Thanks for the clear answers!

One question concerning the users.
You create the user on the servel-level (and not in the db). All
users that are known on the server are available in the database to
give then the correct rights.

So every database has the same user-list.


--- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, Stefan Heymann <lists@...>
wrote:

>
> > There is the server-software which you install on a machine. The
> > database is contained in a file (.fdb).
> Correct.
>
> > The server is a process on the system.
> Correct. On Windows machines it is a Service, on Linux machines it

is

> a Daemon.
>
> > And the database resides somewhere on the hard-disk as a file.
> Correct.
>
> > You don't load a database-file into the server.
> No, the server can use any database file on its local (!) file

system.

>
> > So the server- software doesn't know which databases are running.
> The server software doesn't care which database files are on the

file

> system until someone connects to one of them. From this time on,

the

> server software *does* know that this database is "running".
>
> > As long as the server is running, you can access the fdb-files as
> > database.
> Correct. The server will hold an exclusive lock on the database

file

> so the file can only be accessed, on a file basis, by this very

server

> and no other process. From then on, only Firebird clients can

access

> the database, using the server (which is what a server is all about
> ;-)
>
> > So you can run different databases on one instance of the server-
> > software.
> Correct.
>
> > And in the server-software you don't have to setup anything
> > according to the databases.
> Correct. You tell the server which file it has to use when you
> connect. The file name is a part of the database string, e.g.
> elvis:C:\Databases\Employee.fdb
> (here, "elvis" is the name of the database server machine, the

first

> colon ":" tells the Firebird client to use TCP/IP and the rest is

the

> physical filename of the database file on Elvis's local file

system).

>
> There is an exception, though: You can setup "aliases" (this is

done

> via the aliases.conf file in the Firebird application directory).

When

> you insert a line
> employee = C:\Databases\Employee.fdb
> in this file, you can connect to the save database as above using

the

> database string
> elvis:employee
>
> > The username/password is for the server. How is this in the

database

> > itself? You don't have a userlist on every database. Only in the
> > server.
>
> There is a special database, security.fdb, located in the Firebird
> directory. You can only connect to a database when the
> username/password is found in this security database.
>
> The user's rights for the database are declared in the database
> itself, using the GRANT and REVOKE commands. There are two

exceptions:

> the user SYSDBA and the user who created the database (which is the
> "owner" of this database) have all rights on the database.
>
> So the username/password is in the security database which is

global

> for all databases on the server. What any user can do is a

property of

> every database.
>
> HTH
>
> Best Regards
>
> Stefan
>
> --
> Stefan Heymann
> www.destructor.de/firebird
>