SQshelL - Building and Installing sqsh In Linux (Fedora 13) Without The Sybase CT-Library

If you're like me then you generally prefer fast, efficient command-line interfaces to expensive (CPU- and RAM-wise) and slow GUI interfaces. Recently, my Windows 7 (Seven) box got really slow, and in particular Visual Studio and SQL Server began to crawl. I couldn't really explain it because the Windows Task Manager said that the System Idle Process was using all of the CPU and the system was only using about half of my 3 GB of RAM, but nevertheless, scrolling a single line of code took seconds! Something had to be done.

I had finally had enough and insisted to j0rb that I was going to install Linux. Now, I currently still require Windows because most of our projects are .NET-based (and bleeding edge, .NET 4.0 stuff), and it seems Mono just isn't quite there yet. I was very pleased to hear that they do support many (or most?) .NET 4.0 features, but apparently not LINQ to SQL, which we make extensive use of. To solve this contradiction, I would install Windows in a virtual machine. I ended up installing Fedora 13 (x86) as the host, with Windows 7 (Seven) Ultimate in a VirtualBox guest. I was quite nervous about whether or not it would actually perform adequately (especially considering how poorly Visual Studio and SQL Server were performing on the raw metal), but so far so good.

On to the topic at hand: building and installing sqsh in Fedora 13. sqsh is basically a shell interface for Sybase ASE (I guess?) or SQL Server. It allows you to do powerful things that you expect from your system shell, like redirecting streams, and environment variables, etc.; as well as interact with a database in SQL. I'm not overly familiar yet with what it can or can't do (I just heard about it and went ahead and installed it), but my hopes are high. Hopefully it will at least reduce the need for me to wait for SQL Server to startup and close, or ugh connect.

Naturally, when I first heard of it I instinctively asked YUM for it. Sadly, I was disappointed to learn that it is not in the default repositories. "No matter! I will just install from source," I told myself.

The first step to installing from source is obviously to get the source. So head on over to SourceForge, where it's currently being hosted, and download the latest version (I'm using 2.1.7 at the time of writing).

http://sourceforge.net/projects/sqsh/

Assuming your results are similar to mine, you should now have a sqsh-<version>.tar.gz file somewhere on your file system. Firefox downloaded it straight to my Downloads folder (dl for short). I keep all source trees in ~/src for organization, so lets go ahead and extract it to there now (you can extract it where ever you like).

[bamccaig@krypton ~]$ tar -xzf dl/sqsh-2.1.7.tar.gz -C src
[bamccaig@krypton ~]$ cd src/sqsh-2.1.7
[bamccaig@krypton sqsh-2.1.7]$ 

Great. So far so good. Now lets take a look for "readme" files that we should read before proceeding (which are typically named in all uppercase):

[bamccaig@krypton sqsh-2.1.7]$ ls -1 | egrep '^[[:upper:]]+$'
AUTHORS
COPYING
INSTALL
README
[bamccaig@krypton sqsh-2.1.7]$ 

Excellent! There is a README and most importantly an INSTALL! Go ahead and read through both of those files now. I'll wait.

... ... ...

OK, now that we've read those two files, we should all be aware of the dependencies. Basically you need Sybase CT-Library OR you need FreeTDS. This threw me for a loop at first because when I reached the Sybase CT-Library dependency it was worded in such a way that made it sound absolutely required. If you go on to read the next dependency, you'll see that you can alternatively use FreeTDS. It sounds like there is actually a couple of freely available Sybase downloads for Linux (free as in beer, not as in speech), but I'm not entirely sure which, if any, contain the Sybase CT-Library and worse you're required to register with Sybase to download them (ugh). I was pleased to discover that doing so is unnecessary.

Instead, I say again, you can use FreeTDS; and so that's what we're going to do. Lets see if we can find it.

[bamccaig@krypton sqsh-2.1.7]$ yum search freetds | grep '^freetds'
freetds-devel.i686 : Header files and development libraries for freetds
freetds-doc.i686 : Development documentation for freetds
freetds.i686 : Implementation of the TDS (Tabular DataStream) protocol
[bamccaig@krypton sqsh-2.1.7]$ 

That is in the default repositories so lets go ahead and install it (including the development files; and WTH, the documentation too).

