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Firebird (database server)

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Firebird
Developer(s)Firebird Project
Stable release
2.1.3 / September 8, 2009; 15 years ago (2009-09-08)
Preview release
2.5.0 RC 2 / February 8, 2010; 14 years ago (2010-02-08)
Repository
Written inC++
Operating systemCross-platform
TypeRDBMS
LicenseIPL, IDPL
Websitehttp://www.firebirdsql.org/

Firebird is an open source relational database management system that runs on GNU/Linux, Windows, and a variety of Unix platforms. The database forked from Borland's open source edition of InterBase in 2000, but since Firebird 1.5 the code has been largely rewritten [1].

History

Within a week of the InterBase 6.0 source being released by Borland on 25 July 2000,[2][3] the Firebird project was created on SourceForge.[4][5] Firebird 1.0 was released for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X on 11 March 2002,[6] with ports to Solaris, FreeBSD 4, HP-UX following over the next two months.[7]

Work on porting the codebase from C to C++ began in 2000. On 23 February 2004, Firebird 1.5 was released,[8] which was the first stable release of the new codebase. Version 1.5 featured an improved query optimizer, SQL-92 conditional expressions, SQL:1999 savepoints and support for explicit locking.[9] Firebird 2.0 was released on 12 November 2006,[10] adding support for 64-bit architectures, tables nested in FROM clauses, and programmable lock timeouts in blocking transactions.[11]

The current stable release is version 2.1.3, which adds new features including procedural triggers, recursive queries, and support for SQL:2003 MERGE statements.[12]

Firebird 2.5 is currently in development, with a final release scheduled for 2010. New features will include improved multithreading, regular expression syntax and the ability to query remote databases.[13] The planned 3.0 release is expected to support stored procedures in languages such as Java and C++, and SQL window functions that restrict query results. Beta 2 was released in 11 August 2009 , with final version due before the end of 2010.[14]

Features

  • Full support for stored procedures and triggers[15]
  • Full ACID compliant transactions
  • Referential integrity
  • Multi Generational Architecture (sometimes called MVCC) [16]
  • Very small footprint [17]
  • Support for External Functions (UDFs)
  • Optional single file embedded version for creating CD-ROM catalogs, single user or evaluation versions of applications
  • Third party tools, including GUI administrative tools and replication tools
  • Careful writes - fast recovery, no need for transaction logs
  • Many access methods: native/API, dbExpress drivers, ODBC, OLEDB, .Net provider, JDBC native type 4 driver, Python module, PHP, Perl
  • Incremental backups
  • Full cursor implementation in PSQL

Mozilla Firefox name clash

In April 2003, the Mozilla Foundation decided to rename their web browser from Phoenix to Firebird after a trademark dispute with Phoenix Technologies. This decision caused concern within the Firebird database project due to the assumption that users and Internet search engines would be confused by a database and a web browser both using the name Firebird. The dispute continued until the Mozilla developers issued a statement making clear that their software package was called "Mozilla Firebird", not "Firebird". The statement also said that the Mozilla Firebird name was a project codename. On February 9, 2004, Mozilla renamed its browser Mozilla Firefox, thus ending the confusion.

Awards

  • 2009. SourceForge Community Choice Award: Best Project for enterprise. Finalist on Best Project and Best Project for Government.
  • 2007. SourceForge Community Choice Award: Best Project for enterprise, Best user support.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Firebird 1.5.5 Release Notes". Retrieved 2009-09-29. Firebird 1.5.5 General Notes for rewriting it from C to C++ language
  2. ^ "Inprise/Borland Introduces InterBase 6.0 Now Free and Open Source on Linux, Windows, and Solaris". 07-16-2000. Archived from the original on 2004-12-06. Retrieved 29 January 2009. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "Borland.com: Inprise/Borland Introduces Interbase 6.0 Now Free and Open Source on Linux". Linux Today. Retrieved 2009-01-29.
  4. ^ "Firebird History". Retrieved 2009-01-31.
  5. ^ Paul Reeves. "What's happening to InterBase" (PDF). Borland User Group. p. 2. Retrieved 2009-01-29.
  6. ^ "IBPhoenix Community News Archive". 2000-03-11. Retrieved 2009-01-29.
  7. ^ "IBPhoenix Community News Archive". 2000-04-11. Retrieved 2009-01-29.
  8. ^ "Firebird Relational Database 1.5 Final Out". Slashdot. 23 February 2004. Retrieved 31 January 2009.
  9. ^ Helen Borrie (2007-11-30). "Firebird 1.5.5 Release Notes" (PDF). Firebird Project. Retrieved 2009-01-31.
  10. ^ Dmitry Yemanov. "Firebird 2.0 Final Release Launches in Prague". Retrieved 2009-02-05.
  11. ^ Helen Borrie (2009-01-22). "Firebird 2.0.5 Release Notes" (PDF). Retrieved 2009-02-05.
  12. ^ Helen Borrie (2008-07-15). "Firebird 2.1 Release Notes". Retrieved 2009-02-07.
  13. ^ Helen Borrie (2008-07-02). "Firebird 2.5 Release Notes". Retrieved 2009-02-09.
  14. ^ Dmitry Yemanov (2008-12). "Firebird Roadmap 2009". Retrieved 2009-01-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ "Get to know Firebird in 2 minutes".
  16. ^ Roman Rokytskyy. "A not-so-very technical discussion of Multi Version Concurrency Control" (PDF). Roman Rokytskyy. p. 7. Retrieved 2009-09-29.
  17. ^ "Investigating Firebird with Helen Borrie, Project Lead".
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