The Connector/ODBC architecture is based on five components, as shown in the following diagram:

An ODBC Driver Manager is a library that manages communication between the ODBC-aware application and any drivers. Its main functionality includes:

Both Windows and Mac OS X include ODBC driver managers with the operating system. Most ODBC Driver Manager implementations also include an administration application that makes the configuration of DSN and drivers easier. Examples and information on these managers, including Unix ODBC driver managers are listed below:

The installer packages offer a very simple method for installing the Connector/ODBC drivers. If you have downloaded the zipped installer then you must extract the installer application. The basic installation process is identical for both installers.

You should follow these steps to complete the installation:

Now the installation is complete, you can continue to configure your ODBC connections using Section 26.1.3, “Connector/ODBC Configuration”.

If you have downloaded the Zipped DLL package then you must install the individual files required for Connector/ODBC operation manually. Once you have unzipped the installation files, you can either perform this operation by hand, executing each statement individually, or you can use the included Batch file to perform an installation to the default locations.

To install using the Batch file:

If you want to copy the files to an alternative location - for example, to run or test different versions of the Connector/ODBC driver on the same machine, then you must copy the files by hand. It is however not recommended to install these files in a non-standard location. To copy the files by hand to the default installation location use the following steps:

On Windows, you may get the following error when trying to install the older MyODBC 2.50 driver:

An error occurred while copying C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MFC30.DLL. 
Restart Windows and try installing again (before running any
applications which use ODBC)

The reason for the error is that another application is currently using the ODBC system. Windows may not allow you to complete the installation. In most cases, you can continue by pressing Ignore to copy the rest of the Connector/ODBC files and the final installation should still work. If it doesn't, the solution is to re-boot your computer in “safe mode.” Choose safe mode by pressing F8 just before your machine starts Windows during re-booting, install the Connector/ODBC drivers, and re-boot to normal mode.

To install the driver from a tarball distribution (.tar.gz file), download the latest version of the driver for your operating system and follow these steps that demonstrate the process using the Linux version of the tarball:

shell> su root
shell> gunzip mysql-connector-odbc-3.51.11-i686-pc-linux.tar.gz
shell> tar xvf mysql-connector-odbc-3.51.11-i686-pc-linux.tar
shell> cd mysql-connector-odbc-3.51.11-i686-pc-linux

Read the installation instructions in the INSTALL-BINARY file and execute these commands.

shell> cp libmyodbc* /usr/local/lib
shell> cp odbc.ini /usr/local/etc
shell> export ODBCINI=/usr/local/etc/odbc.ini

Then proceed on to Section 26.1.3.4, “Configuring a Connector/ODBC DSN on Unix”, to configure the DSN for Connector/ODBC. For more information, refer to the INSTALL-BINARY file that comes with your distribution.

To install or upgrade Connector/ODBC from an RPM distribution on Linux, simply download the RPM distribution of the latest version of Connector/ODBC and follow the instructions below. Use su root to become root, then install the RPM file.

If you are installing for the first time:

shell> su root
 shell> rpm -ivh mysql-connector-odbc-3.51.12.i386.rpm

If the driver exists, upgrade it like this:

shell> su root
shell> rpm -Uvh mysql-connector-odbc-3.51.12.i386.rpm

If there is any dependency error for MySQL client library, libmysqlclient, simply ignore it by supplying the --nodeps option, and then make sure the MySQL client shared library is in the path or set through LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

This installs the driver libraries and related documents to /usr/local/lib and /usr/share/doc/MyODBC, respectively. Proceed onto Section 26.1.3.4, “Configuring a Connector/ODBC DSN on Unix”.

To uninstall the driver, become root and execute an rpm command:

shell> su root
shell> rpm -e mysql-connector-odbc

Connector/ODBC source distributions include Makefiles that require the nmake or other make utility. In the distribution, you can find Makefile for building the release version and Makefile_debug for building debugging versions of the driver libraries and DLLs.

To build the driver, use this procedure:

After the driver libraries are copied/installed to the system directory, you can test whether the libraries are properly built by using the samples provided in the samples subdirectory:

C:\> cd samples
C:\> nmake -f Makefile all

The MyODBC 2.50 source distribution includes VC workspace files. You can build the driver using these files (.dsp and .dsw) directly by loading them from Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 or higher.

The configure script gives you a great deal of control over how you configure your Connector/ODBC build. Typically you do this using options on the configure command line. You can also affect configure using certain environment variables. For a list of options and environment variables supported by configure, run this command:

shell> ./configure --help

Some of the more commonly used configure options are described here:

The final configuration command looks something like this:

shell> ./configure --prefix=/usr/local \
         --with-iodbc=/usr/local \
         --with-mysql-path=/usr/local/mysql

There are a number of other options that you need, or want, to set when configuring the Connector/ODBC driver before it is built.

To build the driver libraries, you have to just execute make.

shell> make

If any errors occur, correct them and continue the build process. If you aren't able to build, then send a detailed email to <myodbc@lists.mysql.com> for further assistance.

On most platforms, MySQL does not build or support .so (shared) client libraries by default. This is based on our experience of problems when building shared libraries.

In cases like this, you have to download the MySQL distribution and configure it with these options:

--without-server --enable-shared

To build shared driver libraries, you must specify the --enable-shared option for configure. By default, configure does not enable this option.

If you have configured with the --disable-shared option, you can build the .so file from the static libraries using the following commands:

shell> cd mysql-connector-odbc-3.51.01
shell> make
shell> cd driver
shell> CC=/usr/bin/gcc \
          $CC -bundle -flat_namespace -undefined error \
          -o .libs/libmyodbc3-3.51.01.so \
          catalog.o connect.o cursor.o dll.o error.o execute.o \
          handle.o info.o misc.o myodbc3.o options.o prepare.o \
          results.o transact.o utility.o \
          -L/usr/local/mysql/lib/mysql/ \
          -L/usr/local/iodbc/lib/ \
          -lz -lc -lmysqlclient -liodbcinst

Make sure to change -liodbcinst to -lodbcinst if you are using unixODBC instead of iODBC, and configure the library paths accordingly.

