<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Getting Help</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.79"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="FreeTDS User Guide" HREF="index.htm"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="Slow connection or data retrieval" HREF="seemtooslow.htm"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="The Mailing List" HREF="mailinglist.htm"><LINK REL="STYLESHEET" TYPE="text/css" HREF="userguide.css"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="CHAPTER" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" ><SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >FreeTDS</SPAN > User Guide: A Guide to Installing, Configuring, and Running <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >FreeTDS</SPAN ></TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="seemtooslow.htm" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="mailinglist.htm" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="CHAPTER" ><H1 ><A NAME="HELP" ></A >Chapter 9. Getting Help</H1 ><TABLE BORDER="0" WIDTH="100%" CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="0" CLASS="EPIGRAPH" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="45%" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="45%" ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" ><I ><P ><I ><P CLASS="LITERALLAYOUT" > Help me if you can, I'm feeling down<br> And I do appreciate you being 'round.<br> Help me get my feet back on the ground,<br> Won't you please, please help me?</P ></I ></P ></I ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="45%" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="45%" ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP" ><I ><SPAN CLASS="ATTRIBUTION" >Beatles</SPAN ></I ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><DIV CLASS="TOC" ><DL ><DT ><B >Table of Contents</B ></DT ><DT ><A HREF="help.htm#ISOLATECAUSE" >Isolate the cause</A ></DT ><DT ><A HREF="mailinglist.htm" >The Mailing List</A ></DT ><DT ><A HREF="askingforhelp.htm" >What to include when asking for help</A ></DT ></DL ></DIV ><P >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, <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >use</I ></SPAN > <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >FreeTDS</SPAN > 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. </P ><DIV CLASS="SECT1" ><H1 CLASS="SECT1" ><A NAME="ISOLATECAUSE" >Isolate the cause</A ></H1 ><P >Successful problem isolation will yield earliest resolution. You (believe it or not) have more information about your environment than anyone else does, and have the greatest motivation to solve your problem. The resources at your disposal will be much more useful if the problem is specific. (Sorry if this is obvious. If it is, you might be surprised how often it's not.) </P ><P >If you can demonstrate the problem with <B CLASS="COMMAND" >tsql</B > or <B CLASS="COMMAND" >sqsh</B >, you can expect a quick answer to your question, possibly even a fairly quick fix. (It has happened several times in the last few years that bug reports to small problems were fixed the same day. On a few occasions, new functions were added in a few days. Making <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >FreeTDS</SPAN > useful and bugless is the goal of the project, after all.) </P ><P ><SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >FreeTDS</SPAN > being what it is, problems frequently arise amidst complex environments. It can be hard for both you and the list participants — who are your allies and best resource — to determine what's going wrong. If you can submit a script that they can use to try to reproduce your results, you have a much better chance of happy resolution. </P ><P >On the plus side, the list includes people with a variety of backgrounds, who frequently answer questions that aren't really about <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >FreeTDS</SPAN > <I CLASS="FOREIGNPHRASE" >per se</I >. Clear questions have sometimes even led to submitting patches to other projects. </P ><DIV CLASS="SECT2" ><H2 CLASS="SECT2" ><A NAME="HELP.OTHERCLIENT" >Try a different client</A ></H2 ><P ><SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >FreeTDS</SPAN > comes with its own utilities that use the various libraries. It's a good idea to run your query through one of them — the one that uses the same API you're using — to see if it produces the same behavior you're seeing. That helps eliminate your application (and the rest of the calling hierarchy) as a source of the problem. </P ></DIV ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="seemtooslow.htm" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.htm" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="mailinglist.htm" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >Slow connection or data retrieval</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >The Mailing List</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >