Accessing Oracle8i Data on a FreeBSD System

[Martin McCormick]

I have just been thrust in to unknown waters when it comes to
data bases.  I will be writing scripts which live on a FreeBSD Unix
system and which will query a Pinnacle server on another host.

	The only oracle client for FreeBSD is oracle7-client.  There
is also oracle7 support in the current port of php, but nothing that
says oracle8I.

	There is a linux distribution available on the Oracle web
site called linux81701.tar, but it appears to be for those wishing to
run an oracle8I server.

	What we are trying to do is:
Receive data from the oracle data base on the Pinnacle server, process
the data, and be able to set or clear flags on data we send back to
the Pinnacle server.

	My question is what tools do I actually need under FreeBSD
Unix to access the Pinnacle server's oracle8i data?

	We presently use freetds to do exactly this sort of thing with
data in a MSsql data base on yet a different platform.

	The only thing I am bewildered about right now is how to or
maybe whether it is possible to access the oracle8I DB?

	Many thanks to all.

Martin McCormick WB5AGZ  Stillwater, OK 
OSU Information Technology Division Network Operations Group