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+# mdbtools 
+_version 0.7.1_
+
+Welcome to the exciting world of MDB Tools! In short, MDB Tools is a set of 
+programs to help you use Microsoft Access file in various settings.  The major
+pieces are:
+
+```
+. libmdb    - the core library that allows access to MDB files programatically.
+. libmdbsql - builds on libmdb to provide a SQL engine (aka Jet)
+. utils     - provides command line utilities:
+              mdb-ver    -- prints the version (JET 3 or 4) of an mdb file.
+              mdb-schema -- prints DDL for the specified table.
+              mdb-export -- export table to CSV format.
+              mdb-tables -- a simple dump of table names to be used with shell
+                            scripts
+              mdb-header -- generates a C header to be used in exporting mdb
+                            data to a C prog.
+              mdb-parsecsv -- generates a C program given a CSV file made with
+                            mdb-export
+              mdb-sql    -- if --enable-sql is specified, a simple SQL engine
+                            (also used by ODBC and gmdb).
+            - And some utilities useful for debugging:
+              prcat      -- prints the catalog table from an mdb file.
+              prkkd      -- dump of information about design view data given the offset to it.
+              prtable    -- dump of a table definition.
+              prdata     -- dump of the data given a table name.
+              prole      -- dump of ole columns given a table name and sargs.
+. mdb-sql   - a command line SQL tool that allows one to type sql queries and
+              get results.
+. odbc      - An ODBC driver for use with unixODBC or iODBC driver manager.
+              Allows one to use MDB files with PHP for example.
+. gmdb2     - The Gnome MDB File Viewer and debugger.  Still alpha, but making
+              great progress.
+. extras    - extra command line utilities
+              mdb-dump   -- simple hex dump utility that I've been using to look
+                            at mdb files.
+```
+
+If you are interested in helping, read the HACKING file for a description of 
+where the code stands and what has been gleened of the file format.
+
+The initial goal of these tools is to be able to extract data structures and 
+data from mdb files.  This goal will of course expand over time as the file 
+format becomes more well understood.
+
+Files in libmdb, libmdbsql, and libmdbodbc are licensed under LGPL and the
+utilities and gui program are under the GPL, see COPYING.LIB and COPYING files
+respectively.
+
+
+Requirements:
+=============
+
+First, you must have reasonably current installations of:
+	libtool
+	automake
+	autoconf (version >= 2.58)
+If you don't you should install them first. Sources are available at
+ftp.gnu.org.
+
+Second, you need glib. It may come as glib2.0 and glib2.0-dev packages in your
+distribution.
+
+If you want to build the SQL engine, you'll need bison or byacc, and flex.
+
+If you want to build the ODBC driver, you'll need unixodbc (version 2.2.10 or
+above) or iodbc.
+
+If you want to build man pages, you'll need txt2man. Source is available at
+http://mvertes.free.fr/download/.
+
+If you want to generate the html version of the docbook, you'll need openjade
+and basic dsl catalogs.
+
+
+Installation from source:
+=========================
+
+Last version is available at https://github.com/brianb/mdbtools
+
+```bash
+$ autoreconf -i -f
+```
+
+If you want to build the html version of the docbook documentation, you need to
+set the environment variable DOCBOOK_DSL to the modular dsl translation file.
+For exemple, before configure, you need something like:
+
+```bash
+$ export DOCBOOK_DSL=/usr/share/sgml/docbook/stylesheet/dsssl/modular/html/docbook.dsl
+
+$ ./configure
+```
+
+OR for a complete install (requires bison, flex, and unixODBC):
+
+```bash
+$ ./configure --with-unixodbc=/usr/local
+```
+
+configure can be passed any of the following flags to turn on other 
+capabilities.  Note that the options `--with-unixodbc` and `--with-iodbc` are
+mutually exclusive.
+
+```
+--with-unixodbc  specifies the location of the unixODBC driver manager and 
+                 causes the unixODBC driver to be built.
+--with-iodbc     specifies the location of the iODBC driver manager and 
+                 causes the iODBC driver to be built.
+```
+
+A list of general options is available in the INSTALL file, and
+`configure --help` will give you the list of mdbtools specific options.
+
+```bash
+$ make
+```
+
+Once MDB Tools has been compiled, libmdb.[so|a] will be in the src/libmdb 
+directory and the utility programs will be in the src/util directory.
+
+You can then run `make install` as root to install (to /usr/local by default).
+Some systems will also need the ld cache to be updated after installation;
+You can do that running `ldconfig` as root.
+
+
+Contacts
+========
+
+The mailing list from the old site is available at
+http://mdbtools.sourceforge.net
+
+Please send bug repports to the new github platform.
+https://github.com/brianb/mdbtools/issues
+
+
+Brian Bruns
+brian@bruns.com
+
+P.S. I, like many other free software authors, enjoy receiving postcards from the
+places users of my software live.  So, if you enjoy the software and it has 
+helped you out, consider sending me one, eh?  Just email me for my postal address.