Establishes a connection to an InterBase server. The database argument has to be a valid path to database file on the server it resides on. If the server is not local, it must be prefixed with either 'hostname:' (TCP/IP), '//hostname/' (NetBEUI) or 'hostname@' (IPX/SPX), depending on the connection protocol used. username and password can also be specified with PHP configuration directives ibase.default_user and ibase.default_password. charset is the default character set for a database. buffers is the number of database buffers to allocate for the server-side cache. If 0 or omitted, server chooses its own default. dialect selects the default SQL dialect for any statement executed within a connection, and it defaults to the highest one supported by client libraries.
In case a second call is made to ibase_connect() with the same arguments, no new link will be established, but instead, the link identifier of the already opened link will be returned. The link to the server will be closed as soon as the execution of the script ends, unless it's closed earlier by explicitly calling ibase_close().
Note: buffers was added in PHP 4.0RC2.
Note: dialect was added in PHP 4.0RC2. It is functional only with InterBase 6 and versions higher than that.
Note: role was added in PHP 4.0RC2. It is functional only with InterBase 5 and versions higher than that.
See also ibase_pconnect().