# mdbtools/mdbtools

MDB Tools - Read Access databases on *nix

Repository: https://github.com/mdbtools/mdbtools
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/mdbtools
Language: C
License: GPL-2.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: access, ms-access, mdb, accdb, odbc, odbc-driver
Last push: 2026-01-17T17:20:50+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 51/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 62, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5922, "days_push": 228, "days_rel": 615, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1168, forks 230 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:50.809072+00:00)

## What it is
MDB Tools is a set of C libraries and command-line utilities for reading Microsoft Access (.mdb/.accdb) database files on Unix-like systems. It includes libmdb, a SQL engine, an ODBC driver, and tools to export tables to CSV, JSON, and SQL formats.

## Use cases
- read a Microsoft Access database on Linux
- export an mdb table to CSV
- convert Access database schema to SQL DDL
- query an Access file with SQL without Access installed
- connect to an mdb file via ODBC from PHP or other apps
- extract data from legacy Access databases for migration

## When to choose
- you need to read or extract data from .mdb/.accdb files on Unix-like systems
- you want to migrate Access data into another database
- you need an ODBC driver for Access files without installing Access

## When to avoid
- you need to create or modify Access databases (read-only toolset)
- you need a full GUI database manager on Windows where Access itself is available
- you need to read other database formats

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: database-driver, parser, cli, etl, serialization
- domain: databases, files, developer-tools
- platform: windows, cross-platform, cli
- tags: ms-access, mdb, accdb, odbc-driver, jet, data-export, c-library, data-engineering, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- mdbtools/mdbtools (main) score 51

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:50.809072+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T06:28:47.982127+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/mdbtools/mdbtools (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:50.809072+00:00, sha c4a7d649be50)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.