odbcinst
command line tool for batch ODBC configuration
Synopsis
odbcinst
action object options
action
is one of
-i
install a driver or data source
-u
uninstall a driver or data source
-q
query a list of drivers or data sources present on the
system
--version
shows the version number of the
program
object
is one of
-d
an ODBC driver in /etc/odbcinst.ini
-s
an ODBC Data Source Name (DSN) in an odbc.ini
file.
options
are zero or more of
-f template
file
Used with -i, this
option specifies a template file containing the driver or
DSN to be installed.
-r
Read the template from standard input.
-n Driver/Data Source
Name
Used with -u to specify
a driver or DSN to remove.
-v
Contrary to standard practice, this turns off
verbose output; there is no output, even for errors.
-l
The specified Data Source object is a System DSN, in
/etc/odbc.ini.
-h
The specified Data Source object is a User DSN, in the
current user’s $HOME/.odbc.ini. This is the
default with -s.
add an example, a script, a trick and tips
examples
source
which odbcinst > /dev/null ||
{
echo >&2 "no
usable odbcinst program"
exit 1
}
odbcinst -u -d -n "$1"
|| true
odbcinst -u -l -s -n "$2"
|| true
description
odbcinst
updates the configuration files that control ODBC access to
database servers on the current host. It also maintains in
/etc/odbcinst.ini a count of the number of references
to a particular driver, which can be used to determine
whether it should be removed from the file (only when the
reference count drops to 0).
Installing
Drivers and DSNs are installed using the -i
option.
If the object
to be installed is a driver (-d), the
specified driver is added to /etc/odbcinst.ini or its
reference count is incremented if it is already there.
If the object
is a data source (-s), the data source is
added either to /etc/odbc.ini (if -l is used)
or to $HOME/.odbc.ini (the default, which can also be
specified with -h).
Uninstalling
Uninstalling a driver is done with the command odbcinst
-u -d -n driver name. Uninstalling a DSN is done
with the command odbcinst -u -s -n data source
name. Uninstalling causes the reference count on the
object to be decremented. If nothing else has requested this
driver or DSN (i.e., the reference count drops to zero), it
is removed from the config file.
The options
-l and -h are used with -s to specify
which odbc.ini file to configure.
Queries
The command odbcinst -q -d returns a list of all
drivers present in /etc/odbcinst.ini. The command
odbcinst -q -s returns a list of all system and user
DSNs available.
exit status
0
Success
non-zero
Failure
files
/etc/odbcinst.ini, /etc/odbc.ini,
$HOME/.odbc.ini
template files
A typical driver template looks like this:
[MySQL]
Description = MySQL driver
Driver = /usr/lib/odbc/libmyodbc.so
Setup = /usr/lib/odbc/libodbcmyS.so
A DSN template looks like this:
[Sample DSN]
Description = Test MySQL connection
Driver = MySQL
Trace = Yes
TraceFile = /tmp/odbc.log
Database = junk
Server = localhost
Port = 3306
Socket =
The Description and Driver fields should be present
in all DSN configurations. Other options are driver-specific;
consult your ODBC driver’s documentation for a list of allowed
options, or see ODBCConfig(1) for a graphical tool that
can be used to interactively set up a DSN or driver the first
time.
see also
ODBCConfig,
gODBCConfig
author
This manual
page was written by Oliver Elphick <olly[:at:]lfix.co[:dot:]uk>
and Steve Langasek <vorlon[:at:]debian[:dot:]org> for the Debian
package of unixODBC.