mdbtools/README.md

[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/mdbtools/mdbtools.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/mdbtools/mdbtools)
[![Build status](https://ci.appveyor.com/api/projects/status/22wwy5d0rrmk6e3c/branch/master?svg=true)](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/mdbtools/mdbtools/branch/master)

Welcome to the exciting world of MDB Tools! MDB Tools is a set of programs to
help you extract data from Microsoft Access files in various settings.

# 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 or SQL formats. |
| `mdb-json` | Export table to JSON 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). |
| `mdb-queries` | List and print queries stored in the database. |
| `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. Alpha quality, moved to [mdbtools/gmdb2](https://github.com/mdbtools/gmdb2).

# 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
[GNU awk](https://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/).

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


# Installation

Latest version is available at https://github.com/mdbtools/mdbtools

## Debian

```
apt install mdbtools
```

## Homebrew

```bash
brew install mdbtools
```

## From source

```bash
$ autoreconf -i -f
```

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 example, 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/mdbtools/mdbtools/issues