[thelist] access db on UNIX?

[Scott Schrantz]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nicole Parrot [mailto:nicole at parrot.ca]
>
> > From: "Scarlett Julian (ED)" <Julian.Scarlett at sheffield.gov.uk>
> > Sorry -  to clarify. If I have an asp page on a UNIX server
> > I can make an ODBC connection to an mdb file residing on
> > that same server and return a recordset. Correct? Providing
> > of course that there is some form of asp installed on the server ;-)
>
> Nope. Access is totally indepedent of ASP. It doesn't matter
> if you have ASP
> installed on the Unix server. Access will not run on it.

<caveat>I've never used *nix or Chili!Soft, so what follows might just be
lunatic rambling.</caveat>

.mdb files can be used independently of Access, so (in my mind) it should
work with the right ODBC drivers. On Windows, an ASP script uses OLE-DB or
ODBC to query an .mdb file directly, without the Access program being
involved. My IIS boxes don't even have Access installed on them, and I've
used .mdb files in dozens of sites.

-But-
The Chili!Soft documentation seems to agree with you. I guess they'd know
better than me. They do give alternatives, such as exporting your Access
database to DBase format or creating a link between Chili!Soft and a Windows
file server on the same network.
http://www.chilisoft.com/kb/articles/010716-12.asp
http://www.chilisoft.com/kb/articles/010716-08.asp
http://www.chilisoft.com/howto/sequelink.asp

I guess I'm confused as to how separate an .mdb *file* and the Access
*program* are. I know there're Linux programs that can read .doc; there's
nothing that can read .mdb?