Firebird 2.5 SuperServer and MacOSX 10.7 (Lion)

There is a small problem with Firebird 2.5 SuperServer and MacOSX 10.7 (Lion)...
SuperServer will not start, and produces a crash report header similar to this

Update 26th August 2011
Its not just 2.5 SuperServer, reports have come in that SuperServer for Firebird 2.1.4 will not start, also the same problem exists for Firebird 2.5 SuperClassic.

Process: fbserver [706]
Path: /Library/Frameworks/firebird.framework/Versions/A/Resources/bin/fbserver
Identifier: fbserver
Version: ??? (???)
Code Type: X86 (Native)
Parent Process: fbguard [166]

Date/Time: 2011-06-10 07:59:42.374 -0400
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.7 (11A480b)
Report Version: 9

Anonymous UUID: B7EDF790-CE72-4B21-A982-B9EA4F4E2088

Crashed Thread: 1 Dispatch queue: com.apple.libdispatch-manager

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000

Application Specific Information:
BUG IN CLIENT OF LIBDISPATCH: Do not close random Unix descriptors

The bug is fixed in Firebird 2.5.1 but Firebird 2.5.1 is not available yet. So I have fixed the problem also in the Firebird 2.5 code and produced 32bit and 64bit builds that work properly.

I have had new builds uploaded to Sourceforge to fix the problem with Firebird
2.1.4 SuperServer, you can distinguish the new builds from the old by the build no.
Old = 18393, New = 18393. Because we have some issues with 2.5.1 that are currently being investigated, I plan to update the 2.5 builds on Sourceforge soon.

Update 28th Sep 2011
The Firebird 2.5 builds have also been replaced on Sourceforge, so you just need to download the latest build. However Firebird 2.5 will be replaced by Firebird 2.5.1 very shortly, builds are now taking place and will be QA'd and released shortly.

Any problems - please let me know.

Firebird V2.1 Error: value exceeds the range for valid dates

You are restoring a backup of a Firebird 1.5 or 2.0 database to Firebird 2.1 and you see an error similar to this:

gbak: writing data for table xyz
gbak:20000 records written
gbak: Error: value exceeds the range for valid dates
gbak: Error: gds_$receive failed
gbak:Exiting before completion due to errors

How do you go about solving the problem?
Well first of all a quick visit to the Firebird bug tracker reveals
http://tracker.firebirdsql.org/browse/CORE-1714 and a couple of comments from Dimitry Yemanov.

“The error means to say that some column has an invalid date value (outside the supported range). Prior to V2.1, it was possible to store such invalid values in the database, but now it's prohibited. A verbose output should point you to a problematic table.” Also “The current behavior is intended and is unlikely to be changed.”

1. Firstly use the –v (verbose option of gbak) to find out the table that is causing the problem.
2. Check the table xyz for date columns
3. Perform the following SQL operation on all the date columns you found in 2.

isql> update XYZ set MY_DATE_COLUMN = MY_DATE_COLUMN;

At some point during the process you will see the same error that gbak produced, but now you will know which column is causing the problem.

4. Install Firebird 1.5 or 2.0, by going back to the version of Firebird that allows for invalid dates, you will be at least able to correct the invalid date to something more appropriate.

5. Now lets check for dates that are outside of their proper range (01 Jan 0001 - 31 Dec 9999)

Below date zero:

isql> select PRIMARY_KEY from XYZ where MY_DATE_COLUMN < '0001-01-01'

if an error occurs correct the date to something more appropriate and meaningful

Maximum date

isql> select PRIMARY_KEY from XYZ where MY_DATE_COLUMN > '9999-12-31'

if an error occurs correct the date to something more appropriate and meaningful

6. You can now backup the database using Firebird 1.5 or 2.1 and successfully restore under 2.1