Compatibility with Older Versions

File-names and Locations

In this release, a substantial number of software files have new names, as part of a gradual replacement of names inherited from InterBase® 6. Please read the section Renamed Files and Modules for descriptions and recommendations.

Concurrently-running Servers

Changes done to some system object names enable Fb 1.5 to be installed and used on a computer which already has InterBase or Firebird 1.0.x installed. On Windows, FB 1.5 also uses another Registry key--and use of the Registry entry is optional. If you set up the servers to use different network ports, it is possible run a few server instances concurrently, or run Fb 1.5 while IB or Fb 1.0.x is running.

Reverting to Firebird 1.0.x

Because of a large number of bug-fixes, the behaviour of databases might change if you downgrade a v.1.5 database to v.1.0.x. Especially, if you create primary, unique and foreign keys as named constraints, the default index names will be incompatible with v.1.0.x Watch out for a future README detailing any such issues as might appear.

Linux Compatibilities

Because of a history of problems with the GNU C++ compiler, Firebird 1.5 Linux versions need higher versions of the glibc runtimes than previously. This means, unfortunately, that we are in a period where the capability of a particular distro to install and run the 1.5 binaries is somewhat hard to predict.

The following matrix may help. However, we welcome further information. Please share your experiences with these and other distros in the firebird-devel forum.

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Compatibility with Older Versions

Known Firebird 1.5-compatible Linux Distibutions

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