If you'd like to explore the 'employee' sample database, follow the steps below: zcat /usr/share/doc/firebird3.0-examples/examples/employee.sql.gz \ | isql-fb -b -user sysdba -q isql-fb -user sysdba employee.fdb The created database is identical to what is distributed by upstream, except it has no data in the LANGUAGE_REQ column of the JOB table and the QUART_HEAD_CNT column of the PROJ_DEPT_BUDGET table. Upstream uses a specially built binary to fill these columns and they can't be given data via SQL because they use Firebird array data types. Including the employee.fdb in the package as built by upstream is not appropriate because its build process is non-deterministic. See Debian bug #867200.