Is it just me, or is using perl on a linux server to extract information from an MS SQL server insanely difficult? Has no one else struggled with this? Here is my set up: FC4 -> PERL w/DBI -> DBD::ODBC -> unixODBC -> FreeTDS The irony is that all I need to do is a single simple select from a single table, and this is something I would run once a day. Yet the process of getting perl to talk to an MSSQL server seems disproportionately convoluted. I am hoping some reader of this list will help me identify where my attempts are failing. The error that I get when I try to run the script is this: Can't connect to data source driver={SQL Server};Server=<192.168.0.149>; database=<userFeedback>;uid=<testUser>; pwd=<testPass>;, no database driver specified and DBI_DSN env var not set at ./feedback.pl line 11 However, my understanding is that the DBI_DSN env var (which I have not explicitly set, not am I sure what to set it to if necessary) is only called if the $data_source in the connect() statement is empty. My connect() statement is as follows: $dbh = DBI->connect( $data_source, $username, $password ); And my $data_source var is set to this: my $data_source = 'driver={SQL Server};Server=<192.168.0.149>; database=<userFeedback> ;uid=<testUser>; pwd=<testPass>;'; I have seen other syntax for the connect statement for other databases such as MySQL and Oracle but never for MSSQL. I have searched dbi.perl.org as well for example syntax but all the examples I can find there are also for non-MS databases. If anyone knows of an alternative syntax that they know for certain works for MSSQL that would be terrific. As for the other part of the error, "no database driver specified", I am not sure what else I need to do to make perl aware of the FreeTDS driver. I have 'use DBI;' in the top of the script which is supposed to be sufficient. In otherword, I do not believe that I need to tell it to use DBD::ODBC. Further, I specified the install dir for unixODBC when I installed DBD::ODBC through cpan. Finally, I registered FreeTDS with unixODBC using template files and odbcinst commands. What am I missing here? It seems to me that there is some piece of the puzzle that I am overlooking that will bring all of this together. If no one knows the answer I would love to at least see some pointers to guides/tutorials/examples etc of how this set up is supposed to work. The examples at dbi.perl.org and in Programming the Perl DBI seem to never include MSSQL examples, unfortunately. RobertThread Next