[bamccaig@krypton sqsh-2.1.7]$ su -c 'yum install freetds freetds-devel freetds-doc'
Password:
[Hopefully YUM spits out happy here]
[bamccaig@krypton sqsh-2.1.7]$ 

With that out of the way, we're almost ready to build. Taking another look at the INSTALL file, we need to specify the base SYBASE directory in the SYBASE environment variable. I know what you're thinking. I know I was. I don't have Sybase! This doesn't apply to me! Not so fast. It turns out that it does apply to you (and I).[1] We instead need to point the SYBASE environment variable at the base directory for FreeTDS.

What this means is that $SYBASE/include and $SYBASE/lib should tell our build process where to find the necessary header and library files. So where are those files installed for FreeTDS? You can make an educated guess or you can ask rpm itself. I actually didn't know about this until now. It's hopefully going to make things a lot easier in the future.

[bamccaig@krypton sqsh-2.1.7]$ rpm -ql freetds freetds-devel | \
        egrep '/(include|lib)' | sort
/usr/include/bkpublic.h
/usr/include/cspublic.h
/usr/include/cstypes.h
/usr/include/ctpublic.h
/usr/include/sqldb.h
/usr/include/sqlfront.h
/usr/include/sybdb.h
/usr/include/syberror.h
/usr/include/sybfront.h
/usr/include/tdsconvert.h
/usr/include/tds.h
/usr/include/tds_sysdep_public_32.h
/usr/include/tds_sysdep_public.h
/usr/include/tdsver.h
/usr/lib/libct.so
/usr/lib/libct.so.4
/usr/lib/libct.so.4.0.0
/usr/lib/libsybdb.so
/usr/lib/libsybdb.so.5
/usr/lib/libsybdb.so.5.0.0
/usr/lib/libtds-0.82.so
/usr/lib/libtdsodbc.so
/usr/lib/libtdsodbc.so.0
/usr/lib/libtdsodbc.so.0.0.0
/usr/lib/libtds.so
[bamccaig@krypton sqsh-2.1.7]$ 

You can check the man or info page(s) for details, but essentially what we did is query the package manager to list the files that were installed; then we filtered out the results we weren't interested in (since we're only interested in files within an include or lib directory, I greped for that within the path). For good measure, I also sorted the results.

As you can see, FreeTDS is installed in /usr. No real surprise there. OK, so we need to set SYBASE to /usr.

[bamccaig@krypton sqsh-2.1.7]$ export SYBASE=/usr
[bamccaig@krypton sqsh-2.1.7]$ echo $SYBASE
/usr
[bamccaig@krypton sqsh-2.1.7]$ 

And now we're finally ready to start the build process. sqsh uses the "GNU auto-configuration package" as so many open source projects seem to do, so it uses the rather standard ./configure, make, make install build instructions. If you want readline support (and most people probably do) then you'll probably want to add the --with-readline option while configuring (you'll obviously need to have readline installed to do this though). Review the INSTALL file for more options.