This builds and places the libmyodbc3-3.51.01.so file in the .libs directory. Copy this file to the Connector/ODBC library installation directory (/usr/local/lib (or the lib directory under the installation directory that you supplied with the --prefix).

shell> cd .libs
shell> cp libmyodbc3-3.51.01.so /usr/local/lib
shell> cd /usr/local/lib
shell> ln -s libmyodbc3-3.51.01.so libmyodbc3.so

To build the thread-safe driver library:

shell> CC=/usr/bin/gcc \
          $CC -bundle -flat_namespace -undefined error
          -o .libs/libmyodbc3_r-3.51.01.so
          catalog.o connect.o cursor.o dll.o error.o execute.o
          handle.o info.o misc.o myodbc3.o options.o prepare.o
          results.o transact.o utility.o
          -L/usr/local/mysql/lib/mysql/
          -L/usr/local/iodbc/lib/
          -lz -lc -lmysqlclient_r -liodbcinst

To install the driver libraries, execute the following command:

shell> make install

That command installs one of the following sets of libraries:

For Connector/ODBC 3.51:

For thread-safe Connector/ODBC 3.51:

For MyODBC 2.5.0:

For more information on build process, refer to the INSTALL file that comes with the source distribution. Note that if you are trying to use the make from Sun, you may end up with errors. On the other hand, GNU gmake should work fine on all platforms.

To run the basic samples provided in the distribution with the libraries that you built, use the following command:

shell> make test

Before running the tests, create the DSN 'myodbc3' in odbc.ini and set the environment variable ODBCINI to the correct odbc.ini file; and MySQL server is running. You can find a sample odbc.ini with the driver distribution.

You can even modify the samples/run-samples script to pass the desired DSN, UID, and PASSWORD values as the command-line arguments to each sample.

To build the driver on Mac OS X (Darwin), make use of the following configure example:

shell> ./configure --prefix=/usr/local
          --with-unixODBC=/usr/local
          --with-mysql-path=/usr/local/mysql
          --disable-shared
          --enable-gui=no
          --host=powerpc-apple

The command assumes that the unixODBC and MySQL are installed in the default locations. If not, configure accordingly.

On Mac OS X, --enable-shared builds .dylib files by default. You can build .so files like this:

shell> make
shell> cd driver
shell> CC=/usr/bin/gcc \
          $CC -bundle -flat_namespace -undefined error
          -o .libs/libmyodbc3-3.51.01.so *.o
          -L/usr/local/mysql/lib/
          -L/usr/local/iodbc/lib
          -liodbcinst -lmysqlclient -lz -lc

To build the thread-safe driver library:

shell> CC=/usr/bin/gcc \
          $CC -bundle -flat_namespace -undefined error
          -o .libs/libmyodbc3-3.51.01.so *.o
          -L/usr/local/mysql/lib/
          -L/usr/local/iodbc/lib
          -liodbcinst -lmysqlclienti_r -lz -lc -lpthread

Make sure to change the -liodbcinst to -lodbcinst in case of using unixODBC instead of iODBC and configure the libraries path accordingly.

In Apple's version of GCC, both cc and gcc are actually symbolic links to gcc3.

Copy this library to the $prefix/lib directory and symlink to libmyodbc3.so.

You can cross-check the output shared-library properties using this command:

shell> otool -LD .libs/libmyodbc3-3.51.01.so

To build the driver on HP-UX 10.x or 11.x, make use of the following configure example:

If using cc:

shell> CC="cc" \
          CFLAGS="+z" \
          LDFLAGS="-Wl,+b:-Wl,+s" \
          ./configure --prefix=/usr/local
          --with-unixodbc=/usr/local
          --with-mysql-path=/usr/local/mysql/lib/mysql
          --enable-shared
          --enable-thread-safe

If using gcc:

shell> CC="gcc" \
          LDFLAGS="-Wl,+b:-Wl,+s" \
          ./configure --prefix=/usr/local
          --with-unixodbc=/usr/local
          --with-mysql-path=/usr/local/mysql
          --enable-shared
          --enable-thread-safe

Once the driver is built, cross-check its attributes using chatr .libs/libmyodbc3.sl to determine whether you need to have set the MySQL client library path using the SHLIB_PATH environment variable. For static versions, ignore all shared-library options and run configure with the --disable-shared option.

To build the driver on AIX, make use of the following configure example:

shell> ./configure --prefix=/usr/local
          --with-unixodbc=/usr/local
          --with-mysql-path=/usr/local/mysql
          --disable-shared
          --enable-thread-safe

To add and configure a new Connector/ODBC data source on Windows, use the ODBC Data Source Administrator:

A completed DSN configuration may look like this:

You can verify the connection using the parameters you have entered by clicking the Test button. If the connection could be made successfully, you will be notified with a Success; connection was made! dialog.

If the connection failed, you can obtain more information on the test and why it may have failed by clicking the Diagnostics... button to show additional error messages.

You can configure a number of options for a specific DSN by using either the Connect Options or Advanced tabs in the DSN configuration dialog.

The Connection Options dialog can be seen below.

The three options you can configure are:

The Advanced tab enables you to configure Connector/ODBC connection parameters. Refer to Section 26.1.3.5, “Connector/ODBC Connection Parameters”, for information about the meaning of these options.

This section answers Connector/ODBC connection-related questions.