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Ive been playing around with Firebird and isql. I noticed it has the 'shell' command. However this shell drops you to a sub-process on the local system regardless if your connected to a remote DB. Is it possible to run system level commands on Firebird on the system hosting the DB? Google seems to be useless with regards to Firebird, I have read the documentation for Firebird too and dont see any mention of it.

iNoob
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The only way to do it is to write UDF function (in such languages like Delphi or C/C++). But even if you write or find such a function, its usefulness may be limited because Firebird can run under special user account with limited rights.

Grzegorz Skoczylas
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  • So as long as u user account has system level access it is possible. I have no idea about udf functions so ill start digging – iNoob Apr 08 '14 at 21:48
  • ive just looked at UDFs they are simply functions like any function they do a specific job and as its a SQL UDF its made up of sql statements. If its possible to run system commands via a UDF then it must be some sql statement/s that can be used to accomplish it? – iNoob Apr 08 '14 at 22:07
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    @iNoob No, in Firebird an UDF is a function that calls into a (native) method defined in `.dll` or `.so`; if that method can execute system commands, then you can use that UDF to execute system commands; however you would need to program it yourself, by default Firebird has no such UDF (and having such a UDF in itself would be a big security risk!). – Mark Rotteveel Apr 09 '14 at 07:20
  • @Mark Rotteveel thanks for explaining. I assume this UDF would need to be local to the firebird install? Or could it be run remotely from a client via isql or simalr interfaces? – iNoob Apr 09 '14 at 07:38
  • The UDF needs to be local to Firebird, in a folder that is set in the `firebird.conf` as allowed for UDFs; you also need to 'register' the UDF in the database. – Mark Rotteveel Apr 09 '14 at 09:03
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There is no way to execute shell commands in remote system via isql.

ain
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  • On remote server? No. There is other tools for that, `isql` is just "interface to the Firebird". – ain Apr 08 '14 at 20:02
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    Im aware isql is an interface for firebird. However I was trying to understand if firebird had functionality that rivaled mssql (xp_cmdshell) – iNoob Apr 08 '14 at 20:05