A driver manager is required to manage communication between applications and the ODBC driver. We tested and support unixODBC that is a complete ODBC driver manager for Linux. Users can install it from the command line:

Debian SO Flavors

sudo apt get install unixodbc

Fedora SO Flavors

sudo yum install unixodbc
# or
sudo dnf install unixodbc

Step 1: Download ODBC Driver

DuckDB releases the ODBC driver as asset. For linux, download it from ODBC Linux Asset that contains the following artifacts:

libduckdb_odbc.so: the DuckDB driver compiled to Ubuntu 16.04.

unixodbc_setup.sh: a setup script to aid the configuration on Linux.

Step 2: Extracting ODBC Artifacts

Run unzip to extract the files to a permanent directory:

mkdir duckdb_odbc
unzip duckdb_odbc-linux-amd64.zip -d duckdb_odbc

Step 3: Configuring with unixODBC

The unixodbc_setup.sh script aids the configuration of the DuckDB ODBC Driver. It is based on the unixODBC package that provides some commands to handle the ODBC setup and test like odbcinst and isql.

In a terminal window, change to the duckdb_odbc permanent directory, and run the following commands with level options -u or -s either to configure DuckDB ODBC.

User-Level ODBC Setup (-u)

The -u option based on the user home directory to setup the ODBC init files.

unixodbc_setup.sh -u

P.S.: The default configuration consists of a database :memory:.

System-Level ODBC setup (-s)

The -s changes the system level files that will be visible for all users, because of that it requires root privileges.

sudo unixodbc_setup.sh -s

P.S.: The default configuration consists of a database :memory:.

Show Usage (–help)

The option --help shows the usage of unixodbc_setup.sh that provides alternative options for a customer configuration, like -db and -D.

unixodbc_setup.sh --help

Usage: ./unixodbc_setup.sh <level> [options]

Example: ./unixodbc_setup.sh -u -db ~/database_path -D ~/driver_path/libduckdb_odbc.so

Level:
-s: System-level, using 'sudo' to configure DuckDB ODBC at the system-level, changing the files: /etc/odbc[inst].ini
-u: User-level, configuring the DuckDB ODBC at the user-level, changing the files: ~/.odbc[inst].ini.

Options:
-db database_path>: the DuckDB database file path, the default is ':memory:' if not provided.
-D driver_path: the driver file path (i.e., the path for libduckdb_odbc.so), the default is using the base script directory

Step 4 (Optional): Configure the ODBC Driver

The ODBC setup on Linux is based on files, the well-known .odbc.ini and .odbcinst.ini. These files can be placed at the system /etc directory or at the user home directory /home/<user> (shortcut as ~/). The DM prioritizes the user configuration files and then the system files.

The .odbc.ini File

The .odbc.ini contains the DSNs for the drivers, which can have specific knobs.

An example of .odbc.ini with DuckDB would be:

[DuckDB]
Driver = DuckDB Driver
Database=:memory:

[DuckDB]: between the brackets is a DSN for the DuckDB.

Driver: it describes the driver's name, and other configurations will be placed at the .odbcinst.ini.

Database: it describes the database name used by DuckDB, and it can also be a file path to a .db in the system.

The .odbcinst.ini File

The .odbcinst.ini contains general configurations for the ODBC installed drivers in the system. A driver section starts with the driver name between brackets, and then it follows specific configuration knobs belonging to that driver.

An example of .odbcinst.ini with the DuckDB driver would be:

[ODBC]
Trace = yes
TraceFile = /tmp/odbctrace

[DuckDB Driver]
Driver = /home/<user>/duckdb_odbc/libduckdb_odbc.so

[ODBC]: it is the DM configuration section.

Trace: it enables the ODBC trace file using the option yes.

TraceFile: the absolute system file path for the ODBC trace file.

[DuckDB Driver]: the section of the DuckDB installed driver.

Driver: the absolute system file path of the DuckDB driver.