5.4 Connector/ODBC Installation

5.4.1 Installing Connector/ODBC on Windows

5.4.2 Installing Connector/ODBC on Unix-like Systems

5.4.3 Installing Connector/ODBC on macOS

5.4.4 Building Connector/ODBC from a Source Distribution on Windows

5.4.5 Building Connector/ODBC from a Source Distribution on Unix

5.4.6 Building Connector/ODBC from a Source Distribution on macOS

5.4.7 Installing Connector/ODBC from the Development Source Tree

This section explains where to download Connector/ODBC, and how to run the installer, copy the files manually, or build from source.

Where to Get Connector/ODBC

You can get a copy of the latest version of Connector/ODBC binaries and sources from our website at https://dev.mysql.com/downloads//connector/odbc/.

Choosing Binary or Source Installation Method

You can install the Connector/ODBC drivers using two different methods:

• The binary installation is the easiest and most straightforward method of installation. You receive all the necessary libraries and other files pre-built, with an installer program or batch script to perform all necessary copying and configuration.

• The source installation method is intended for platforms where a binary installation package is not available, or in situations where you want to customize or modify the installation process or Connector/ODBC drivers before installation.

  If a binary distribution is not available for a particular platform, and you build the driver from the original source code.

Connector/ODBC binary distributions include an INFO_BIN file that describes the environment and configuration options used to build the distribution. If you installed Connector/ODBC from a binary distribution and experience build-related issues on a platform, it may help to check the settings that were used to build the distribution on that platform. Binary and source distributions include an INFO_SRC file that provides information about the product version and the source repository from which the distribution was produced. This information was added in Connector/ODBC 8.0.14.

Supported Platforms

Connector/ODBC can be used on all major platforms supported by MySQL according to https://www.mysql.com/en/support/supportedplatforms/database.html. This includes Windows, most Unix-like operation systems, and macOS.

Note

On all non-Windows platforms except macOS, the driver is built against unixODBC and is expecting a 2-byte SQLWCHAR, not 4 bytes as iODBC is using. For this reason, the binaries are only compatible with unixODBC; recompile the driver against iODBC to use them together. For further information, see Section 5.3.2, “ODBC Driver Managers”.

For further instructions, consult the documentation corresponding to the platform where you are installing and whether you are running a binary installer or building from source:

Platform	Binary Installer	Build from Source
Windows	Installation Instructions	Build Instructions
Unix/Linux	Installation Instructions	Build Instructions
macOS	Installation Instructions

Choosing Unicode or ANSI Driver

Connector/ODBC offers the flexibility to handle data using any character set through its Unicode-enabled driver, or the maximum raw speed for a more limited range of character sets through its ANSI driver. Both kinds of drivers are provided in the same download package, and are both installed onto your systems by the installation program or script that comes with the download package. Users who install Connector/ODBC and register it to the ODBC manager manually can choose to install and register either one or both of the drivers; the different drivers are identified by a w (for “wide characters”) for the Unicode driver and a for the ANSI driver at the end of the library names. For example, myodbc9w.dll versus myodbc9a.dll, or libmyodbc9w.so versus libmyodbc9a.so.

Note

Related: The previously described file names contain an "9", such as myodbc9a.dll, which means they are for Connector/ODBC 9.x. File names with a "5", such as myodbc5a.dll, are for Connector/ODBC 5.x.

Prerequisites

The ODBC driver is linked against the MySQL Server client library, so it inherits its dependencies for its shared libraries. For example, the MySQL Server client library depends on C++ runtime libraries.