NOTE: Jaybird 4 is in beta. Use Jaybird 3.0 for production.
Jaybird 4 is available from Maven central:
Groupid: org.firebirdsql.jdbc,
Artifactid: jaybird-XX (where XX is jdk17, jdk18 or java11)
Version: 4.0.0-beta-1
For ease of use, we also provide a Maven relocation artifact with artifact id jaybird. For Jaybird 4 this relocation artifact points to jaybird-jdk18.
For example, for Java 8:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.firebirdsql.jdbc</groupId>
<artifactId>jaybird-jdk18</artifactId>
<version>4.0.0-beta-1</version>
</dependency>If your application is deployed to a Java EE application server, you will need to exclude the javax.resource:connector-api dependency, and add it as a provided dependency:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.firebirdsql.jdbc</groupId>
<artifactId>jaybird-jdk18</artifactId>
<version>4.0.0-beta-1</version>
<exclusions>
<exclusion>
<groupId>javax.resource</groupId>
<artifactId>connector-api</artifactId>
</exclusion>
</exclusions>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.resource</groupId>
<artifactId>connector-api</artifactId>
<version>1.5</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>If you want to use Type 2 support (native, local or embedded), you need to explicitly include JNA 5.3.0 as a dependency:
Jaybird 3.0 is available from Maven central:
Groupid: org.firebirdsql.jdbc,
Artifactid: jaybird-XX (where XX is jdk17 or jdk18)
Version: 3.0.6
For ease of use, we also provide a Maven relocation artifact with artifact id jaybird. For Jaybird 3 this relocation artifact points to jaybird-jdk18.
For example, for Java 8:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.firebirdsql.jdbc</groupId>
<artifactId>jaybird-jdk18</artifactId>
<version>3.0.6</version>
</dependency>If your application is deployed to a Java EE application server, you will need to exclude the javax.resource:connector-api dependency, and add it as a provided dependency:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.firebirdsql.jdbc</groupId>
<artifactId>jaybird-jdk18</artifactId>
<version>3.0.6</version>
<exclusions>
<exclusion>
<groupId>javax.resource</groupId>
<artifactId>connector-api</artifactId>
</exclusion>
</exclusions>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.resource</groupId>
<artifactId>connector-api</artifactId>
<version>1.5</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>If you want to use Type 2 support (native, local or embedded), you need to explicitly include JNA 4.4.0 as a dependency:
Jaybird 2.2 is available on maven, with a separate artifact for each supported Java version.
Groupid: org.firebirdsql.jdbc,
Artifactid: jaybird-XX (where XX is jdk16, jdk17 or jdk18)
Version: 2.2.15
For ease of use, we also provide a Maven relocation artifact with artifact id jaybird. For Jaybird 2.2 this relocation artifact points to jaybird-jdk17.
For example:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.firebirdsql.jdbc</groupId>
<artifactId>jaybird-jdk18</artifactId>
<version>2.2.15</version>
</dependency>When deploying to a JavaEE environment, exclude the javax.resource connector-api dependency as this will be provided by the application server.
Firebird can be downloaded from the Firebird website, under Downloads, JDBC Driver.
Alternatively, you can go directly to GitHub and download Jaybird from the jaybird releases.
All Jaybird distribution zips contain a jaybird-<version>-sources.zip with the sources used for that specific version. The full Jaybird sourcecode is also available from GitHub in the jaybird repository:
https://github.com/FirebirdSQL/jaybird
Each release is also tagged in the repository.
Jaybird JCA/JDBC driver is distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). Text of the license can be obtained from http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.html.
Using Jaybird (by importing Jaybird's public interfaces in your Java code), and extending Jaybird by subclassing or implementation of an extension interface (but not abstract or concrete class) is considered by the authors of Jaybird to be dynamic linking. Hence our interpretation of the LGPL is that the use of the unmodified Jaybird source does not affect the license of your application code.
Even more, all extension interfaces to which an application might want to link are released under dual LGPL/modified BSD license. Latter is basically "AS IS" license that allows any kind of use of that source code. Jaybird should be viewed as an implementation of that interfaces and the LGPL section for dynamic linking is applicable in this case.
Current releases of Jaybird do not explicitly specify an LGPL version. This means that you can choose which version applies. Future versions of Jaybird may specify an explicit version, or be released under a different license.
Jaybird 4 supports Java 7, 8, 11 and 12. Support for Java 9 and higher is limited to the latest LTS and current latest release, but in practice Jaybird should work on all Java 9+ versions.