[bamccaig@krypton sqsh-2.1.7]$ ./configure --with-readline
[Lots of output... Should be happy if your environment is complete...]
[bamccaig@krypton sqsh-2.1.7]$ make
[Everything is going good, the project compiles, but then all of a sudden...the linker is angry!]
gcc    -L/usr/lib  cmd_alias.o cmd_bcp.o cmd_buf.o cmd_connect.o cmd_do.o cmd_echo.o cmd_exit.o cmd_for.o cmd_func.o cmd_go.o cmd_help.o cmd_history.o cmd_if.o cmd_input.o cmd_jobs.o cmd_kill.o cmd_lock.o cmd_loop.o cmd_misc.o cmd_read.o cmd_reconnect.o cmd_redraw.o cmd_reset.o cmd_return.o cmd_rpc.o cmd_set.o cmd_shell.o cmd_show.o cmd_sleep.o cmd_wait.o cmd_warranty.o cmd_while.o var_ctlib.o var_date.o var_debug.o var_dsp.o var_hist.o var_misc.o var_passwd.o var_readline.o var_thresh.o dsp.o dsp_bcp.o dsp_csv.o dsp_conv.o dsp_desc.o dsp_horiz.o dsp_html.o dsp_meta.o dsp_none.o dsp_out.o dsp_pretty.o dsp_vert.o dsp_x.o sqsh_alias.o sqsh_args.o sqsh_avl.o sqsh_buf.o sqsh_cmd.o sqsh_compat.o sqsh_ctx.o sqsh_debug.o sqsh_env.o sqsh_error.o sqsh_expand.o sqsh_fd.o sqsh_filter.o sqsh_fork.o sqsh_func.o sqsh_getopt.o sqsh_global.o sqsh_history.o sqsh_init.o sqsh_job.o sqsh_readline.o sqsh_sig.o sqsh_sigcld.o sqsh_stdin.o sqsh_strchr.o sqsh_tok.o sqsh_varbuf.o sqsh_main.o -ldl -lm   -lreadline -lcurses  -o sqsh
cmd_bcp.o: In function `bcp_signal':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:1164: undefined reference to `ct_cancel'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:1166: undefined reference to `ct_cancel'
cmd_bcp.o: In function `cmd_bcp':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:337: undefined reference to `ct_cmd_alloc'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:877: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:894: undefined reference to `blk_done'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:898: undefined reference to `ct_cancel'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:901: undefined reference to `ct_close'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:904: undefined reference to `ct_con_drop'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:910: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:924: undefined reference to `ct_cancel'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:942: undefined reference to `ct_cmd_drop'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:947: undefined reference to `blk_drop'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:952: undefined reference to `ct_close'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:953: undefined reference to `ct_con_drop'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:957: undefined reference to `cs_loc_drop'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:395: undefined reference to `ct_command'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:406: undefined reference to `ct_send'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:865: undefined reference to `blk_done'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:866: undefined reference to `ct_cancel'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:867: undefined reference to `ct_cancel'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:422: undefined reference to `ct_con_alloc'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:429: undefined reference to `ct_callback'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:438: undefined reference to `ct_callback'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:447: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:460: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:475: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:488: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:521: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
cmd_bcp.o:/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:503: more undefined references to `ct_con_props' follow
cmd_bcp.o: In function `cmd_bcp':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:558: undefined reference to `cs_loc_alloc'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:539: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:566: undefined reference to `cs_locale'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:600: undefined reference to `cs_locale'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:582: undefined reference to `cs_locale'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:617: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:630: undefined reference to `ct_connect'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:672: undefined reference to `blk_alloc'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:703: undefined reference to `blk_init'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:685: undefined reference to `blk_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:722: undefined reference to `ct_results'
cmd_bcp.o: In function `bcp_data_bind':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:973: undefined reference to `ct_res_info'
cmd_bcp.o: In function `cmd_bcp':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:818: undefined reference to `blk_done'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:837: undefined reference to `blk_done'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:797: undefined reference to `ct_fetch'
cmd_bcp.o: In function `bcp_data_xfer':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:1060: undefined reference to `ct_fetch'
cmd_bcp.o: In function `cmd_bcp':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:769: undefined reference to `blk_done'
cmd_bcp.o: In function `bcp_data_bind':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:1013: undefined reference to `ct_describe'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:1031: undefined reference to `ct_bind'
cmd_bcp.o: In function `bcp_data_xfer':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:1096: undefined reference to `blk_bind'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_bcp.c:1112: undefined reference to `blk_rowxfer'
