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Manual Reference Pages  - FreeTDS (November 27, 2004)

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freebcp - bulk loading utility for Sybase and Microsoft databases

CONTENTS

Synopsis
Description
Tables And Files
Options
Notes
History
Authors
Bugs

freebcp [database.[owner].]table_name {in | out} datafile
{ -c | -n | -f formatfile }
[-b batchsize] [-F firstrow] [-L lastrow] [-e errfile]
[-I interfaces_file] [-m maxerrors] [-t field_term] [-r row_term]
[-S servername] [-U username] [-P password]

freebcp is a utility program distributed with FreeTDS. freebcp replicates (in part at least) the functionality of the "bcp" utility programs distributed by Sybase and Microsoft.

freebcp makes use of the dblib bcp api built into FreeTDS. This api is also available to application developers.

The manual pages or online help for Sybase or SQL Server can be referenced for more detailed information on "bcp" functionality.

	database is optional if the table being copied is in your default database or in master. Otherwise, you must specify a database name.
	owner is optional if you or the database owner are the owner of the table being copied.
	table_name is the name of the database table you wish to access.
	in | out is the direction of the bulk copy operation. file into a database table, ’out’ indicates that data is being copied from a database table to a host file.
	datafile is the full path name of an operating system file.

	-c specifies that the host data file is in ’character’ format. Briefly, this means the following: that all data in the file is (or will be written) in ASCII; that the         (tab) is the default field terminator; that 0(newline) is the default row terminator.
	-n specifies that the host data file is in ’native’ format. This is a format that freebcp will be able to process, but is not portable or readable.
	-f formatfile specifies that the format of the host data file is described by the specified formatfile. The format of formatfile is identical to that understood by Sybase or MS bcp, but is too complicated to describe here.
	-b batchsize is the number of rows per batch of data copied. Batching applies only when you are bulk copying into the database. each batch of data is effectively ’committed’ into the database. the default value for batchsize is 1000.
	-F firstrow is the number of the first row to copy from the input file or database table the default is the first row.
	-L lastrow is the number of the last row to copy from an input file or database table the default is the last row.
	-r row_term specifies the row terminator. Default is newline (’\n’)
	-t field_term specifies the field terminator. Default is tab (’\t’)
	-S servername specifies the name of the Database Server to which to connect.
	-U username specifies a database login name.
	-P password specifies a database password.

NOTES

To date, freebcp has been tested against Sybase ASE 11, and SQL Server 2000. There are currently a number of restrictions on its use.

When connecting to a Sybase database server, it is required that the TDS 5.0 protocol be used. When connecting to a Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database server, the TDS 8.0 protocol is required.

Theoretically both Sybase and Microsoft support the TDS 4.2 protocol, but in reality they implement the bcp portion of TDS 4.2 differently. Freetds has no way of knowing which type of server it’s connected to, hence TDS protocol 4.2 is not supported.

freebcp first appeared in FreeTDS 0.60

The freebcp utility was written by Bill Thompson (thompbil@exchange.uk.ml.com)

Currently, there is no support for text data types in freebcp, when SQL Server 2000 is the target database.

The following parameters are accepted but unimplemented

	[-e errfile]
	[-I interfaces_file]
	[-m maxerrors]

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