grass-odbc (1) Linux Manual Page

Communication between GRASS and ODBC database for attribute management:

| GRASS module | | ODBC Interface | | RDBMS
| GRASS | DBMI driver | unixODBC | ODBC driver | PostgreSQL
| Oracle
| …

Supported SQL commands

All SQL commands supported by ODBC.

Operators available in conditions

All SQL operators supported by ODBC.

Example

In this example we copy the dbf file of a SHAPE map into ODBC, then connect GRASS to the ODBC DBMS. Usually the table will be already present in the DBMS.

Configure ODBC driver for selected database (manually or with ‘ODBCConfig’). ODBC drivers are defined in /etc/odbcinst.ini. Here is example:

 [PostgreSQL]

 Description     = ODBC for PostgreSQL

 Driver          = /usr/lib/libodbcpsql.so

 Setup           = /usr/lib/libodbcpsqlS.so
FileUsage = 1

 Create DSN (data source name). The DSN is used as database name in db.* modules. Then DSN must be defined in $HOME/.odbc.ini (for this user only) or in /etc/odbc.ini for (for all users) [watch out for the database name which appears twice and also for the PostgreSQL protocol version]. Omit blanks at the beginning of lines:

 [grass6test]

 Description             = PostgreSQL

 Driver                  = PostgreSQL

 Trace                   = No

 TraceFile               =

 Database                = grass6test

 Servername              = localhost

 UserName                = neteler

 Password                =

 Port                    = 5432

 Protocol                = 8.0 

 ReadOnly                = No

 RowVersioning           = No

 ShowSystemTables        = No

 ShowOidColumn           = No

 FakeOidIndex            = No
ConnSettings = Configuration of an DSN without GUI is described on http://www.unixodbc.org/odbcinst.html, but odbc.ini and .odbc.ini may be created by the ‘ODBCConfig’ tool. You can easily view your DSN structure by ‘DataManager’. Configuration with GUI is described on http://www.unixodbc.org/doc/UserManual/

To find out about your PostgreSQL protocol, run:

psql -V

Now create a new database if not yet existing:
db.createdb driver=odbc database=grass6test

Now store the table ‘mytable.dbf’ (here: in current directory) into PostgreSQL through ODBC:
db.connect driver=odbc database=grass6test
db.copy from_driver=dbf from_database=./ from_table=mytable rs

  to_driver=odbc to_database=grass6test to_table=mytable

 Next link map to attribute table (now the ODBC table is used, not the dbf file):
v.db.connect map=mytable.shp table=mytable key=ID rs

       database=grass6test driver=odbc
v.db.connect -p

Finally a test: Here we should see the table columns (if the ODBC connection works):
db.tables -p
db.columns table=mytable

Now the table name ‘mytable’ should appear.

Doesn’t work? Check with ‘isql ‘ if the ODBC-PostgreSQL connection is really established.

Note that you can also connect mySQL, Oracle etc. through ODBC to GRASS. You can also check the vector map itself concerning a current link to a table:
v.db.connect -p mytable.shp
which should print the database connection through ODBC to the defined RDBMS.

See Also

db.connect, v.db.connect, unixODBC web site, SQL support in GRASS GIS

Last changed: $Date: 2007-07-18 16:10:27 +0200 (Wed, 18 Jul 2007) $
Help Index