firebird-embedded

firebird-embedded packages prebuilt Firebird client and embedded-engine files as platform-specific Python wheels. It does not compile Firebird. The Python distribution is firebird-embedded; its import package is firebird.embedded within the implicit firebird namespace package.

The agent skill describes provider discovery and integration with firebird-driver for applications using the installed wheel.

Architecture

The small Python package exposes firebird.embedded.provider.FirebirdProvider through the firebird.runtime.providers entry-point group. Consumers discover the provider class, instantiate it, and obtain the installed runtime root, client-library and log paths, versions, and capabilities. The provider does not depend on firebird-driver or configure it.

Each wheel contains the Python package at firebird/embedded/ and one prepared native runtime at firebird/embedded/runtime/. hatch_build.py selects that runtime using FIREBIRD_EMBEDDED_TARGET and adds it to the wheel. The runtime includes an initially empty firebird.log at its root. The wheels have py3-none-<platform> tags because the native files do not depend on a particular Python ABI. A build host can assemble wheels for other platforms from their prebuilt Firebird archives.

Native runtime requirements

The Linux wheels use manylinux_2_12_i686 and manylinux_2_17_x86_64 tags so PyPI accepts them and installers select the matching architecture and glibc version. Firebird 3 also requires the target system to provide libncurses.so.5 and libtommath.so.0, including their own dependencies. These libraries are not bundled in the wheels. Install the distribution packages supplying them before using the embedded runtime; a matching manylinux tag alone does not establish that they are present.

The Windows wheels include the Visual C++ 2010 runtime DLLs msvcr100.dll and msvcp100.dll used by the supplied Firebird binaries, along with the required ICU DLLs. They do not require a separate installation of those runtime DLLs.

The package version has four components: <Firebird major>.<minor>.<revision>.<packaging revision>. The first three components must match the bundled Firebird release. The version is stored in src/firebird/embedded/__about__.py.

Repository layout

.
├── make_embedded.py              # prepare configured local runtimes
├── hatch_build.py                # select one runtime for a wheel
├── pyproject.toml                # metadata, targets, and Hatch scripts
├── src/firebird/embedded/        # provider and package metadata
└── firebird-binaries/
    ├── assets/
    │   ├── linux32/             # cached Firebird release archives
    │   ├── linux64/
    │   ├── linux32-arm/
    │   ├── linux64-arm/
    │   ├── win32/
    │   ├── win64/
    │   ├── manifest/             # this branch's <target>.txt mappings
    │   └── override/             # optional branch-local replacements
    └── <version>/<target>/       # prepared runtime directories

The cached archives and prepared runtimes are local build assets and are ignored by Git. Only this branch's flat manifests and overrides are tracked. Each manifest selects only the files needed for its embedded runtime, including files later replaced by an override. A preparation record at <version>/.prepared.json lets the wheel hook reject incomplete or mismatched runtimes.

The fb-3.0 and fb-4.0 branches build Linux x86/amd64 and Windows x86/x64 wheels. Their published ARM kits target Android, not Linux. fb-5.0 builds all six targets. main is a build-disabled scaffold for Firebird 6, with no release manifests or target settings.

Prepare local runtimes

Run these commands from the repository root. Use Python 3.11 or newer:

python3.11 make_embedded.py

The script reads firebird-version and target settings from pyproject.toml. An optional version argument must match that configuration. It checks firebird-binaries/assets/<target>/ for matching archives, downloads missing ones from the corresponding Firebird GitHub release, and prepares the versioned runtime trees from the branch-local manifests and optional overrides. It installs all configured targets together, with rollback on failure.

For a new Firebird release, update the first three components of src/firebird/embedded/__about__.py and the tool.firebird-embedded.firebird-version setting in pyproject.toml before building wheels. Also update tool.hatch.build.directory with new Firebird version so produced wheels are stored in separate directory. Update archive suffixes and branch-local manifests if an upstream kit changes. make_embedded.py does not edit package metadata.

Build wheels

From the repository root, run one Hatch script per target:

hatch run linux32
hatch run linux64
hatch run win32
hatch run win64

The scripts are defined in the default Hatch environment. Each runs a wheel build with its own FIREBIRD_EMBEDDED_TARGET; the wheels are written to dist/<Firebird-version>/. A target's versioned prepared directory and preparation record must exist before its wheel is built. Run only the scripts configured on the branch.