unixODBCs

unixODBCs is an open-source ODBC driver manager for Unix-like operating systems. It provides a standard interface for applications to access database management systems via ODBC drivers. The project includes a driver manager library, command-line utilities, and configuration tools. It is widely used on Linux, BSD, and other Unix variants, and often serves as the default ODBC layer on many distributions.

Core components and how it works: The central component is the ODBC driver manager, which loads database-specific drivers and mediates SQL requests between applications and databases. Configuration is driven by DSNs defined in odbc.ini and driver definitions in odbcinst.ini. DSNs can be defined for system-wide use or per-user use, with typical locations such as /etc/odbc.ini and /etc/odbcinst.ini for system settings, and ~/.odbc.ini and ~/.odbcinst.ini for user settings. The distribution provides tools such as isql, an interactive SQL tool, and odbcinst, used to install and manage drivers and DSNs. The library libodbc.so is linked by applications to enable the ODBC API.

Usage and ecosystem: Applications connect through the ODBC API to a variety of databases via drivers compatible with unixODBC. DSNs enable consistent access across different database systems, supporting vendors and open-source drivers for PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, and others. unixODBC thus facilitates portability and interoperability in cross-database software environments and competes with other ODBC implementations such as iODBC.

Development and licensing: unixODBC is free and open-source software maintained by a community of developers. It is designed to be portable across Unix-like platforms and is commonly packaged by many Linux distributions, BSDs, and related systems.