cmd_connect.o: In function `cmd_connect':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:719: undefined reference to `ct_con_alloc'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:1172: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:1187: undefined reference to `ct_close'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:1196: undefined reference to `ct_con_drop'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:1202: undefined reference to `cs_loc_drop'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:1208: undefined reference to `ct_exit'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:1209: undefined reference to `cs_ctx_drop'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:769: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:814: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:865: undefined reference to `cs_loc_alloc'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:869: undefined reference to `cs_locale'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:908: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:925: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:949: undefined reference to `ct_connect'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:978: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:567: undefined reference to `cs_ctx_alloc'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:597: undefined reference to `cs_config'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:725: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:573: undefined reference to `cs_ctx_alloc'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:579: undefined reference to `cs_ctx_alloc'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:585: undefined reference to `cs_ctx_alloc'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:591: undefined reference to `cs_ctx_alloc'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:782: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:610: undefined reference to `ct_init'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:613: undefined reference to `ct_callback'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:621: undefined reference to `ct_callback'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:635: undefined reference to `ct_config'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:702: undefined reference to `ct_config'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:651: undefined reference to `ct_config'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:668: undefined reference to `ct_config'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:822: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:836: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:850: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:882: undefined reference to `cs_locale'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:1129: undefined reference to `cs_loc_drop'
cmd_connect.o: In function `check_opt_capability':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:1251: undefined reference to `ct_capability'
cmd_connect.o: In function `cmd_connect':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:1137: undefined reference to `ct_options'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:896: undefined reference to `cs_locale'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:1037: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:1089: undefined reference to `ct_cmd_alloc'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:1094: undefined reference to `ct_command'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:1115: undefined reference to `ct_cmd_drop'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:1105: undefined reference to `ct_send'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:1111: undefined reference to `ct_results'
cmd_connect.o: In function `syb_client_cb':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:1571: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_connect.c:1580: undefined reference to `ct_cancel'
cmd_do.o: In function `cmd_do_sigint_cancel':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:677: undefined reference to `ct_cancel'
cmd_do.o: In function `cmd_do_exec':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:304: undefined reference to `ct_cmd_alloc'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:312: undefined reference to `ct_command'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:327: undefined reference to `ct_cmd_drop'
cmd_do.o: In function `cmd_do':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:260: undefined reference to `ct_close'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:261: undefined reference to `ct_con_drop'
cmd_do.o: In function `cmd_do_exec':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:322: undefined reference to `ct_send'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:334: undefined reference to `ct_results'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:434: undefined reference to `ct_cancel'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:435: undefined reference to `ct_cmd_drop'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:351: undefined reference to `ct_fetch'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:446: undefined reference to `ct_cancel'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:447: undefined reference to `ct_cmd_drop'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:423: undefined reference to `ct_cancel'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:424: undefined reference to `ct_cmd_drop'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:464: undefined reference to `ct_cancel'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:465: undefined reference to `ct_cmd_drop'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:381: undefined reference to `ct_cancel'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:382: undefined reference to `ct_cmd_drop'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:342: undefined reference to `ct_cancel'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:343: undefined reference to `ct_cmd_drop'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_do.c:469: undefined reference to `ct_cmd_drop'
cmd_go.o: In function `cmd_go':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_go.c:468: undefined reference to `ct_cmd_alloc'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_go.c:475: undefined reference to `ct_command'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_go.c:511: undefined reference to `ct_cmd_drop'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_go.c:481: undefined reference to `ct_cmd_drop'
cmd_reconnect.o: In function `cmd_reconnect':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_reconnect.c:58: undefined reference to `ct_close'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_reconnect.c:59: undefined reference to `ct_con_drop'
cmd_rpc.o: In function `rpc_param':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_rpc.c:559: undefined reference to `cs_convert'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_rpc.c:573: undefined reference to `ct_param'
cmd_rpc.o: In function `cmd_rpc':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_rpc.c:228: undefined reference to `ct_cmd_alloc'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_rpc.c:441: undefined reference to `ct_cancel'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_rpc.c:476: undefined reference to `ct_cmd_drop'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/cmd_rpc.c:279: undefined reference to `ct_command'
var_ctlib.o: In function `var_set_interfaces':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/var_ctlib.c:82: undefined reference to `ct_config'
dsp.o: In function `dsp_cmd':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp.c:140: undefined reference to `ct_cmd_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp.c:181: undefined reference to `ct_send'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp.c:248: undefined reference to `ct_cancel'
