freetds not recognizing version from any config files - sql-server

Question

Not sure why...
I have the same conf file in /etc/freetds/freetds.conf, in /usr/share/freetds/freetds.conf and ~/.freetds.conf
# $Id: freetds.conf,v 1.12 2007/12/25 06:02:36 jklowden Exp $
#
# This file is installed by FreeTDS if no file by the same
# name is found in the installation directory.
#
# For information about the layout of this file and its settings,
# see the freetds.conf manpage "man freetds.conf".
# Global settings are overridden by those in a database
# server specific section
[global]
# TDS protocol version
tds version = 7.4
# Whether to write a TDSDUMP file for diagnostic purposes
# (setting this to /tmp is insecure on a multi-user system)
; dump file = /tmp/freetds.log
; debug flags = 0xffff
# Command and connection timeouts
; timeout = 10
; connect timeout = 10
# If you get out-of-memory errors, it may mean that your client
# is trying to allocate a huge buffer for a TEXT field.
# Try setting 'text size' to a more reasonable limit
text size = 64512
# A typical Sybase server
[egServer50]
host = symachine.domain.com
port = 5000
tds version = 5.0
# A typical Microsoft server
[egServer70]
host = ntmachine.domain.com
port = 1433
tds version = 7.0
[cdcods]
host = *my_host*
port = 1433
tds version = 7.4
Where my_host is my actual mssql host. I'm connecting to a MSSQL 2012 so 7.4 is correct I think.
The command I'm using is $tsql -S cdcods -U 'my_domain\my_user' -P 'my_pass'
Here's the log:
log.c:196:Starting log file for FreeTDS 0.91
on 2017-02-03 13:20:19 with debug flags 0x4fff.
iconv.c:330:tds_iconv_open(0x15749f0, UTF-8)
iconv.c:187:local name for ISO-8859-1 is ISO-8859-1
iconv.c:187:local name for UTF-8 is UTF-8
iconv.c:187:local name for UCS-2LE is UCS-2LE
iconv.c:187:local name for UCS-2BE is UCS-2BE
iconv.c:349:setting up conversions for client charset "UTF-8"
iconv.c:351:preparing iconv for "UTF-8" <-> "UCS-2LE" conversion
iconv.c:391:preparing iconv for "ISO-8859-1" <-> "ISO-8859-1" conversion
iconv.c:394:tds_iconv_open: done
net.c:207:Connecting to *my_host* port 1433 (TDS version 4.2)
net.c:272:tds_open_socket: connect(2) returned "Operation now in progress"
net.c:312:tds_open_socket() succeeded
util.c:156:Changed query state from DEAD to IDLE
login.c:572:NT login not support using TDS 4.x or 5.0
util.c:156:Changed query state from IDLE to DEAD
util.c:331:tdserror(0x15749c0, 0x15749f0, 20002, 0)
util.c:361:tdserror: client library returned TDS_INT_CANCEL(2)
util.c:384:tdserror: returning TDS_INT_CANCEL(2)
mem.c:615:tds_free_all_results()

Answer 1

You're running FreeTDS v0.91 which does not support TDS version 7.4. IIRC the highest it supports is 7.2. Trying using version 7.2.
If you want to use TDS version 7.3, you'll need at least FreeTDS 0.95, and if you want 7.4, you'll need FreeTDS 1.0.
I have a PR to clarify this, but it hasn't been pushed out to the documentation.
Good luck!