Jaybird 4 is the last version to support Java 7, support will be dropped with Jaybird 5. Java 8 support may be dropped from Jaybird 5 as well depending on the actual release timeline.
Jaybird 3.0 supports Java 7 and 8 and has basic support for Java 9.
Jaybird 2.2 supports Java 6, 7 and 8.
Jaybird 2.2.4 added basic support for Java 8 (JDBC 4.2), although not all JDBC 4.2 features are supported or fully implemented.
Jaybird 2.2.7 is the last version to support Java 5, support has been dropped with Jaybird 2.2.8.
Jaybird 2.2 is the last version to support Java 6, support has been dropped with Jaybird 3.0.
Jaybird itself is not (yet) modularized. To ensure a stable module name, Jaybird, since 2.2.14 and 3.0.3, declares the automatic module name org.firebirdsql.jaybird.
Jaybird 4 supports Firebird version 2.5 and higher, and introduces support for Firebird 4 types DECLOAT, extended precision of NUMERIC and DECIMAL, and time zone types (TIME WITH TIME ZONE and TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE).
Jaybird 3.0 supports Firebird versions 2.0 and higher. Support for Firebird 4 is limited to the Firebird 3 feature set.
Jaybird 3.0 is the last version to support Firebird 2.0 and 2.1. Future versions of Jaybird are not guaranteed to work with version 2.1 and earlier.
Jaybird 2.2 supports all Firebird versions 1.0 and higher. Jaybird 2.2.4 added support for new features of Firebird 3 (eg BOOLEAN support). Support for Firebird 4 is limited to the Firebird 3 feature set.
Jaybird 2.2 is the last version to support Firebird 1.0 and 1.5. Future versions of Jaybird are not guaranteed to work with these versions.
Jaybird does not support Interbase, and as far as we know connecting to Interbase 6.0 and later will fail due to Firebird specific changes in the implementation.
Apart from this FAQ, you can get additional information from:
For version specific details, consult the release notes
On Stack Overflow, please tag your questions with jaybird and firebird
The Firebird-Java group and corresponding mailing list firebird-java@yahoogroups.com
You can subscribe to the mailing list by sending an email to firebird-java-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Looking for professional support of Jaybird? Jaybird is now part of the Tidelift subscription.
Firebird support and other Firebird mailing lists for questions not directly related to Jaybird and java.
There are several ways you can contribute to Jaybird or Firebird in general:
The developers follow the firebird-java@yahoogroups.com list. Join the list and post information about suspected bugs. List members may be able to help out to determine if it is an actual bug, provide a workaround and get you going again, whereas bug fixes might take awhile.
You can report bugs in the Firebird bug tracker, project "Java Client (Jaybird)"
When reporting bugs, please provide a minimal, but complete reproduction, including databases and sourcecode to reproduce the problem. Patches to fix bugs are also appreciated. Make sure the patch is against a recent master version of the code. You can also fork the jaybird repository and create pull requests.
java.sql.DriverManager)Default URL format:
jdbc:firebirdsql://host[:port]/<database>This will connect to the database using the Type 4 JDBC driver using the Java implementation of the Firebird wire-protocol. This is best suited for client-server applications with dedicated database server. Port can be omitted (default value is 3050), host name must be present.
The <host> part is either the hostname, the IPv4 address, or the IPv6 address in brackets (eg [::1]). Use of IPv6 address literals is only supported in Jaybird 3 or newer with Firebird 3 or newer.
The <database> part should be replaced with the database alias or the path to the database. In general it is advisable to use database aliases instead of the path of the database file as it hides implementation details like file locations and OS type.
On Linux the root / should be included in the path. A database located on /opt/firebird/db.fdb should use (note the double slash after port!):
jdbc:firebirdsql://host:port//opt/firebird/db.fdbDeprecated, but still supported legacy URL format:
jdbc:firebirdsql:host[/port]:<database>The legacy URL format does not support IPv6 address literals.
