[jira] [Created] (TRAFODION-189) LP Bug: 1288501 - ODBC Driver UCS issue when using Python

["Alice Chen (JIRA)" <ji...@apache.org>]

Alice Chen created TRAFODION-189:
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             Summary: LP Bug: 1288501 - ODBC Driver UCS issue when using Python
                 Key: TRAFODION-189
                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/TRAFODION-189
             Project: Apache Trafodion
          Issue Type: Bug
          Components: client-odbc-linux
            Reporter: Alice Chen


The Trafodion ODBC driver supports UCS-2.  By default on pretty much all current versions of Linux, Python is installed to support UCS-4.  This makes it incompatible with our Trafodion ODBC driver.  The error message one gets when using Python and the ODBC driver is very unhelpful :

Error: ('01000', "[01000] [unixODBC][Driver Manager]Can't open lib ‘/ABSOLUTE_PATH_TO/libtrafodbc64.so' : file not found (0) (SQLDriverConnect)")

Eventually, it was discovered that Python needed to be compiled with UCS-2 support enabled.  This however proved somewhat problematic on a Redhat/CentOS Linux distribution.  You cannot just recompile Python or otherwise disturb the default version of Python installed in Redhat/CentOS.  This is because the Yum Package Manager relies extensively on the default Python distribution.  Eventually, I did get Python installed in a location that would not disturb the default Python installation on the OS.  However, all in all this does not make for a very good user experience.  

Given that the default installation of Python on all current versions of Linux is UCS-4 it becomes a pre-requisite for someone to know how to build/compile Python with UCS-2 support in a way compatible with their Linux OS.  I do not believe it is good practice to expect the average user to know how to do this.  I think we should make the Trafodion ODBC driver support UCS-4 so it is compatible with the default Python installation.



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