Ruby DBI Module Installation and Setup

Introduction

This document describes the steps required on Solaris for connecting to MySQL database using Ruby DBI module

Prerequisites

For DBI scripts to access MySQL databases, you'll need to have both the C API installed and the Ruby MySQL module.

The C API is part of MySQL source code distribution. You can refer to my blog entry "How to Build MySQL source code on Solaris".

To install Ruby MySQL module, you can refer to my blog entry "Ruby MySQL Module Installation and Setup".

Download Ruby DBI driver

Go to this site.

http://rubyforge.org/projects/ruby-dbi
Click on view all projects. Scroll down and   
download dbi-0.2.0.tar.gz

Installation

#pwd

/export/home/mysql

# gzip -d dbi-0.2.0.tar.gz

# tar xvf dbi-0.2.0.tar

#cd dbi-0.2.0

# pwd
/export/home/mysql/dbi-0.2.0

Configure

After unpacking the distribution, change the location into its top-level directory and configure it using the setup.rb script in that directory.

# pwd
/export/home/mysql/dbi-0.2.0

The most general configuration command looks like this, with no arguments following the config argument:

   # ruby setup.rb config

That command configures the distribution to install all drivers by default. To be more specific, provide a --with option that lists the particular parts of the distribution you want to use. For example, to configure only the main DBI module and the MySQL DBD-level driver, issue the following command:

I used the following in my installation

# ruby setup.rb config --with=dbi,dbd_mysql
entering config phase...
config done.

Setup

After configuring the distribution, build it:

# pwd
/export/home/mysql/dbi-0.2.0
# ruby setup.rb setup
entering setup phase...
setting #! line to "#!/usr/ruby/1.8/bin/ruby"
setup.rb: skip bin/proxyserver(dbd_proxy) by user option
setup.rb: skip ext/dbd_sybase(dbd_sybase) by user option

setup done.

Install Ruby DBI

After building it, install it with:

# ruby setup.rb install
entering install phase...
mkdir -p /usr/ruby/1.8/bin
install sqlsh.rb /usr/ruby/1.8/bin
setup.rb: skip bin/proxyserver(dbd_proxy) by user option
mkdir -p /usr/ruby/1.8/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/DBD/Mysql
install Mysql.rb /usr/ruby/1.8/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/DBD/Mysql/Mysql.rb
mkdir -p /usr/ruby/1.8/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/dbi
install columninfo.rb /usr/ruby/1.8/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/dbi
install row.rb /usr/ruby/1.8/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/dbi
install sql.rb /usr/ruby/1.8/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/dbi
install utils.rb /usr/ruby/1.8/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/dbi
install trace.rb /usr/ruby/1.8/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/dbi
install version.rb /usr/ruby/1.8/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/dbi
install dbi.rb /usr/ruby/1.8/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8
setup.rb: skip ext/dbd_sybase(dbd_sybase) by user option
install done.

Testing installation

Open up IRB (which stands for Interactive Ruby). Type irb to invoke. Check if “require dbi” returns true.
# irb
irb(main):001:0> require "dbi"
=> true
irb(main):004:0> quit

Creating DBI script file to get MySQL version

# pwd
/export/home/mysql/dbi-0.2.0

Add the following to simple.rb file

# more simple.rb

#!/usr/bin/ruby -w

# simple.rb - simple MySQL script using Ruby DBI module

require "dbi"

begin

# connect to the MySQL server

dbh = DBI.connect("DBI:Mysql:test:localhost", "testuser", "testpass")

# get server version string and display it

row = dbh.select_one("SELECT VERSION()")

puts "Server version: " + row[0]

rescue DBI::DatabaseError => e

puts "An error occurred"

puts "Error code: #{e.err}"

puts "Error message: #{e.errstr}"

ensure

# disconnect from server

dbh.disconnect if dbh

end

#

Run the Ruby DBI script

Run the script and the MySQL server version is displayed.

# ruby simple.rb
Server version: 5.1.30
#

References

Supported Drivers, Docs, Discussion forms:

http://www.sun.com/software/products/mysql/drivers.jsp

Articles for installing the drivers:

http://www.kitebird.com/articles/

The Ruby home page provides general information about Ruby itself:

http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/

Posted at 11:48AM Jan 05, 2009 by Arathi Krishnaiyengar in MySQL  |  Comments[0]