unixODBC

unixODBC is an open-source ODBC driver manager for Unix-like operating systems. It provides a standard API that allows applications to access data sources through ODBC drivers, decoupling application code from database-specific client libraries and enabling portable database access.

At the core, unixODBC supplies a Driver Manager library and a set of configuration utilities. The Driver Manager loads and coordinates ODBC drivers, translates API calls from applications into driver-specific operations, and returns results. It does not itself implement database connectivity; drivers supplied by database vendors or third parties perform the actual communication with data sources.

Configuration is handled via two main text files. The odbc.ini file defines data source names (DSNs), which describe how to connect to a data source, including the DSN name, driver, server, database, user, and options. The odbcinst.ini file defines available drivers and their installation paths. DSNs can be configured system-wide or per-user. The package includes utilities such as odbcinst for managing driver definitions and isql for interactive SQL testing and basic query execution.

Platform support and usage: unixODBC is widely used on Linux and other Unix-like systems, including BSD variants and macOS, where applicable. It works with a broad range of ODBC drivers, such as FreeTDS for SQL Server and Sybase, MySQL Connector/ODBC, and PostgreSQL ODBC, enabling applications to connect to diverse databases through a common interface. unixODBC coexists with other ODBC implementations, notably iODBC, and many environments can use either one or both for compatibility.

See also: ODBC, ODBC driver, DSN, FreeTDS, MySQL Connector/ODBC, PostgreSQL ODBC.