Operating system directive open failed

This error usually means that Firebird server cannot open the database file. Here are possible reasons:

1. The file or directory does not exist. Check that you are connecting to the correct server (hostname or IP address) and that the file really does exist. Perhaps you mistyped the filename?

If you are creating a new database, the directory has to exists and be writable by the account under which the Firebird server is running.

2. Either you or the Firebird server doesn't have sufficient privileges on the database file or directory containing it. So, check the privileges (file owner and permission) on the database file and fix them.

Advice for Linux users:

It's wise to keep your databases in a directory with following permissions (770 in chmod terminology):

drwxrwx--- 2 firebird firebird 1136 2007-05-31 18:21 databases/

If it's a development machine and you wish to be able to manipulate files directly, add yourself to the 'firebird' group. Please note that you usually need to completely log off before the group membership changes are applied to your account on Linux.

As for the database files, use the following privilege (660 in chmod terminology):

-rw-rw---- 1 firebird firebird 6123520 2007-05-14 14:49 database.fdb

This ensures that only the firebird user (typically the one that runs the Firebird server) and members of firebird group (admins on the machine) will be able to access databases directly.