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   7
   8 <chapter id="introduction">
   9   <title>Introduction</title>
  10
  11   <sect1 id="purpose">
  12     <title>Purpose</title>
  13     <para>&clsql; is a Common Lisp interface to <glossterm
  14     linkend="gloss-sql">SQL</glossterm> databases.  A number of Common
  15     Lisp implementations and SQL databases are supported. The general
  16     structure of &clsql; is based on the &commonsql; package by
  17     LispWorks Ltd.
  18     </para>
  19   </sect1>
  20
  21   <sect1 id="history">
  22     <title>History</title>
  23     <para>
  24       The &clsql; project was started by Kevin M. Rosenberg in 2001 to
  25       support SQL access on multiple Common Lisp implementations using
  26       the &uffi; library. The initial code was based substantially on
  27       Pierre R. Mai's excellent &maisql; package. In late 2003, the
  28       &usql; library was orphaned by its author, onShore Development,
  29       Inc. In April 2004, Marcus Pearce ported the &usql; library to
  30       &clsql;.  The &usql; library provides a &commonsql;-compatible
  31       API for &clsql;.
  32     </para>
  33
  34     <para>The main changes from &maisql; and &usql; are:
  35       <itemizedlist>
  36         <listitem>
  37           <para>Port from the &cmucl; FFI to &uffi; which provide
  38           compatibility with the major Common Lisp
  39           implementations.</para>
  40         </listitem>
  41         <listitem>
  42           <para>Optimized loading of integer and floating-point fields.</para>
  43         </listitem>
  44         <listitem>
  45           <para>Additional database backends: &odbc;, &aodbc;, &sqlite;
  46           and &sqlite3;.</para>
  47         </listitem>
  48         <listitem>
  49           <para>A compatibility layer for &cmucl; specific code.</para>
  50         </listitem>
  51         <listitem>
  52           <para>Much improved robustness for the &mysql; back-end
  53           along with version 4 client library support.</para>
  54         </listitem>
  55         <listitem>
  56           <para>Improved library loading and installation documentation.</para>
  57         </listitem>
  58         <listitem>
  59           <para>Improved packages and symbol export.</para>
  60         </listitem>
  61         <listitem>
  62           <para>Pooled connections.</para>
  63         </listitem>
  64         <listitem>
  65           <para>Integrated transaction support for the classic
  66           &maisql; iteration macros.</para>
  67         </listitem>
  68       </itemizedlist>
  69     </para>
  70   </sect1>
  71
  72   <sect1 id="prerequisites">
  73     <title>Prerequisites</title>
  74
  75     <sect2>
  76       <title>&asdf;</title>
  77       <para>
  78         &clsql; uses &asdf; to compile and load its components.
  79         &asdf; is included in the <ulink
  80         url="http://cclan.sourceforge.net"><citetitle>&cclan;</citetitle></ulink>
  81         collection.
  82       </para>
  83     </sect2>
  84
  85     <sect2>
  86       <title>&uffi;</title>
  87       <para>
  88         &clsql; uses <ulink
  89         url="http://uffi.b9.com/"><citetitle>&uffi;</citetitle></ulink>
  90         as a <emphasis>Foreign Function Interface</emphasis>
  91         (<glossterm linkend="gloss-ffi">FFI</glossterm>) to support
  92         multiple &cl; implementations.
  93       </para>
  94     </sect2>
  95
  96     <sect2>
  97       <title>&md5;</title>
  98       <para>&clsql;'s postgresql-socket interface uses Pierre Mai's
  99         <ulink url="ftp://files.b9.com/md5/">md5</ulink>
 100         module.
 101       </para>
 102     </sect2>
 103     <sect2>
 104       <title>Supported Common Lisp Implementation</title>
 105       <para>
 106         The implementations that support &clsql; is governed by the supported
 107         implementations of &uffi;. The following implementations are supported:
 108       </para>
 109       <itemizedlist mark="opencircle">
 110         <listitem><para>&acl; v6.2 and 7.0b on Debian Linux x86 &amp;
