These instructions are for Sybase on Mac OS X.

To setup on Win32 with Visual Studio, go to SybaseASEonWin32. To setup on Linux, go to HowToSetupSybaseAdapterOnRails

This was originally written for 10.4 “Tiger”. I’ve added notes for where 10.5 “Leopard” differs.

Install Sybase Open Client for Mac OS X

1. Used SybaseASE 12.5.3 ESD1 client on Mac OS X 10.4.10 (i.e. Sybase_Client_1253ESD1.pkg)
2. Add environment variables to ~/.bash_login
   

   export SYBASE=/Applications/Sybase/System
   export SYBASE_OCS=OCS-12_5
   export PATH=$SYBASE/$SYBASE_OCS/bin:$PATH
   export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=${DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH}:$SYBASE:$SYBASE/$SYBASE_OCS/lib:$SYBASE/locales
   

3. Reload .bash_login (or just start a new Terminal window or shell)
   

   source ~/.bash_login
   

4. Make sure that your interfaces file is properly set up in $SYBASE/interfaces.
5. On Leopard, you may have to edit $SYBASE/locales/locales.dat
   Add a line to the [macosx] section
   

          locale = en_US.UTF-8, us_english, utf8
   

   Other options are:
   • Change the preferences in Terminal.app under Preferences… → Settings → Advanced → Character Encoding: to Western (ISO Latin 1);
   • Or, uncheck the box next to “Set LANG environment variable on startup”
   • Or, just use ITerm
6. Check if you can access Sybase using isql
   

   victory:/Users/holt holt$ isql -SHOSTNAMEFROMINTERFACE -Uusername -Ppassword
   

Download Ruby Sybase Library

1. Ruby Sybase Library
2. Unpack the library, and then Edit extconfig.rb
   

   gunzip sybct-ruby-0.2.9.tar.gz
   tar -xvf sybct-ruby-0.2.9.tar
   cd sybct-ruby-0.2.9
   vi extconfig.rb
   

3. Comment out all the lines that are for Linux and gcc. Uncomment the lines that are for Mac OS X. The settings for 10.4 should work for Leopard, too.
4. Create the makefile and compile the bundle
   

   ruby extconf.rb
   make 
   

5. Copy sybct.o sybct.bundle sybct.rb sybsql.rb to your ruby path. To find what it is, do:
   

   victory:/Users/holt holt$ irb
   irb(main):001:0> $LOAD_PATH
   => ["/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8", "/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/powerpc-darwin8.10.0", "/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby", "/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8", "/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/powerpc-darwin8.10.0", "."]
   

   
   in my case it was /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/powerpc-darwin8.10.0 NOTE: in ASE15 libct.so.* is called libsybct.so.*. the same applies to other 3 files. ( found by Rasika Ranaweera )
   On Leopard, using the built-in ruby, it will look something like this:
   

   victory:/Users/holt holt$ irb
   >> $LOAD_PATH
   => ["/Library/Ruby/Site/1.8", "/Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/powerpc-darwin9.0", "/Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/universal-darwin9.0", "/Library/Ruby/Site", "/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8", "/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/powerpc-darwin9.0", "/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/universal-darwin9.0", "."]
   

   
   I had to create the directory before copying:

   
   sudo mkdir -p /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/powerpc-darwin9.0
   sudo cp sybct.o sybct.bundle sybct.rb sybsql.rb /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/powerpc-darwin9.0
   

6. Run some tests
   

   
   $bash: irb
   irb(main):001:0> require 'sybsql'
   => true
   
   

   
   if you did not succeed you would get the following error while including ‘sybsql’ from irb
   

   
   $bash: irb
   irb(main):001:0> require 'sybsql'
   LoadError: libsybtcl.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory - /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/powerpc-darwin8.10.0/sybct.so
           from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/powerpc-darwin8.10.0/sybct.so
           from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/powerpc-darwin8.10.0/sybct.rb:3
           from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/powerpc-darwin8.10.0/sybsql.rb:4
           from (irb):1
   
   

   
   And if you were to start rails app that uses sybase_adapter you would get the following:
   

   
   database configuration specifies nonexistent sybase adapter (ActiveRecord::AdapterNotFound)
   
   

   
   One more test to run would be using ruby isql:
   

   
   cd sybct-ruby-0.2.9/
   
   victory:/usr/local/src/sybct-ruby-0.2.9 holt$ ruby -I . ./sample/isql.rb -S HOSTNAMEFROMINTERFACE -U username -P password
   
   !! MAX ROWCOUNT 2000 !!
   1-> select count(*) from sysobjects
   2-> go
   <- select count(*) from sysobjects
   restype =ROW_RESULT
   
   ----
   914
   
   (row count = 1, tran state = 'completed')
   3-> quit
   EOF
   
   

7. Finally let’s get Sybase to be on Rails
   Edit your config/database.yml to look like the following:
   

   
   development:
     adapter: sybase
     host: SYBASE
     database: dbName
     username: someUser
     password: somePassoword
   
   production:
     development
   

   host: should refer to host name that was set up in the $SYBASE/interfaces file.