dsp.o: In function `dsp_signal':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp.c:770: undefined reference to `ct_cancel'
dsp_bcp.o: In function `dsp_bcp':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_bcp.c:65: undefined reference to `ct_results'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_bcp.c:94: undefined reference to `ct_fetch'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_bcp.c:76: undefined reference to `ct_fetch'
dsp_csv.o: In function `dsp_csv':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_csv.c:66: undefined reference to `ct_results'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_csv.c:95: undefined reference to `ct_fetch'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_csv.c:77: undefined reference to `ct_fetch'
dsp_conv.o: In function `dsp_type_len':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_conv.c:505: undefined reference to `cs_convert'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_conv.c:520: undefined reference to `cs_convert'
dsp_conv.o: In function `dsp_datetime_conv':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_conv.c:361: undefined reference to `cs_dt_crack'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_conv.c:341: undefined reference to `cs_convert'
dsp_desc.o: In function `dsp_desc_fetch':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_desc.c:434: undefined reference to `ct_fetch'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_desc.c:553: undefined reference to `cs_convert'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_desc.c:498: undefined reference to `cs_convert'
dsp_desc.o: In function `dsp_desc_bind':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_desc.c:86: undefined reference to `ct_res_info'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_desc.c:186: undefined reference to `ct_describe'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_desc.c:369: undefined reference to `ct_bind'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_desc.c:296: undefined reference to `ct_bind'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_desc.c:392: undefined reference to `ct_compute_info'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_desc.c:406: undefined reference to `ct_compute_info'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_desc.c:136: undefined reference to `ct_compute_info'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_desc.c:163: undefined reference to `ct_compute_info'
dsp_horiz.o: In function `dsp_horiz':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_horiz.c:97: undefined reference to `ct_results'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_horiz.c:140: undefined reference to `ct_res_info'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_horiz.c:154: undefined reference to `ct_fetch'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_horiz.c:163: undefined reference to `ct_get_data'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_horiz.c:217: undefined reference to `ct_fetch'
dsp_html.o: In function `dsp_html':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_html.c:84: undefined reference to `ct_results'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_html.c:115: undefined reference to `ct_res_info'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_html.c:135: undefined reference to `ct_fetch'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_html.c:144: undefined reference to `ct_get_data'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_html.c:187: undefined reference to `ct_fetch'
dsp_meta.o: In function `dsp_meta_int_prop':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_meta.c:613: undefined reference to `ct_res_info'
dsp_meta.o: In function `dsp_meta_transtate':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_meta.c:640: undefined reference to `ct_res_info'
dsp_meta.o: In function `dsp_meta_desc':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_meta.c:206: undefined reference to `ct_res_info'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_meta.c:216: undefined reference to `ct_describe'
dsp_meta.o: In function `dsp_meta_fetch':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_meta.c:695: undefined reference to `ct_fetch'
dsp_meta.o: In function `dsp_meta':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_meta.c:65: undefined reference to `ct_results'
dsp_meta.o: In function `dsp_meta_bool_prop':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_meta.c:584: undefined reference to `ct_res_info'
dsp_none.o: In function `dsp_none':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_none.c:54: undefined reference to `ct_results'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_none.c:65: undefined reference to `ct_fetch'
dsp_pretty.o: In function `dsp_pretty':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_pretty.c:87: undefined reference to `ct_results'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_pretty.c:127: undefined reference to `ct_res_info'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_pretty.c:141: undefined reference to `ct_fetch'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_pretty.c:154: undefined reference to `ct_get_data'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_pretty.c:208: undefined reference to `ct_fetch'
dsp_vert.o: In function `dsp_vert':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_vert.c:79: undefined reference to `ct_results'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_vert.c:106: undefined reference to `ct_res_info'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_vert.c:121: undefined reference to `ct_fetch'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_vert.c:127: undefined reference to `ct_get_data'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/dsp_vert.c:305: undefined reference to `ct_fetch'
sqsh_ctx.o: In function `sqsh_ctx_pop':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/sqsh_ctx.c:104: undefined reference to `ct_con_props'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/sqsh_ctx.c:113: undefined reference to `ct_close'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/sqsh_ctx.c:116: undefined reference to `ct_con_drop'
sqsh_init.o: In function `sqsh_exit':
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/sqsh_init.c:315: undefined reference to `ct_close'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/sqsh_init.c:316: undefined reference to `ct_con_drop'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/sqsh_init.c:322: undefined reference to `ct_exit'
/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src/sqsh_init.c:337: undefined reference to `cs_ctx_drop'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[1]: *** [sqsh] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/bamccaig/src/sqsh-2.1.7/src'
make: *** [build-subdirs] Error 2
[bamccaig@krypton sqsh-2.1.7]$ 

