freebcp(1)							 FreeTDS Utilities							freebcp(1)

NAME

       freebcp - bulk loading utility for Sybase and Microsoft databases

SYNOPSIS

       freebcp [[database.]owner.]object_name {in | [query]out} datafile
	 { -c | -n | -f formatfile }
	 [-b batchsize] [-F firstrow] [-L lastrow] [-e errfile]
	 [-I interfaces] [-m maxerrors] [-t field_term] [-r row_term]
	 [-h hints] [-T textsize] [-A packet_size] [-O options]
	 [-S servername] [-U username] [-P password] [-EdVv]

DESCRIPTION

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

       freebcp makes use of the db-lib bcp API provided by 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.

TABLES AND FILES

       database
	      The database of the object being copied.	Optional if the table/view is in the default database for username.

       owner  The owner of the object being copied. Optional if username or the database owner is the owner of the table.

       object_name
	      Usually, object_name is the name of the database table you wish to access. It can also be a view (and, subject to constraints, it is
	      sometimes possible to load a view). It can also be an SQL query, cf. queryout, below.

       in | [query]out
	      The  direction  of the bulk copy operation. 'in' indicates data are to be copied from a host file into a database table; 'out' indi-
	      cates data are to be copied from a database table to a host file. 'queryout' indicates that table_name is in fact  a  query,  rather
	      than  a database object. freebcp will execute the query and write the results to a file. (It is a good idea to have the query return
	      one and only one result set.)

       datafile
	      The name of an operating system file.

OPTIONS

       -c     The host data file is (or will be) in "character" format, i.e., a text file. Encoding is determined by the client charset  attribute
	      in freetds.conf.

       -n     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
	      The  format of the host data file is described by formatfile. The layout of formatfile is identical to that understood by the Sybase
	      and Microsoft bcp utilities, but is too complicated to describe here.

       -b batchsize
	      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
	      The first row to copy from the input file or database table. The default is the first row, row 1.

       -L lastrow
	      The last row to copy from an input file  or database table. The default is the last row.

       -r row_term
	      The row terminator for a character file.	May be more than one character.  Default is newline ('
'). Cf. -c, above.

       -t field_term
	      The  field  terminator for character file. Also known as a column delimiter. May be more than one character.  Default is tab ('	').
	      Cf. -c, above.

       -m maxerrors
	      Stop after encountering maxerror errors. Default 10.

       -e errfile
	      Write errors to error_file. For uploads.	Includes line and column information, and the row data.

       -S servername
	      The name of the Database Server to which to connect.

       -U username
	      A database login name. If username is not provided, a domain login is attempted for TDS 7+ connections.

       -P password
	      A database password.

       -E     Write the data in datafile to the table's IDENTITY column. Without this flag, the identity data present  in  the	datafile  will	be
	      ignored, and new IDENTITY values will be generated for the imported rows.

       -d     Turn off any logging. (Unintuitive, perhaps.)

       -O options
	      SQL  text  to  set  connection  options  prior  to the bcp operation.  If options is a valid filename, the SQL is read from the file
	      instead. Sometimes needed for queryout.  Example: "-O 'SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON'"

       -I interfaces
	      The name and location of the interfaces file to search when connecting to servername. Overrides freetds.conf.

       -h hints
	      Set bcp hints. For valid values, cf. bcp_options() in the FreeTDS Reference Manual.

       -T textsize
	      For text or image columns, set the maximum number of characters to request from the server. Defaults to the setting in freetds.conf.
	      If not specified anywhere, defaults to the full size of the data.

       -A packet_size
	      Set the size of a TDS packet to packet_size.  Not sure why you would want to do this, except as an experiment.

       -v -V  Print the version information and exit.

ENVIRONMENT

       DSQUERY
	      default servername

NOTES

       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 7.1 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.

HISTORY

       freebcp first appeared in FreeTDS 0.60

AUTHORS

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

BUGS

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

doc								 13 November 2011							freebcp(1)