Firebird

Firebird is a mature open-source relational database, descended from Borland’s InterBase. AddisDB connects with a pure-Rust implementation of the Firebird wire protocol, so — unlike Oracle — there is no client library to install on your machine.

Who it is for

Firebird turns up most often in long-lived line-of-business applications, especially in Europe and Latin America, and in embedded deployments where a full RDBMS ships inside a product. It is small, transactional, and famously low-maintenance.

Set up the server

1. Note the server host and port — 3050 by default.
2. Note the database. Firebird addresses databases by their path ON THE SERVER (/var/lib/firebird/data/app.fdb), or by an alias defined in databases.conf. It is not a database name in the MySQL sense.
3. Confirm the user. SYSDBA is the built-in administrator.
4. For Firebird 3 and later, check that the server’s AuthServer setting includes the authentication plugin your client will use.

# The database is a server-side path, not a name
isql -user SYSDBA -password PASSWORD /var/lib/firebird/data/app.fdb

Connect from AddisDB

1. New Connection → Firebird. Port prefills to 3050 and username to SYSDBA.
2. Enter the host, and the full server-side database path (or alias) in the database field.
3. Enter the password.
4. Test, then Save.

What AddisDB gives you

Queries, the schema tree, exports, saved queries and mock data. Introspection reads the RDB$ system relations and trims Firebird’s CHAR padding, so identifiers arrive clean rather than with trailing spaces.

Firebird has no LIMIT clause — it spells the row limiter FIRST n. AddisDB knows this: the row cap is applied while decoding rather than by wrapping your query, so choosing a row limit works normally instead of producing a syntax error.