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I have a .FDB Firebird file from an commercial Application we don't use anymore. It contains my customer data an I want to export or access it in some manner.

I have seen many procedures that require Firebird server installation, JDBC, ODBC drivers, GUI (I tried RazorSQL) tools that are just to complex for me to handle. I have been hitting into one problem or another every time, solve point by point but still hitting the wall.

Does anyone have a quick and easy way to simply open it (preferably on Mac OSX)? One that a non-Firebird / database tech guy can actually follow?

Mark Rotteveel
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Juliomac
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    At minimum you will need a Firebird install, otherwise you can't access the database. If you want to be able to query somewhat user-friendly, you need a tool like flamerobin, etc. There is no way around that. – Mark Rotteveel May 16 '15 at 15:56
  • Well, I have it installed. I ran isql and all, but I can't find a way to connect to the DB file. I followed the instructions to connect to a sample DB. It failed probably because my installation did not come with the same sample DB. Then I tried on my own file with SYSDBA as user and master key as password. It did not connect either. – Juliomac May 18 '15 at 23:15
  • @MarkRotteveel yes and no. For example, IBExpert comes bundled with FB 2.5 embedded, which you can use to open FB 1.x and 2.x databases. Technically you still have a Firebird, but you do not install and do not run it. I don't know if there is some similar for MacOS though, perhaps not. – Arioch 'The Jan 21 '19 at 11:18
  • @Juliomac if you do not have a sample database, then you have to create it. You can not connect to what does not exist yet. So, see CREATE DATABASE command in iSQL. Also see database creation at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIZT0dYPex4 – Arioch 'The Jan 21 '19 at 11:19
  • @Arioch'The I have seen a number of questions that would indicate that Firebird Embedded on MacOS doesn't seem to function correctly without actually really installing Firebird server. – Mark Rotteveel Jan 21 '19 at 12:54

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I finally found what was the issue.

It turns out that the path file to the .FBD file was the culprit. Mine had Portuguese accented words on the folder name. It seems like isql does not accept it. I moved the file to Desktop and the following command worked fine.

SQL> CONNECT /Users/user_name/Desktop/db_name.FDB;

Still haven't been able to use any Razorsql Gui tool though. It seems to have an issue with the JDBC driver.

Juliomac
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