Jaybird 4 and higher also support:
jdbc:firebird://host[:port]/<database>
jdbc:firebird:host[/port]:<database>Jaybird can be used together with OpenOffice and Libre Office Base. To address some compatibility issues (and differences in interpretation of JDBC specifications) a separate subprotocol is used:
jdbc:firebirdsql:oo://host[:port]/<database>Jaybird 4 and higher also support:
jdbc:firebird:oo://host[:port]/<database>Default URL format:
jdbc:firebirdsql:native://host[:port]/<database>Legacy URL format:
jdbc:firebirdsql:native:host[/port]:<database>Type 2 driver, will connect to the database using client library (fbclient.dll on Windows, and libfbclient.so on Linux). Requires correct installation of the client library and - for Jaybird 2.2 or earlier - the Jaybird native library, or - for Jaybird 3.0 - the JNA jar file.
jdbc:firebirdsql:local:<database>Type 2 driver in local mode. Uses client library as in previous case, however will not use socket communication, but rather access database directly. Requires correct installation of the client library and - for Jaybird 2.2 or earlier - the Jaybird native library, or - for Jaybird 3.0 - the JNA jar file.
Jaybird 4 and higher also support:
jdbc:firebird:native://host[:port]/<database>
jdbc:firebird:native:host[/port]:<database>
jdbc:firebird:local:<database>jdbc:firebirdsql:embedded:<database>Similar to the Firebird client library, however fbembed.dll on Windows and libfbembed.so on Linux are used. Requires correctly installed and configured Firebird embedded library and - for Jaybird 2.2 or earlier - the Jaybird native library, or - for Jaybird 3.0 - the JNA jar file.
Jaybird 4 and higher also support:
jdbc:firebird:embedded:<database>Jaybird provides two connection properties to specify the connection character set:
charSet with a Java character set name (alias: localEncoding)
The Java character set name must map to an equivalent Firebird character set.
encoding with a Firebird character set name (alias: lc_ctype)
The Firebird character set name - with the exception of NONE must map to an equivalent Java character set.
For most applications, use only one of these two properties.
For special situations it is possible to specify both charSet and encoding to convert/reinterpret a character set into another character set, this is usually only necessary to fix data problems.
To phrase differently:
encoding=<firebird charset>: use connection encoding <firebird charset> and interpret in the equivalent Java character set
charSet=<java charset>: use Firebird equivalent of <java charset> as connection encoding and interpret in
encoding=<firebird charset>&charSet=<java charset>: use connection encoding <firebird charset>, but interpret in <java charset>
The handling of Firebird character set NONE is slightly different, see below.
NONE work?The Firebird character set NONE is a special case, it essentially means "no character set". You can store anything in it, but conversions to or from this character set are not defined.
Using character set NONE can result in incorrect character set handling when the database is used from different locales.
When used as a connection character set, Jaybird handles NONE as follows:
encoding=NONE means connection encoding NONE and interpret columns with character set NONE using the default JVM encoding, and interpret columns with an explicit character set in their equivalent Java character set
encoding=NONE&charSet=ISO-8859-1 the same, but instead of the JVM default, use ISO-8859-1
encoding=NONE means use connection encoding NONE and interpret everything using the default JVM encoding
encoding=NONE&charSet=ISO-8859-1 the same, but instead of the JVM default, use ISO-8859-1
When no character set has been specified explicitly, Jaybird 2.2 and earlier, and Jaybird 3.0.2 and higher default to connection character set NONE. See How does character set NONE work? for details on character set NONE.
Jaybird 3.0.0 and 3.0.1, however, will reject the connection, see How can I solve the error "Connection rejected: No connection character set specified".
In Jaybird 3 it is possible to override the default connection character set by specifying system property org.firebirdsql.jdbc.defaultConnectionEncoding with a valid Firebird character set name.
Jaybird 3.0.2 introduces the system property org.firebirdsql.jdbc.requireConnectionEncoding, which - when set to true - will reject connections without a character set (which was the default behavior in Jaybird 3.0.0 and 3.0.1).
If no character set has been set, Jaybird 3.0 will reject the connection with an SQLNonTransientConnectionException with message "Connection rejected: No connection character set specified (property lc_ctype, encoding, charSet or localEncoding). Please specify a connection character set (eg property charSet=utf-8) or consult the Jaybird documentation for more information."
In Jaybird 3.0.0 and 3.0.1 this error will be thrown if the character set has not been set explicitly. In Jaybird 3.0.2 and higher this error will only be thrown if system property org.firebirdsql.jdbc.requireConnectionEncoding has been set to true.
To address this error, you can set the default connection character set using one of the following options:
Use connection property encoding (alias: lc_ctype) with a Firebird character set name.
Use encoding=NONE for the default behavior (with some caveats, see How does character set NONE work?).
