NAME
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.
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
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.
FILES
/etc/odbcinst.ini, /etc/odbc.ini, $HOME/.odbc.ini
AUTHOR
This manual page was written by Oliver Elphick <olly@lfix.co.uk> and
Steve Langasek <vorlon@debian.org> for the Debian package of unixODBC.
SEE ALSO
ODBCConfig(1), gODBCConfig(1)