The  file  describes Sybase and Microsoft database servers to the
FreeTDS library.  It comprises sections headed by  a  servername,
followed by a list of connection properties denoted as name‐value
pairs.  Defaults are defined via a section.  This file supersedes
the  file  that Sybase defines for the same purpose, although the
latter is still supported.  A section begins with a servername  —
the  name  of  the server — in square brackets. The servername is
chosen at the client’s descretion.  (One exception:  with  Sybase
ASA  the  servername  must  match  the database name to be used.)
Sections contain properties, one per line, in the form  where  is
the connection property to be described.  Servernames and proper‐
ties  are  not  case sensitive.  Values are case‐preserving i.e.,
copied literally.  Comments begin  with  either  a  semicolon  or
pound sign and continue to end of line.  Blank lines are ignored.
Whitespace surrounding the encoding of client data; overrides lo‐
cale(1)  settings iconv character set names ISO‐8859‐1 seconds to
wait for response from connect request 0 to MAX_INT none  logging
granularity 32‐bit integer 0x4fff specifies location of a logfile
and  turns  on  logging valid file name none log data appended to
file instead of re‐writing for each connection yes/no  no  forces
big  endian  machines to act as little endian to communicate with
Microsoft Servers yes/no no disables encryption use if  available
(default  when tds version greater than 7.0) allow encrypted con‐
nections only Name of the host the server is  running  on.   host
name or IP address SYBASE maximum size of a protocol block multi‐
ple  of  512 512 name of Microsoft SQL Server instance to connect
to (supersedes instance name none port number that the server  is
listening  to  any valid port TDS 5.0, 5000; TDS 7.0 and up, 1433
TDS protocol version to use 4.2, 5.0, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2 value (5.0 if
unspecified)  default  value  of  TEXTSIZE,   in   bytes   0   to
4,294,967,295  4,294,967,295  seconds  to  wait for response to a
query 0 to MAX_INT none (wait forever) Do not define both  and  .
One implies the other.


Boolean  property values may be denoted as on/off, true/false, or
1/0.  The log’s granularity can be controlled with the  property.
The  file  is  normally named or That name can be overridden with
the FREETDSCONF environment variable.  FreeTDS will  search  conf
files  for  a  servername  in the following order: a filename set
programatically via dbsetifile() that is in .conf format a  file‐
name  in  the  environment  variable FREETDSCONF that is in .conf
format if extant The search stops with the first file  containing
the  servername.   If no conf file is found, FreeTDS searches for
an file in the following order: a  filename  set  programatically
via  dbsetifile()  that  is  in  format  (where  If the requested
servername is not found in any configuration file,  the  fallback
mechanism  is:  attempt to convert the name to an IP address with
inet_addr(3), else attempt to convert the name to an  IP  address
with  gethostbyname(3),  else attempt to look up the literal name
overrides name and location of the system‐wide  conf  file  over‐
rides  the  name and location of the FreeTDS log file specifies a
name and location of a file that logs the search of configuration
files overrides the host property  overrides  the  port  property
synonym for DSQUERY, the default servername overrides the version
specified  in the freetds.conf The environment variables override
values set by a .conf or file.