FreeTDS(November 11, 2008)

NAME
osql - utility to test FreeTDS connections and queries

SYNOPSIS

osql
    -S dsn -U username -P password [-I ini_dir]

DESCRIPTION
osql is a diagnostic tool provided as part of FreeTDS. It is a Bourne shell script that checks and reports on your configuration files. If everything checks out OK, it invokes isql.

osql works only with the isql that comes with unixODBC.

OPTIONS

-S dsn
    the Data Source Name to which to connect, as known to odbc.ini.

-U username
    database login name.

-P password
    database password.

-I ini_dir
    override odbc.ini file location.

EXAMPLE
If you have an odbc.ini with a section like this:

        [myDSN]
                servername = myserver
                TDS_Version = 5.0
You would invoke osql as:

        osql -S myDSN [...]

NOTES
If you can connect with "osql -S servername -U user -P passwd", your FreeTDS ODBC installation is working.

osql guesses where unixODBC might look for its odbc.ini by examining the binary. This is not always an effective approach. If it doesn't work, you'll receive a report of candidate strings. Kindly pass along the output to help improve the guessing.

If osql cannot intuit your odbc.ini directory, you can force the issue with the -I option. However, you're instructing osql what to test, not where unixODBC will eventually look. Your override is therefore only as good as you are. Look carefully at the error output before overriding.

If you have suggestions for ways to make osql more useful as a diagnostic tool, please post them to the FreeTDS mailing list.

HISTORY
osql first appeared in FreeTDS 0.65.

AUTHORS
The osql utility was written by James K. Lowden