Commented by: @hvlad

Ivan,

are you able to connect using UTF8 and run some statement with SIMILAR TO predicate ?

Commented by: @asfernandes

And how Firebird has been installed? From official .tar.gz download or from Gentoo packages?

Was this database created on this same server or moved from another one?

Commented by: Makeev Ivan (rangerx)

Vlad Khorsun:
Yes. I have successfully connected and executed statements with SIMILAR TO. I tried databases with WINDOWS-1251 charset/collation and UTF8 charset/collation (connection through UTF8 charset). If i use cyrillic (windows-1251) chars in SIMILAR TO, I have received an error: "Malformed string" (but it isn't important, just for information :)

Adriano dos Santos Fernandes:
Firebird has been installed from Gentoo portage. Portage downloaded source code tar.bz2 Firebird-2.5.0.26074-0.tar.bz2, unpack it, and install with following options:

./configure --prefix=/usr --build=i686-pc-linux-gnu --host=i686-pc-linux-gnu --mandir=/usr/share/man --infodir=/usr/share/info --datadir=/usr/share --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var/lib --prefix=/usr/lib/firebird --enable-superserver --disable-debug --with-system-editline --with-fbbin=/usr/bin --with-fbsbin=/usr/sbin --with-fbconf=/etc/firebird --with-fblib=/usr/lib --with-fbinclude=/usr/include --with-fbdoc=/usr/share/doc/firebird-2.5.0.26074.0 --with-fbudf=/usr/lib/firebird/UDF --with-fbsample=/usr/share/doc/firebird-2.5.0.26074.0/examples --with-fbsample-db=/usr/share/doc/firebird-2.5.0.26074.0/examples/db --with-fbhelp=/usr/lib/firebird/help --with-fbintl=/usr/lib/firebird/intl --with-fbmisc=/usr/share/firebird --with-fbsecure-db=/etc/firebird --with-fbmsg=/usr/lib/firebird --with-fblog=/var/log/firebird/ --with-fbglock=/var/run/firebird --with-fbplugins=/usr/lib/firebird/plugins

Databases has been moved from another Linux server (Firebird superserver 2.0) through backup/restore procedure (gbak with options -FIX_FSS_DATA -FIX_FSS_METADATA, because databases has WINDOWS-1251 charset).

Commented by: Makeev Ivan (rangerx)

I also tried to use trace for a specified database:

<database (asodu_new).fdb>
enabled true
log_filename /var/log/firebird/\1.log
</database>
but got error:

fbasodu (Server) Wed Dec 15 16:12:02 2010
Trace plugin http://libfbtrace.so returned error on call trace_create.
Error details: line 192: error while compiling regular expression "(asodu_new).fdb"

Commented by: Roman Vanicek (roman)

Hello, I have the same issue.

Ubuntu 11.04, Firebird 2.5.0 superclassic from the Ubuntu repository.

The message appears in the log file as soon as the server is started even before I connect to any database. Not trace/log file is created.

Also, when I put a very simple entry in my fbtrace.conf such as

<database abc.fdb>
enabled true
log_file /tmp/db/audit.log
</database>

I get this error in the firebird log file:
Trace plugin http://libfbtrace.so returned error on call trace_create.
Error details: line 198: error while compiling regular expression "abc.fdb"

Note: abc.fdb is a non-unicode database (actually windows-1250).

Commented by: Roman Vanicek (roman)

This is probably a duplicate of CORE3447, the problem with ICU version 4.4 which is present in Ubuntu 11.04.

When I have tried the 2.5.1 snapshot (2.5.1.26285) it worked fine.

One related question: is it possible to tell Firebird to use a specific ICU version globally? I have installed libicu42 from Ubuntu 10.10 and I have tried to change some settings in fbintl.conf but with no effect.

Commented by: @asfernandes

You said you tried without --with-system-icu, which make hard to believe to be related to CORE3447.

> One related question: is it possible to tell Firebird to use a specific ICU version globally? I have installed libicu42 from Ubuntu 10.10 and I have tried to change some settings in fbintl.conf but with no effect.

In fbintl.conf, change "icu_versions = default" to "icu_versions = 4.2".

Commented by: Roman Vanicek (roman)

Thank you.

I don't know if I have tried --with-system-icu or not. I have downloaded the current daily build of 2.5.1 from Firebird website and it is working fine. I don't know how this build is made. If it is made without --with-system-icu, you are right.

Thanks for the tip with "icu_versions = 4.2". Is there a way to check at runtime which version is Firebird really using?

Commented by: @pmakowski

Snapshots and official project builds are made without --with-system-icu
so yes, I think it is related to CORE3447

Commented by: @asfernandes

Well, look, we had two people reporting things in the same ticket... Original one says "I try rebuild server with and without --with-system-icu, but no effect."

Commented by: Roman Vanicek (roman)

One more piece of information: if I try Firebird 2.5.0 final downloaded from the Firebird website, it works fine. So again, to me it seems to point to a Firebird (distro build) versus system ICU problem.

To summarize my experience so far:
Ubuntu Natty with ICU 4.4: Firebird 2.5.0 from Firebird works (bundled ICU 3.0 probably)
Ubuntu Natty with ICU 4.4: Firebird 2.5.1.26285 snapshot from Firebird works (bundled ICU 3.0 probably)
Ubuntu Natty with ICU 4.4: Firebird 2.5.0 from Ubuntu (universe) does NOT work (system ICU 4.4 probably)

I am quite happy now to know that when I use the Firebird binaries from the Firebird, it works fine. But if there is something more I could try to help you close this ticket, let me know.

All these ICU issues are quite new to me. At first I was quite disappointed to learn that it is not possible to move a unicode database from one system to another because of ICU versions, only later I have learnt that the problem is mainly due to distro packages that link to different ICU versions, while the original binaries use always the same (bundled) one.

Commented by: @mariuz

This should be closed , seems to be a duplicate of CORE3447