 111         x86_64 &amp; PowerPC, FreeBSD 4.5, and Microsoft Windows
 112         XP.</para></listitem>
 113         <listitem><para>&lw; v4.3 on Debian Linux and Microsoft
 114         Windows XP.</para></listitem>
 115         <listitem><para>&cmucl; 18e on Debian Linux, FreeBSD 4.5, and
 116         Solaris 2.8.</para></listitem>
 117         <listitem><para>&sbcl; 0.8.5 on Debian
 118         Linux.</para></listitem>
 119         <listitem><para>&scl; 1.1.1 on Debian Linux.</para></listitem>
 120         <listitem><para>&openmcl; 0.14 on Debian Linux
 121         PowerPC.</para></listitem>
 122       </itemizedlist>
 123     </sect2>
 124
 125     <sect2>
 126       <title>Supported &sql; Implementation</title>
 127       <para>
 128         Currently, &clsql; supports the following databases:
 129       </para>
 130       <itemizedlist mark="opencircle">
 131         <listitem><para>&mysql; v3.23.51 and v4.0.18.</para></listitem>
 132         <listitem><para>&postgresql; v7.4 with both direct API and TCP
 133         socket connections.</para></listitem>
 134         <listitem><para>&sqlite;.</para></listitem>
 135         <listitem><para>&sqlite3;.</para></listitem>
 136         <listitem><para>Direct &odbc; interface.</para></listitem>
 137         <listitem><para>&oracle; OCI.</para></listitem>
 138         <listitem><para>Allegro's DB interface (&aodbc;).</para></listitem>
 139       </itemizedlist>
 140     </sect2>
 141
 142   </sect1>
 143
 144   <sect1 id="installation">
 145     <title>Installation</title>
 146
 147     <sect2>
 148       <title>Ensure &asdf; is loaded</title>
 149       <para>
 150         Simply load the file <filename>asdf.lisp</filename>.
 151         <screen>
 152 (load "asdf.lisp")
 153         </screen>
 154       </para>
 155     </sect2>
 156
 157     <sect2>
 158       <title>Build &c; helper libraries</title>
 159       <para>&clsql; uses functions that require 64-bit integer
 160         parameters and return values. The &ffi; in most &clsql;
 161         implementations do not support 64-bit integers. Thus, C helper
 162         libraries are required to break these 64-bit integers into two compatible
 163         32-bit integers. The helper libraries reside in the directories
 164         <filename>uffi</filename> and <filename>db-mysql</filename>.
 165       </para>
 166
 167       <sect3>
 168         <title>&mswindows;</title>
 169         <para>
 170           Files named <filename>Makefile.msvc</filename> are supplied
 171           for building the libraries under Microsoft Windows.  Since
 172           &mswindows; does not come with that compiler, compiled
 173           <type>DLL</type> and <type>LIB</type> library files are
 174           supplied with &clsql;.
 175         </para>
 176       </sect3>
 177
 178       <sect3>
 179         <title>&unix;</title>
 180         <para>
 181           Files named <filename>Makefile</filename> are supplied for
 182           building the libraries under &unix;. Loading the
 183           <filename>.asd</filename> files automatically invokes
 184           <application>make</application> when necessary. So, manual
 185           building of the helper libraries is not necessary on most
 186           &unix; systems. However, the location of the &mysql; library
 187           files and include files may need to adjusted in
 188           <filename>db-mysql/Makefile</filename> on non-Debian
 189           systems.
 190         </para>
 191       </sect3>
 192
 193     </sect2>
 194
 195     <sect2>
 196       <title>Add &uffi; path</title>
 197       <para>
 198         Unzip or untar the &uffi; distribution which creates a directory
 199         for the &uffi; files. Add that directory to &asdf;'s <varname>asdf:*central-registry*</varname>.
 200         You can do that by pushing the pathname of the directory onto this variable.
 201         The following example code assumes the &uffi; files reside in the
 202         <filename>/usr/share/lisp/uffi/</filename>
 203         directory.
 204         <screen>
 205 (push #P"/usr/share/lisp/uffi/" asdf:*central-registry*)
 206         </screen>
 207       </para>
 208     </sect2>
 209    <sect2>
 210      <title>Add &md5; path</title>
 211      <para>
 212        If you plan to use the clsql-postgresql-socket interface, you
 213        must load the md5 module.  Unzip or untar the cl-md5
 214        distribution, which creates a directory for the cl-md5 files.
 215        Add that directory to &asdf;'s
 216        <varname>asdf:*central-registry*</varname>.  You can do that by
 217        pushing the pathname of the directory onto this variable.  The
 218        following example code assumes the cl-md5 files reside in the
 219        <filename>/usr/share/lisp/cl-md5/</filename> directory.
 220        <screen>
 221 (push #P"/usr/share/lisp/cl-md5/" asdf:*central-registry*)
 222        </screen>
 223      </para>
 224    </sect2>
 225
 226    <sect2>
 227      <title>Add &clsql; path and load module</title>
 228      <para>
 229        Unzip or untar the &clsql; distribution which creates a
 230        directory for the &clsql; files. Add that directory to &asdf;'s
 231        <varname>asdf:*central-registry*</varname>.  You can do that by
 232        pushing the pathname of the directory onto this variable.  The
 233        following example code assumes the &clsql; files reside in the
 234        <filename>/usr/share/lisp/clsql/</filename> directory. You need
 235        to load the <symbol>clsql</symbol> system.
 236
 237         <screen>
 238 (push #P"/usr/share/lisp/clsql/" asdf:*central-registry*)
 239 (asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op 'clsql)                   ; main CLSQL package
 240         </screen>
 241       </para>
 242     </sect2>
 243
 244     <sect2>
 245       <title>Run test suite (optional)</title>
 246       <para>
 247         The test suite can be executed using the &asdf;
 248         <symbol>test-op</symbol> operator. If &clsql; has not been
 249         loaded with <symbol>asdf:load-op</symbol>, the
 250         <symbol>asdf:test-op</symbol> operator will automatically load
 251         &clsql;. A configuration file named
 252         <filename>.clsql-test.config</filename> must be created in
 253         your home directory. There are instructures on the format of
 254         that file in the <filename>tests/README</filename>. After
 255         creating <filename>.clsql-test.config</filename>, you can run
 256         the test suite with &asdf;:
 257         <screen>
 258           (asdf:operate 'asdf:test-op 'clsql)
 259         </screen>
 260       </para>
 261     </sect2>
 262
 263   </sect1>
 264
 265 </chapter>
 266