From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Nov 10 16:12:56 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0C5221065697 for ; Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:12:56 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wmoran@potentialtech.com) Received: from mail.potentialtech.com (internet.potentialtech.com [66.167.251.6]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D1EBD8FC19 for ; Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:12:55 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localhost (pr40.pitbpa0.pub.collaborativefusion.com [206.210.89.202]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mail.potentialtech.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 5C6F1EBC0A; Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:12:54 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:12:53 -0500 From: Bill Moran To: Dan Nelson Message-Id: <20091110111253.343d9962.wmoran@potentialtech.com> In-Reply-To: <20091110151800.GG89052@dan.emsphone.com> References: <20091110150158.GA6500@current.Sisis.de> <20091110151800.GG89052@dan.emsphone.com> Organization: Bill Moran X-Mailer: Sylpheed 2.7.1 (GTK+ 2.16.6; i386-portbld-freebsd7.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Matthias Apitz , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD && remote MS ACCESS database X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:12:56 -0000 In response to Dan Nelson : > In the last episode (Nov 10), Matthias Apitz said: > > Is there any chance to read and update a remote MS ACCSESS database from > > FreeBSD 8-CURRENT, via ODBC? Thanks in advance > > With samba, wine, and a local install of Office, sure. ODBC is a > programming API, not a networking protocol, so you need direct access to the > .mdb file. MS Access is the only thing that can read .mdb files, so that's why > you need wine and a local Office install. Not quite accurate. The .mdb format is supported by a number of Microsoft products. In particular, MS offers an ODBC driver that read/writes the .mdb files and makes it look like any other ODBC device. I don't know if there's an equivalent for FreeBSD (or anything other than Windows). > If you really need remote access to the data, move the tables into a > client-server database (mysql, postgres, etc) so you can get to them > directly from Unix, and use linked tables in your .mdb file so Access itself > will still work. Connecting to a .mdb-based database remotely is fraught with peril. I've seen dozens of .mdb databases corrupted over my years because some weird file locking glitch or network glitch caused the files to become mangled. Add to that the fact that an .mdb database has absolutely no security (to the degree that any user could simply delete the entire thing) and I have to agree with Dan's assertion that you'll be much better off, long run, to move this onto a read DB server. -- Bill Moran http://www.potentialtech.com http://people.collaborativefusion.com/~wmoran/