 04:48:41PM +0000, SteveC wrote:
> Hi all
> 
> I've had three different things come up where I need to be able to talk 
> to various MS SQL Servers...

SQL Server really doesn't seem /that/ bad

> Anyone got any tips and hints? I'm looking for something like 
> mysql-client or psql -type shells I can use to talk to it... and 
> ultimately to dump the thing and push it in to something useful like mysql.

henplus is quite nice. It's Java, so works with anything that has a JDBC
driver. jTDS seems to be a pretty decent driver for servers which speak
the TDS protocol (e.g. SQL Server & Sybase).

My main gripe with it is that it doesn't seem to handle terminal resizes
very well, so if you're running it from a resizable terminal (e.g. in
X), size the window beforehand!

Note also that henplus by default operates in a non-autocommit mode, so
if you execute any data modification statements, you need to manually
issue a commit (I find that it ends up causing other database requests
to block until you issue commit, which can be a bit of a pain). If
that's a problem, I'm sure you can turn autocommit on, but being able to
execute a rollback if you realise you've made a terrible mistake (DELETE
or UPDATE without a WHERE clause, anyone? :)

Since about the only thing I talk to databases with is Java, I find using
the same drivers for the console makes for less disruption.

> WTF is with doing 'GO' after every statement?

NFI. Never seen that...

-- 
Russell Howe       | Why be just another cog in the machine,
rhowe at siksai.co.uk | when you can be the spanner in the works?
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