Installing character sets

By default, when Adaptive Server and Backup Server are installed on Digital Unix systems, the installation installs the character set files for ISO 8859-1 which supports the Western European languages.

In addition, the installation defaults include sort-order definition files for Western European character sets and U.S. English system message files.

If you want Adaptive Server error messages to display in a language other than U.S. English (us_english), you must install the appropriate language module.

WARNING! Make all changes to the default character set and sort order for a new Adaptive Server before creating any user databases or making any changes to the Sybase-supplied databases. Changing the character set and sort order after data or data structures have been added to Adaptive Server can cause incorrect behavior. To change the character set or sort order after you have added data, see the System Administration Guide.

A full install of Adaptive Server installs all the language components automatically. If you did not select a full install, you must install additional language modules manually.

StepsInstalling new language modules

  1. Install the language modules into the same directory where you installed Adaptive Server.

    NoteEach language uses about 2MB of database space per module. If necessary, use the alter database command to increase the size of the master database before adding another language. For more information, see the System Administration Guide.

  2. Use charset to load the default character set and sort order.

    NoteUse charset only at the time of installation. For alternative methods, see the Localization chapter in Configuring Adaptive Server Enterprise for your platform.

  3. To use charset, the server must be running and you must have System Administrator privileges. Use the file name of the sort order:

    $SYBASE/SYBASE_ASE/bin/charset -Usa -Ppassword 
    -Sserver_name sort_order_file character_set
    
  4. Replace sort_order_file with the name of the sort order file. Replace character_set with the Sybase name for your character set.

  5. Use charset to load any additional character sets. See Table 5-2 for charset syntax.

Table 5-2: charset syntax

Syntax

charset [sort_order_file | charset.loc] charset_directory

Usage

charset
[ -U username ]
[ -P password ]
[ -S server ]
[ -I interfaces ]
[ -v version ]
[sort_order_file | charset.loc ]
[ charset_directory ]

StepsInstalling character-set definition files

If you plan to use the Adaptive Server built-in character-set conversions, you must load the character-set definition files for all the character sets on your client platforms. If you are using the Unilib character-set conversions, you do not need to do this.

  1. Using isql, log in to your server as “sa” and select the master database.

    1> use master
    2> go
    
  2. Use the ID of the sort order to configure your server for the new character set and sort order.

    1> sp_configure "default sort_order_id",
    2> sort_order_id, "character_set"
    3> go
    
  3. Replace sort_order_id with the ID for your sort order. Replace character_set with the Sybase name for your character set.

  4. Shut down the server to start the reconfiguration process.

    Use the normal process on your UNIX system to restart the server, usually by invoking one of the RUN_xxx scripts from $SYBASE/$SYBASE_ASE/install.

  5. The server starts, rebuilds all the system indexes, then shuts down. Restart a second time to bring the server up in a stable state.

To change the default character set and sort order of Adaptive Server after the initial installation, see the System Administration Guide.