= Description
   The DBI package is a vendor independent interface for accessing databases.
   It is similar, but not identical to, Perl's DBI module.
   
= Prerequisites  
   Ruby 1.8.0 or later.

= Installation
   Many available DBDs come with this package, but you should only install
   the DBD's you really need.

   To install everything:

   ruby setup.rb config
   ruby setup.rb setup
   ruby setup.rb install

   To install dbi and some DBDs:

   ruby setup.rb config --with=dbi, dbd_pg, ...
   ruby setup.rb setup
   ruby setup.rb install

   Choose the packages to install by specifing them after the option --with.

= Synopsis
   require 'dbi'

   # Connect to a database, old style
   dbh = DBI.connect('DBI:Mysql:test', 'testuser', 'testpwd')

   # Insert some rows, use placeholders
   1.upto(13) do |i|
      sql = "insert into simple01 (SongName, SongLength_s) VALUES (?, ?)"
      dbh.do(sql, "Song #{i}", "#{i*10}")
   end 

   # Select all rows from simple01
   sth = dbh.prepare('select * from simple01')
   sth.execute

   # Print out each row
   while row=sth.fetch do
      p row
   end

   # Close the statement handle when done
   sth.finish

   # Don't prepare, just do it!
   dbh.do('delete from simple01 where internal_id > 10')

   # And finally, disconnect
   dbh.disconnect

   # Same example, but a little more Ruby-ish
   DBI.connect('DBI:Mysql:test', 'testuser', 'testpwd') do | dbh |

      sql = "insert into simple01 (SongName, SongLength_s) VALUES (?, ?)"

      dbh.prepare(sql) do | sth | 
         1.upto(13) { |i| sth.execute("Song #{i}", "#{i*10}") }
      end 

      dbh.select_all('select * from simple01') do | row |
         p row
      end

      dbh.do('delete from simple01 where internal_id > 10')

   end

= Available Database Drivers (DBD's)
== DBD::ADO
   ADO (ActiveX Data Objects)
   Requires win32ole, part of the Ruby standard library.

== DBD::DB2
   DB2
   Depends on the ruby-db2 package, available on the RAA.

== DBD::Frontbase
   Frontbase
   Depends on the ruby-frontbase package, available on the RAA.

== DBD::InterBase
   Interbase
   Depends on the interbase package, available on the RAA.

== DBD::mSQL
   mSQL
   Depends on the msql package, available on the RAA.

== DBD::MySQL
   MySQL
   Depends on the mysql package from http://www.tmtm.org/mysql or available
   from the RAA.

== DBD::ODBC
   ODBC
   Depends on the ruby-odbc package (0.5 or later, 0.9.3 or later recommended) at
   http://www.ch-werner.de/rubyodbc or available from the RAA.  Works together
   with unix-odbc.

== DBD::Oracle
   Oracle
   Depends on the oracle package 0.2.11 or later, available on the RAA.  This
   driver is deprecated in favor of DBD::OCI8.

== DBD::OCI8
   OCI8 (Oracle)
   Depends on the the ruby-oci8 package, available on the RAA and RubyForge.

== DBD::Pg
   PostgreSQL
   Depends on either the postgres or postgres-pr package, both available on
   the RAA.

== DBD::Proxy
   Proxy/Server
   Depends on distributed Ruby (DRb), part of the Ruby standard library.

== DBD::SQLite
   SQLite
   Depends on the sqlite package, available on the RAA.

== DBD::SQLRelay
   SQLRelay
   Depends on the sqlrelay package at http://www.firstworks.com/sqlrelay

= Additional Documentation
   See the directories lib/*/doc or ext/*/doc for DBI and DBD specific information.
   The DBI specification is at lib/dbi/doc/DBI_SPEC.
   The DBD specification is at lib/dbi/doc/DBD_SPEC.

= Articles
== Using the Ruby DBI Module
   http://www.kitebird.com/articles/ruby-dbi.html
   
= Applications
== sqlsh.rb
   The SQL command line interpreter sqlsh.rb is available in directory bin/commandline. It gets installed by default.

= License
   Copyright (c) 2005-2006 Kirk Haines, Francis Hwang, Patrick May and Daniel
   Berger.

   Copyright (c) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Michael Neumann <mneumann@ntecs.de>
   and others (see the beginning of each file for copyright holder information).

   All rights reserved.

   Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
   modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

   1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
      this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
   2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
      this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
      and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
   3. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products
      derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

   THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES,
   INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY
   AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL
   THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL,
   EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
   PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS;
   OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY,
   WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR
   OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF
   ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

   This is the BSD license which is less restrictive than GNU's GPL
   (General Public License).

= Contributors
   Kirk Haines
      One of the authors of the rewrite effort (January 2006).

   Francis Hwang
      One of the authors of the rewrite effort (January 2006).

   Patrick May
      One of the authors of the rewrite effort (January 2006).

   Daniel Berger
      One of the authors of the rewrite effort (January 2006).

   Michael Neumann
      Original author of Ruby/DBI; wrote the DBI and most of the DBD's.

   Rainer Perl
      Author of Ruby/DBI 0.0.4 from which many good ideas were taken.

   Jim Weirich
      Original author of DBD::Pg.  Wrote additional code (e.g. sql.rb,
      testcases).  Gave many helpful hints and comments. 

   Eli Green
      Implemented DatabaseHandle#columns for Mysql and Pg. 

   Masatoshi SEKI
      For his version of module BasicQuote in sql.rb. 

   John Gorman
      For his case insensitive load_driver patch and parameter parser. 

   David Muse
      For testing the DBD::SQLRelay and for his initial DBD. 

   Jim Menard
      Extended DBD::Oracle for method columns. 

   Joseph McDonald
      Fixed bug in DBD::Pg (default values in method columns). 

   Norbert Gawor
      Fixed bug in DBD::ODBC (method columns) and proxyserver. 

   James F. Hranicky
      Patch for DBD::Pg (cache PGResult#result in Tuples) which increased
      performance by a factor around 100. 

   Stephen Davies
      Added method Statement#fetch_scroll for DBD::Pg. 

   Dave Thomas
      Several enhancements. 

   Brad Hilton
      Column coercing patch for DBD::Mysql. 

   Sean Chittenden
      Originally a co-owner of the project.  Submitted several patches
      and helped with lots of comments.

   MoonWolf
      Provided the quote/escape_byte patch for DBD::Pg, DBD::SQLite patch and
      Database#columns implementation. Further patches. 

   Paul DuBois
      Fixed typos and formatting. Maintains DBD::Mysql. 

   Tim Bates
      Bug fixes for Mysql and DBI.

   Brian Candler
      Zero-padding date/time/timestamps fix. 

   Florian G. Pflug
      Discussion and helpful comments/benchmarks about DBD::Pg async_exec vs.
      exec. 
   
   Oliver M. Bolzer
      Patches to support Postgres arrays for DBD::Pg. 

   Stephen R. Veit
      ruby-db2 and DBD::DB2 enhancements. 

   Dennis Vshivkov
      DBD::Pg patches 

   Cail Borrell from frontbase.com
      For the Frontbase DBD and C interface. 
