Chapter 1

General Notes

Firebird 2.1 is a full version release that builds on the architectural changes introduced in the V.2.0 series. Thanks to all who have field-tested the Alphas and Betas during 2007 and the first quarter of 2008 we have a release that is bright with new features and improvements, including the long-awaited global temporary tables, a catalogue of new run-time monitoring mechanisms, database triggers and the injection of dozens of internal functions into the SQL language set.

About These Notes

This edition of the v.2.1 release notes is a merger of the notes developed over the course of developments and releases from V.2.0 to this v.2.1 release. Note that the separate v.2.0.x documentation is not distributed with the v.2.1 binaries.

The Installation, Migration/Compatibility and Bug Fixes sections have been removed from the release notes document and are now distributed in the $fbroot$/doc/ subdirectory as separate documents. Like the release notes, they cover both the v.2.0.x and v.2.1 release series.

To help smoothe the transition from older versions, it will be essential to study both the release notes and the migration/installation guide thoroughly. We encourage you to take your time testing this release with your applications and stressing it with real-world data and loads. Some legacy queries might not work, or might not perform as they did previously, due to a number of logic corrections that have been implemented. Temporary workarounds for legacy applications in such situations are available in some cases. We prefer that you research such issues in the documentation before you consider posting support questions or bug reports about them.

From the QA Team

Although this is a designated stable release, intended for production environments, it does introduce much that is new. We encourage you to see what you can achieve with these new features and let us know about any deficiency, sooner rather than later.

You are enthusiastically invited to post to the firebird-devel list good descriptions of any bugs or beasts you encounter, or post bug reports directly to our Issue Tracker. Regular sub-releases will follow, whose quality and timeliness depend heavily on the reports that come in “from the field”.

Bug Reporting

•If you think you have discovered a new bug in this release, please make a point of reading the instructions for bug reporting in the article How to Report Bugs Effectively, at the Firebird Project website.

•If you think a bug fix hasn't worked, or has caused a regression, please locate the original bug report in the Tracker, reopen it if necessary, and follow the instructions below.

Follow these guidelines as you attempt to analyse your bug:

1.Write detailed bug reports, supplying the exact build number of your Firebird kit. Also provide details of the OS platform. Include reproducible test data in your report and post it to our Tracker.

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General Notes

2.You are warmly encouraged to make yourself known as a field-tester by subscribing to the field-testers' list and posting the best possible bug description you can.

3.If you want to start a discussion thread about a bug or an implementation, please do so by subscribing to the firebird-devel list. In that forum you might also see feedback about any tracker ticket you post regarding this release.

Additional Documentation

You will find README documents for many of the new v.2 and v.2.1 features in your installation kit, installed by default in the /doc/ sub-directory.

An automated "Release Notes" page in the Tracker provides access to lists and links for all of the Tracker tickets associated with this version and its various builds. Use this link.

For your convenience, the many bug-fixes and regressions fixed during the development of Firebird 2.0.x and 2.1 are listed in descending chronological order in the separate Bugfixes document.

—Firebird 2 Project Team

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