I've got a bit further with this. To confirm the FB server is not starting automatically and is not listed in the "/Library/StartupItems". What is the service called that I need to put into that folder?

Putting the localhost in front of the filename got past the first problem. Now I get an error "Fatal lock manager error: semop failed (acquire), errno: 13

I was getting permission errors but I got past that by changing the owner of the file to "firebird".

You have got me thinking about what I'm trying to achieve here. I did not consider that the files might not be compatible in the future (or possibly now compatible now). I was expecting for users to be able to move DB files between systems.
My application only needs to be able to read the files on the Mac so maybe I could save myself a lot of aggravation by just providing a XML export of the data and the Mac software reading that.

Cheers,
Martin

--- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, Peter Lee <ptle@...> wrote:
>
> I wouldn't copy across your Windows fdb - it might be ok now as both
> systems are Intel - but it'd be much better to gbak and then restore on
> Mac. I'm pretty sure that the server is started automatically - but if
> in doubt then restart. :-) Check that you have
> '/Library/StartupItems/Firebird' first...
>
> I just tried this command and it works fine here... FB Classic 2.1.2,
> OSX 10.5:
>
> ./isql
> localhost:/Library/Frameworks/Firebird.framework/Resources/examples/empbuild/employee.fdb
> -user SYSDBA -password masterkey
>
> I'm not sure what you mean by 'connect to my database (from a windows
> system)'? The database has been transferred from your Windows box or
> are you trying to connect to a database that's on your Mac box from Windows?
>
> Also - you'll need to specify 'localhost' when using Classic unless
> you're trying to get it running as embedded... which a whole other story!
>
> Peter Lee
>