Chapter 9. Getting Help
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# Chapter 9. Getting Help

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being 'round.
Help me get my feet back on the ground,
Won't you please, please help me?

—Beatles

In the battle against frustration and wasted motion, this manual is our first defense. Our documentation is intended to make it possible for a knowledgeable user to, well, use FreeTDS without further assistance. We strive to include all known features and behaviors here, so you can work quickly and anonymously, and go home before 5:00. Would that it were always thus.

## Reconfirm the installation

For initial setup and login problems, review Confirm the installation. Distinguish between network and server issues, between finding the server and logging into it. The `TDSDUMPCONFIG` log will show how the servername is being looked up, what address & port is being used, what TDS version is being used. The `TDSDUMP` log will show quite clearly whether or not the server accepted the connection, and whether or not the login succeeded.

Remember compiled-in defaults can be displayed with tsql:

    $ tsql -C

    Compile-time settings (established with the "configure" script)
                                Version: freetds v1.5
                 freetds.conf directory: /usr/local/etc
         MS db-lib source compatibility: no
            Sybase binary compatibility: no
                          Thread safety: yes
                          iconv library: yes
                            TDS version: auto
                                  iODBC: no
                               unixodbc: no
                  SSPI "trusted" logins: no
                                Keberos: no
                                OpenSSL: yes
                                 GnuTLS: no
                                   MARS: yes

For `ODBC` setup issues, the osql script is intended to confirm the configuration files are all sane. If it fails to report a problem, please post a message describing the problem. Thanks.

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Slow connection or data retrieval | Home | Isolate the cause