Use connection property charSet (alias: localEncoding) with a Java character set name.
Use a combination of encoding and charSet, if you want to reinterpret a Firebird character set in a Java character set other than the default mapping.
By providing a default Firebird character set with system property org.firebirdsql.jdbc.defaultConnectionEncoding. Jaybird will apply the specified character set as the default when no character set is specified in the connection properties.
This property only supports Firebird character set names.
Use -Dorg.firebirdsql.jdbc.defaultConnectionEncoding=NONE to revert to the default behavior (with some caveats, see How does character set NONE work?). With Jaybird 3.0.2 or higher, it is better to just not set system property org.firebirdsql.jdbc.requireConnectionEncoding if you want to apply NONE.
Firebird 3.0.2 adds support for "TCP Loopback Fast Path" (SIO_LOOPBACK_FAST_PATH socket option). This is available in Windows 8 / Windows Server 2012 and higher. This feature enables performance optimizations when connecting through localhost (127.0.01 / ::1). It requires support on both client and server side.
Java support for "TCP Loopback Fast Path" was introduced in Java 8 update 60, it can be enabled by specifying the system property jdk.net.useFastTcpLoopback with value true (eg specify -Djdk.net.useFastTcpLoopback=true in your Java commandline).
Unfortunately, Java only has an 'all-or-nothing' support for the "TCP Loopback Fast Path", so Jaybird cannot enable this for you: you must specify this property on JVM startup. On the other hand, this has the benefit that this works for all Jaybird versions, as long as you use Java 8 update 60 or higher (and Firebird 3.0.2 or higher).
This error means that the user does not exist, or that the specified password is not correct.
When connecting to Firebird 3 and higher, this error can also mean that the user does exist (with that password), but not for the authentication plugins tried for this connection.
For example, Jaybird 2.2.x and earlier only support legacy authentication, if you try to login as a user created for SRP authentication, you will get the same error.
With Jaybird 3.0.0 - 3.0.3 connecting to Firebird 3 or higher, this usually means that the setting WireCrypt is set to its (default) value of Required.
Upgrade to Jaybird 3.0.4 or higher, or relax this setting (in firebird.conf) to WireCrypt = Enabled.
See also Jaybird Wiki - Jaybird and Firebird 3
With Jaybird 3.0.4 or higher, or Jaybird 4, this error means that you have requested a connection with a mismatch in encryption settings. For example, you specified connection property wireCrypt=required while Firebird is set to WireCrypt = Disabled (or vice versa).
In general this error means that Jaybird requested a connection with properties not supported by Firebird. It can have other causes than described below.
With Jaybird 3 and higher connecting to Firebird 3 or higher, leaving user name or password null will lead to Jaybird not trying any authentication plugin, and as a result, Firebird will reject the connection.
With Firebird 2.5 and earlier, or Jaybird 2.2, this situation will normally yield error "Your user name and password are not defined. Ask your database administrator to set up a Firebird login.".
With Jaybird 2.2.x connecting to Firebird 3 or higher, this usually means that the setting WireCrypt is set to its (default) value of Required.
Relax this setting (in firebird.conf) to WireCrypt = Enabled.
See also Jaybird Wiki - Jaybird and Firebird 3
Make sure you check the other settings mentioned in that article, otherwise you'll get the next error.
If the logging contains something like
SERVER Sat Oct 28 10:07:26 2017
Authentication error
No matching plugins on serverwith Jaybird 2.2.x connecting to Firebird 3 or higher, this means that the setting AuthServer does not include the Legacy_Auth plugin.
Enable Legacy_Auth (in firebird.conf) by adding this value to the property AuthServer, for example: AuthServer = Srp, Legacy_Auth.
With Jaybird 4 and higher this can also mean that none of the default authentication plugins or those specified using connection property authPlugins, are listed in the AuthServer setting. Either revise the Firebird configuration, or explicitly configure connection property authPlugins with authentication plugins that are configured in Firebird.
You also need to make sure your user is created with the legacy user manager, see Jaybird Wiki - Jaybird and Firebird 3 for details.
If the exception cause is java.security.InvalidKeyException: Illegal key size or default parameters, this means that your Java install applies a security policy that does not allow ARCFOUR with a 160 bit encryption key.
If wireCrypt=ENABLED (the default), this is just logged as a warning. The connection will succeed, but it does mean that the connection will not be encrypted. If wireCrypt=REQUIRED, this is thrown as an exception, and the connection will fail.
