is

"It depends on what your definition of "is" is.
-- William Jefferson Clinton

Download is-1.2.2.tar.gz now!

Sybase Usage

is [-U username] [-P password] 
   [-i input] [-o output] [-e] 
   [-w width] [-d database]
   [-A progname] [-S server]
   [-D symbol=value]
   [-C] [-x]

-C	Examine the environment variable HTTP_COOKIE. Modifies the meaning of -U, -P and -S. If -C is supplied, the arguments to -U, -P, and -S can be the names of other environment variables to use for username, password, and server.
-H	Turns-on HTML wrapping of table data.
-x	Turns-on XML wrapping of table data.

Commands

!!                       re-execute last sql command
!-x                      load the the sql from x'th command in the past
!x                       load the x'th command into the sql buffer
!sqlcmd                  load the most recently typed sql command like 'sqlcmd%'
:h                       print sql command history (first line only)
:H                       print sql command history (all lines)
:sdate dtdays            print the sybase date of the scalar dtdays
:define [symbol=[value|<<]]   list [or define] new symbols, or from input
:printf [format]         optional c-like format for printf - %s only
:prompt 'string'         set is prompt, Sybase default '$SERVER:$DB $BATCH.$LINE> '
:> filename              select output goes to filename
:>                       reset output to stdout, close previous output file
:r filename              read 'filename' into sql buffer
:rp [dbname|.] pageno    dbreadpage() dbname's pageno
:< filename              input becomes filename until EOF(filename)
:| command [args [..]]   pipe select output to 'command'
:set headers [on|off]    toggles the printing of headers for select statements
:set retstatus [on|off]  toggles the printing of procedure return statistics
:set rowcount [on|off]   toggles the printing of (x rows affected)
:setopt DBPRLINELEN [n]  automatically adjust output width or set to n chars
:!                       escapes to shell
:!system_command         execute a system command under Bourne shell
:?                       display HELP about is

CHANGES TO "GO"

The 'go' command's syntax has been augmented to allow:
    1> go every 10 secs
meaning the current command will be executed every 
10 seconds.  ^C stops the iterations.  The keywords
"every" and "secs" are only place holders, so:
"go e 10 s" is as valid as the former.

What's new?

(03/29/2005)

Recently I had the need to get a value from the database into an is variable. Here's a quick snippet:

tgagne:/home/tgagne/work/is is Password: tgagne:efinnet 1.1> :set vertical on tgagne:efinnet 1.1> :set html on tgagne:efinnet 1.1> select 1 ':define one' tgagne:efinnet 1.2> go :define one=1 (1 row affected) tgagne:efinnet 2.1> :set html off tgagne:efinnet 2.1> print "1" tgagne:efinnet 2.2> go 1 tgagne:efinnet 3.1> exit
(02/25/2004)

I've always wanted to define variables on the fly from user input, or output a prompt and get the user's input. Now you can use

:define something=<<

which will define the variable "$something" from the 255 characters read from whatever the current input descriptor is. Very cool.
(5/21/2003)
1. The latest release now builds with FreeTDS! I've noticed a couple bugs with it but nothing that can't be corrected.
2. The missing script, is.doc is now included in the distribution.
3. is no longer requires the header file isdio.h and the library file libisdio.so.
Due to is's heritage, it is still necessary to build the middleware isectd.sourceforge.net, though only the library libisect needs to be installed.
(4/22) For years now (OK--months) I'd thought the distribution for 'is' was available somewhere on the internet. It appears that when I cancelled my account at Earthlink I lost it's homepage. Whoops!

Anyway, after a frustrating haitus in obscurity the great replacement for Sybase's ISQL has returned. You can download a copy of the tarball here..

is uses the older DBLib libraries for communicating to Sybase servers. I don't know if this is a good thing or not. It's good in the sense the DBLib was reliable and there were several clever things that could be done with it (like is). On the other hand it is obsolescent.

Regardless, I use is almost every day so I can guarantee it works well. The most annoying bug that exists in the library is the treatment of numeric and decimal values. No information is provided as to the scale of the number and the default scale is too big. Also, decimals with very large scales aren't properly converted to doubles.
I'm also working on a new version of is written in Smalltalk. The advantage there the use of CTLib without my really having to learn it at a "C" level. It's not ready for wide use.