mdbtools/README.md

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Yet another attempt to resuscitate MDB Tools – the Access-accessing C library
and command-line suite.

This is a fork of a [fork](https://github.com/cyberemissary/mdbtools) of a
[fork](https://github.com/brjohnsn/mdbtools) of a
[fork](https://github.com/leecher1337/mdbtools) of the [original MDB
Tools](https://github.com/brianb/mdbtools) by Brian Buns. I got sick of seeing
the project waste away, so I'm taking the initiative to get MDB Tools
whipped back into shape and properly maintained.

A brief history: the last *official* release (version 0.7.1) occurred in 2016.
[cyberemissary](https://github.com/cyberemissary) (whose work this fork is
based on) made a release in December 2018 and called it 0.8.2. *I am not
planning a formal release* but rather collecting and merging patches to submit
upstream. In the meantime you are welcome to use this code base:

https://github.com/evanmiller/mdbtools

Intended focus areas of this fork:

- [x] Security / stability / fuzz testing
- [x] Thread safety\*
- [x] In-memory database API
- [x] Making GLib optional
- [x] Improved ODBC compliance
- [x] Continuous integration with Travis and AppVeyor

\* Multiple `MdbHandle`s can now be created on different threads – and
`MdbHandle`s can be passed between threads – but threads should not attempt to
use the same `MdbHandle` at the same time. Use `mdb_clone_handle` to create a
new handle using an existing file descriptor.

A re-formatted and updated README file follows.

*In a chipper open-source voice...*

Welcome to the exciting world of MDB Tools! In short, MDB Tools is a set of 
programs to help you use Microsoft Access file in various settings.

The initial goal of these tools is to be able to extract data structures and 
data from mdb files. This goal will of course expand over time as the file 
format becomes more well understood.

# Components

The major pieces of MDB Tools are:

## libmdb

The core library that allows access to MDB files programatically.

## libmdbsql

Builds on libmdb to provide a SQL engine (aka Jet)

## utils

Provides command line utilities, including:

| Command | Description |
| ------- | ----------- |
| `mdb-ver` | Prints the version (JET 3 or 4) of an mdb file. |
| `mdb-schema` | Prints DDL for the specified table. |
| `mdb-export` | Export table to CSV format. |
| `mdb-tables` | A simple dump of table names to be used with shell scripts. |
| `mdb-count` | A simple count of number of rows in a table, to be used in shell scripts and ETL pipelines. |
| `mdb-header` | Generates a C header to be used in exporting mdb data to a C prog. |
| `mdb-parsecsv` | Generates a C program given a CSV file made with mdb-export. |
| `mdb-sql` | A simple SQL engine (also used by ODBC and gmdb). |
| `prcat` | Prints the catalog table from an mdb file. |
| `prkkd` | Dump of information about design view data given the offset to it. |
| `prtable` | Dump of a table definition. |
| `prdata` | Dump of the data given a table name. |
| `prole` | Dump of ole columns given a table name and sargs. |
| `mdb-hexdump` | (in src/extras) Simple hex dump utility that I've been using to look at mdb files. |

## odbc

An ODBC driver for use with unixODBC or iODBC driver manager. Allows one to use MDB files with PHP for example.

## gmdb2

The Gnome MDB File Viewer and debugger. Still alpha.

# License

Files in libmdb, libmdbsql, and libmdbodbc are licensed under LGPL and the
utilities and gui program are under the GPL, see [COPYING.LIB](./COPYING.LIB)
and [COPYING](./COPYING) files respectively.


# Requirements

First, you must have reasonably current installations of:

* [libtool](https://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/)
* [automake](https://www.gnu.org/software/automake/)
* [autoconf](https://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/) (version >= 2.58)

If you want to build the SQL engine, you'll need
[bison](https://www.gnu.org/software/bison/) (version >= 3.0) or
[byacc](https://invisible-island.net/byacc/byacc.html), and
[flex](https://github.com/westes/flex).

If you want to build the ODBC driver, you'll need `unixodbc-dev` (version
2.2.10 or above) or [iodbc](http://www.iodbc.org/dataspace/doc/iodbc/wiki/iodbcWiki/WelcomeVisitors).

If you want to build man pages, you'll need
[txt2man](https://github.com/mvertes/txt2man).

If you want to generate the html version of the docbook, you'll need
[openjade](http://openjade.sourceforge.net) and basic dsl catalogs.


# Installation

Last version is available at https://github.com/evanmiller/mdbtools

```bash
$ autoreconf -i -f -Wno-portability
```

If you want to build the html version of the docbook documentation, you need to
set the environment variable `DOCBOOK_DSL` to the modular dsl translation file.
For exemple, before configure, you need something like:

```bash
$ export DOCBOOK_DSL=/usr/share/sgml/docbook/stylesheet/dsssl/modular/html/docbook.dsl

$ ./configure
```

OR for a complete install (requires bison, flex, and unixODBC):

```bash
$ ./configure --with-unixodbc=/usr/local
```

By default, MDB Tools is linked against the copy of
[GLib](https://developer.gnome.org/glib/) returned by pkg-config. You can
point to a different GLib installation using the `GLIB_CFLAGS` and `GLIB_LIBS`
enivornment variables. Or, you can disable GLib entirely with the
`--disable-glib` flag, in which case MDB Tools will use an internal
implementation of GLib's functions.

configure can be passed any of the following flags to turn on other 
capabilities.  Note that the options `--with-unixodbc` and `--with-iodbc` are
mutually exclusive.

```
--with-unixodbc  specifies the location of the unixODBC driver manager and 
                 causes the unixODBC driver to be built.
--with-iodbc     specifies the location of the iODBC driver manager and 
                 causes the iODBC driver to be built.
```

A list of general options is available in the [INSTALL](./INSTALL) file, and
`configure --help` will give you the list of mdbtools specific options.

```bash
$ make
```

Once MDB Tools has been compiled, libmdb.[so|a] will be in the src/libmdb 
directory and the utility programs will be in the src/util directory.

You can then install (to /usr/local by default) by running the following as root:

```bash
$ make install
```

Some systems will also need the ld cache to be updated after installation;
You can do that running:

```bash 
$ ldconfig
```

# Hacking  

If you are interested in helping, read the [HACKING](./HACKING) file for a description of 
where the code stands and what has been gleened of the file format.

# Contact

Please send bug reports to the new github repository.
https://github.com/evanmiller/mdbtools/issues