MDS Global INI File¶

The mds_global.ini file contains application-wide settings for the Btr2SQL driver — things like tracing, locking, performance tuning, and connection behavior. Unlike the mds.ini file, which is per-folder, the mds_global.ini applies globally to all files accessed by your application.

Important

Place the mds_global.ini in the same directory as the Btr2SQL DLL and your license (.cfg) file. The driver uses the first mds_global.ini it finds on the search path.

File Location Search Order¶

The driver searches for the mds_global.ini in the following locations, in order. The first file found is used:

Current folder
Folder where the DLL was loaded from
Folder where the EXE was loaded from
System PATH
Driver installation bin folder

File Format¶

Each mds_global.ini file should contain a single section header identifying the driver in use, followed by key/value settings:

[SQL_BTR] — MS SQL
[ORA_BTR] — Oracle
[PGS_BTR] — PostgreSQL

Formatting rules:

A semicolon (;) at the beginning of a line marks it as a comment.
Spaces around the equal sign are ignored.
All settings and values are case insensitive.
Omitting a setting means the driver’s built-in default is used.
All settings are optional.
The value marked with an asterisk (*) in the setting detail pages below is the default.

Sample mds_global.ini¶

[SQL_BTR]
;Tracing
TRACE_ON=c:\trace\sql_btr.tra
TRACE_LEVEL=-3
TRACE_FLUSH=no
SQL_LOCKS=no

Note

A sample mds_global.ini file can be found in the installation folder (<Program Files>\Mertech Data Systems\DB Drivers\Btrieve\bin).

Setting Detail Pages¶

The individual settings are documented by category in the pages below.

MDS Global INI File Details

Programmatic Access¶

Global and folder-specific settings can be set and retrieved at runtime using the MdsSetSetting and MdsGetSetting APIs. For full documentation, parameters, and examples, see MdsSetSetting and MdsGetSetting in the BTR2SQL SDK.