This could indicate that your Java version applies the limited strength Cryptographic Jurisdiction Policy (this was the default in Java 8 Update 152 and earlier), or has been explicitly configured to apply the limited policy, or has a custom security policy to restrict the cryptographic key size.
Solutions and workarounds:
WireCrypt = Disabled in firebird.confwireCrypt=DISABLED in the connection propertiesBe aware that the first two options may have legal implications depending on the local law in your country regarding cryptography.
WARNING The information in this section is not 100% up-to-date
Jaybird 3 follows the JDBC 4.3 specification with some features and methods not implemented as they are not supported by Firebird.
Implemented features:
TransactionManager and JCA deployment support) as well as when used via javax.sql.XADataSource implementation.ObjectFactory implementation for use in environments with JNDI but no TransactionManager.DataSource implementations without pooling.WARNING The information in this section is outdated
The following optional features are NOT supported:
The following optional features and the methods that support it are not implemented:
java.sql.PreparedStatement
setRef(int i, Ref x)setArray(int i, Array x)java.sql.ResultSet
getArray(int i)getArray(String columnName)getRef(int i)getRef(String columnName)java.sql.ResultSet
getObject(int i, java.util.Map map)getObject(String columnName, java.util.Map map)java.sql.Connection
getTypeMap()setTypeMap(java.util.Map map)Excluding the unsupported features, the following methods are not yet implemented:
java.sql.Blob
length()getBytes(long pos, int length)position(byte pattern[], long start)position(Blob pattern, long start)The following methods are implemented, but do not work as expected:
java.sql.Statement
get/setMaxFieldSize does nothingget/setQueryTimeout does nothingjava.sql.PreparedStatement
setObject(index,object,type) This method is implemented but behaves as setObject(index,object)setObject(index,object,type,scale) This method is implemented but behaves as setObject(index,object)java.sql.CallableStatement
getBigDecimal(index,scale) This method is implemented but behaves as getBigDecimal(index). The method is deprecated, and we suggest to use getBigDecimal(index) and adjust the scale of the returned BigDecimal using BigDecimal.setScale(newScale,roundingMode)java.sql.ResultSetMetaData
isReadOnly(i) always returns falseisWritable(i) always returns trueisDefinitivelyWritable(i) always returns truejava.sql.ResultSet
getBigDecimal(index,scale) This method is implemented but behaves as getBigDecimal(index). The method is deprecated, and we suggest to use getBigDecimal(index) and adjust the scale of the returned BigDecimal using BigDecimal.setScale(newScale,roundingMode)Jaybird itself no longer provides connection pooling. Earlier versions had a DataSource implementation with connection pooling, but this implementation had severe bugs. This implementation (and all other classes in org.firebirdsql.pool) was deprecated in 2.2 and dropped in 3.0.
Jaybird provides a basic DataSource implementation and a ConnectionPoolDataSource implementation. Contrary to its name the latter does not provide a connection pool, but is intended to be used by a connection pool (as implemented in an application server) to create connections for the connection pool.
If your application is built on a Java EE application server, we suggest you use the connection pooling provided by the application server. Either through the resource-adapter of the JCA implementation of Jaybird, or using the java.sql.ConnectionPoolDataSource implementation org.firebirdsql.ds.FBConnectionPoolDataSource.
If you develop standalone applications, or you use an application server without connection pooling, we suggest you use third-party libraries like:
The minimal module.xml to use Jaybird 3 under Wildfly is:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<module xmlns="urn:jboss:module:1.0" name="org.firebirdsql">
<resources>
<resource-root path="jaybird-3.0.x.jar"/>
</resources>
<dependencies>
<module name="javax.api"/>
<module name="javax.transaction.api"/>
<module name="javax.resource.api"/>
</dependencies>
</module>With Jaybird 3.0.4 and higher for Java 7 (but not Java 8!) in Wildfly (or JBoss), you will need to add the module javax.xml.bind.api to your module:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<module xmlns="urn:jboss:module:1.0" name="org.firebirdsql">
<resources>
<resource-root path="jaybird-3.0.x.jar"/>
</resources>
<dependencies>
<module name="javax.api"/>
<module name="javax.transaction.api"/>
<module name="javax.resource.api"/>
<module name="javax.xml.bind.api"/> <!-- Add this -->
</dependencies>
</module>Alternatively, use Jaybird for Java 8 (or higher).