unixODBC
| Stable release | 2.2.14
/ November 19, 2008 |
|---|---|
| Repository | |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Type | Data Access API |
| License | GNU GPL license |
| Website | www.unixODBC.org |
unixODBC is an open source project that implements the ODBC API. The code is provided under the GNU GPL license and can be built and used on many different operating systems, including most versions of Unix, Linux, Mac OS X, IBM OS/2 and Microsoft's Interix.
The goals of the project include:
- Provide developers with the tools to port Microsoft Windows ODBC applications to other platforms with the minimum of code changes.
- Maintain the project as a vendor neutral interface database SDK
- Provide ODBC drivers writers the tools to port their drivers to non Windows platforms
- Provide the user with a set of GUI and command line tools for managing their database access
- Maintain links with both the free software community and commercial database vendors, to ensure interoperability
History
The unixODBC project was first started in 1999 and was created as at that time the developers of iODBC (another open source ODBC implementation) were not then willing to expand the API to include the current ODBC 3 API specification, and did not consider the addition of GUI based configuration tools worthwhile. iODBC now has these parts added, and applications that use the ODBC interface may use both iODBC and unixODBC, without change in most cases, as the result of both projects adhering to the single ODBC specification.
Since July 1999 the project has been managed by Easysoft Director Nick Gorham
The development of unixODBC has progressed since its origin, with contributions from many developers, both in the open source community and also from commercial database companies, including IBM, Oracle Corporation and SAP.
unixODBC is now included as part of the standard installation of many Linux distributions.