VERY angry. Obviously, we're missing a library. ct_blah suggested to me that it was one or more Sybase CT-Library libraries that it couldn't find. Since we're using FreeTDS in place of it, I went back to our friend rpm and with the help of grep and sed got the linking options that I was looking for.

[bamccaig@krypton sqsh-2.1.7]$ rpm -ql freetds freetds-devel | \
        grep '^/usr/lib/' | \
        sed -re 's#/usr/lib/lib##' -e 's/([^\.-]*).*/\1/' -e 's/(.*)/-l\1/' | \
        sort | xargs
-lct -lct -lct -lsybdb -lsybdb -lsybdb -ltds -ltds -ltdsodbc -ltdsodbc -ltdsodbc
[bamccaig@krypton sqsh-2.1.7]$ 

For those of you that don't speak UNIX so well yet, that basically means:

1. List all the files that were installed by the freetds and freetds-devel packages (it almost certainly would suffice to just check freetds-devel, but it doesn't hurt to include freetds in the search).
2. Filter out all options that don't begin with /usr/lib (since we're looking for libraries and we know they are installed in /usr/lib).
3. Remove the directory (/usr/lib) and prefix (lib) from each library (most shared libraries are named something like libfoo.so).
4. Remove any trailing characters (characters that are after a dot or dash, since most shared libraries have version information appended to their name, resulting in something like libfoo.so.1.2.3, for example; those are often symlinked by friendlier names, however, and the linker will do the work of figuring out what our pretty names mean).
5. Prefix each library with -l, since that is the option that GCC uses to specify libraries.
6. Finally, sort them for easy reading and join them onto a single line.

Reviewing the command line in the above error message, we can see that sqsh isn't being linked with any of them! That has to be problem! The h4x solution then is to edit the Makefile in question and add those to the command.

Upon opening that file, I found a handy SYBASE_LIBS variable that seemed rather relevant. Above it is even a handy comment suggesting that users of some platforms might need to manually edit that line. Open that file in your favorite editor...

[bamccaig@krypton sqsh-2.1.7]$ vim src/Makefile

...and replace that line with the results from our earlier query:

SYBASE_LIBS = -lct -lct -lct -lsybdb -lsybdb -lsybdb -ltds -ltds -ltdsodbc -ltdsodbc -ltdsodbc

Save the file and try to build again.

[bamccaig@krypton sqsh-2.1.7]$ make
[Now it should almost certainly be happy unless the world just hates you...]
[bamccaig@krypton sqsh-2.1.7]$ su -c 'make install && make install.man'
Password:
[Installation should go happily too]
[bamccaig@krypton sqsh-2.1.7]$ 

If you can run sqsh now (for example, sqsh --help to test) then the build and installation should have been successful! Congratulations! Now you (and I) just have to learn to use it. :-X

To get you started, the following allows me to connect to the SQL Server located on our LAN, running on a Windows server (**shudder**).

[bamccaig@krypton ~]$ sqsh -S <server_ip> -U <username>
[Program information]
Password: 
[I am now inside of a sqsh shell!]
> quit
[bamccaig@krypton ~]$ 

Obviously, not the most convenient way to connect, typing the server, username, and password (!) each time. Surely there must be handy configuration options to make things smoother. For now, I have created shortcut scripts (readable/writeable/executable only by me) that do the connecting for me to save me the trouble.

References

1. Thanks to the maintainer for clearing this up via E-mail.