Client Installation: your program is a database (Firebird) client that accesses a remote Firebird Server - perhaps on a Linux platform and you need to install the Firebird client files necessary to access it. It is assumed that your program either makes direct use of the Firebird API or uses a component library (e.g. InterBase Express), or middleware such as the Borland Database Engine as its database Interface. In this case, in addition to your program files and middleware, such as the BDE, your installation must include the fbclient.msm Merge Module. In order to do this, all you normally need to do is to select this Merge Module from the Merge Module Gallery when building your installation. The rest is all automatic and the Firebird client files will be silently installed as part of your installation.

Optionally, you may want to include the Firebird command line tools, or the IBConsole program in addition to your client. These are readily done by additionally selecting the fbtools.msm and/or the fbconsole.msm Merge Modules from the Merge Module Gallery. These components will then also be silently installed; the command line path will also be set up to allow use of the command line tools. TIP: you may want to make these Modules part of a separate feature allowing the user to select whether or not they need them either directly or as part of another feature of your installation.

Typically, you will also want to include the optional fbIB5Warning.msm merge module. This will warn users that haven't read the release notes properly and still have InterBase 5.x installed.

Server Installation: your program also includes a Firebird Server on the client system or you are packaging the Server as a separate installation. Either way, you include the Firebird Server by selecting the fbserver.msm Merge Module from the Merge Module Gallery and including it in your project. Normally this is sufficient to install the Server. This Merge Module has a declared dependency on the client files which should be automatically included.

The fbserver.msm Merge Module has all the logic necessary to install and start the Firebird Server under Windows NT, 2000 or Win9x. In all cases, the Server is set up to start automatically as soon as installation is complete and thereafter every time the system is started.

The Merge Module also silently stops a running InterBase/Firebird server prior to install/upgrade/uninstall. If you want to let your users have more control over this, include the fbStopServer.msm Merge Module