--- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, "Adam" <s3057043@...> wrote:

>
> >
> > I wasn't using the services API, I'm not sure what it is. I was
> > running gbak with calls to CreateProcess, and identifying the gbak
> > executable.
>
> Well this is your problem.
>
> With Superserver, you have a process called fbserver.exe. This process
> accepts connections from a client program and fbserver.exe reads and
> writes to the fdb file on behalf of those client programs.
>
> Your program is a client application. It talks to the client library
> (fbclient.dll), and the client library communicates with the
> fbserver.exe process via one of several protocols (eg TCP/IP).
>
> GBak, like your program, is just another client. It connects to the
> client library, just like your application, and just like your
> application, the client library communicates with the database engine.
>
> The embedded* engine is a deployment model which recognises that not
> everyone needs a client-server style model. Firstly, the superserver
> engine is merged into the client library. You will notice that the
> embedded version of fbclient.dll is significantly larger than the
> normal version. That is because it also has the database engine built
> into it.
>
> When *your* program loads the embedded client library, the database
> engine is loaded into *your* process. When gbak loads the embedded
> client library, the database engine is loaded into the gbak process.
>
> This is why you can not run gbak when your database is open by your
> embedded application; you have two server instances requiring
> exclusive locks on a single file.
>
> Firebird contains something called the Services API; a set of API
> functions in the client library that allow you to instruct the engine
> to perform certain tasks. For example, your client application can ask
> the client library to take a backup, and the client library will then
> instruct the server, and the server will do so. How that is exposed
> depends on your programming environment and possibly the connectivity
> components you are relying upon.
>
> Adam

Thanks Adam, and Alan:

I'm now trying to get my first Services API function call working,
and am getting "unresolved external symbol _isc_service_attach@24".

I have fbembed.dll with my executable, I couldn't use Firebird
without it.

I see references to something called gds32.dll in the Interbase
documentation. But I don't see that it's ever been brought into my
system with downloads of either the server or embedded Firebird.

What am I missing?

Thanks
Larry