aux4/mdb

Microsoft Access (.mdb) database tools for the aux4 CLI.

The aux4/mdb package lets you read legacy Microsoft Access database files directly from the command line — no Microsoft Access installation required. You can list the tables in a database, inspect a table's schema, and extract rows with column selection and pagination. Every command outputs JSON, so results pipe cleanly into jq and other aux4 commands for reporting, migration, and ETL tasks.

Installation

aux4 aux4 pkger install aux4/mdb

Quick Start

# List the tables in a database
aux4 mdb tables --file inventory.mdb

# Inspect a table's schema
aux4 mdb describe --file inventory.mdb --table Products

# Read the first 10 rows of a table
aux4 mdb data --file inventory.mdb --table Products --limit 10

Usage

Commands

• aux4 mdb tables - List the tables in an Access database as a JSON array.
• aux4 mdb describe - Describe a table's schema as a JSON object.
• aux4 mdb data - Read rows from a table as a JSON array.
• aux4 mdb stream - Stream rows from a table as newline-delimited JSON (NDJSON).

The --file option accepts the path to the .mdb file and can also be passed as the first positional argument (e.g. aux4 mdb tables inventory.mdb). Password-protected databases are supported through the --password option on every command.

aux4 mdb tables

List the tables contained in a database. By default only normal (user) tables are returned.

aux4 mdb tables \
  --file <file.mdb> \
  [--password <password>] \
  [--normalTables <true|false>] \
  [--systemTables <true|false>] \
  [--linkedTables <true|false>] \
  [--showCount <true|false>]

Options:

• --file <file.mdb> Path to the Access database file
• --password <password> Database password (default: none)
• --normalTables Include normal tables (default: true)
• --systemTables Include system tables (default: false)
• --linkedTables Include linked tables (default: false)
• --showCount Include the row count for each table (default: false)

Examples:

# List user tables
aux4 mdb tables --file inventory.mdb

# List user tables with their row counts
aux4 mdb tables --file inventory.mdb --showCount true

# List only system tables
aux4 mdb tables --file inventory.mdb --normalTables false --systemTables true

aux4 mdb describe

Describe a table's schema, including its columns and row count.

aux4 mdb describe \
  --file <file.mdb> \
  --table <table> \
  [--password <password>]

Options:

• --file <file.mdb> Path to the Access database file
• --table <table> Table name to describe
• --password <password> Database password (default: none)

Example:

aux4 mdb describe --file inventory.mdb --table Products

aux4 mdb data

Read rows from a table, with optional column selection and pagination.

aux4 mdb data \
  --file <file.mdb> \
  --table <table> \
  [--password <password>] \
  [--columns <c1,c2,...>] \
  [--offset <n>] \
  [--limit <n>]

Options:

• --file <file.mdb> Path to the Access database file
• --table <table> Table name to read
• --password <password> Database password (default: none)
• --columns <c1,c2,...> Comma-separated list of columns to return (default: all)
• --offset <n> Number of rows to skip (default: 0)
• --limit <n> Maximum number of rows to return (default: all)

Examples:

# Read every row
aux4 mdb data --file inventory.mdb --table Products

# Read specific columns
aux4 mdb data --file inventory.mdb --table Products --columns Id,Name

# Page through the table 100 rows at a time
aux4 mdb data --file inventory.mdb --table Products --offset 100 --limit 100

aux4 mdb stream

Read rows from a table and emit them as newline-delimited JSON (NDJSON) — one object per line — instead of a single array. Useful for piping row-by-row into other commands or processing large extracts. Accepts the same options as aux4 mdb data.

aux4 mdb stream \
  --file <file.mdb> \
  --table <table> \
  [--password <password>] \
  [--columns <c1,c2,...>] \
  [--offset <n>] \
  [--limit <n>]

Examples:

# Stream every row as NDJSON
aux4 mdb stream --file inventory.mdb --table Products

# Stream selected columns
aux4 mdb stream --file inventory.mdb --table Products --columns Id,Name

Note: mdb-reader reads the requested rows into memory before emitting them, so stream changes the output format (NDJSON vs a JSON array) rather than making the read lazy. Use --offset/--limit to bound large tables.

Output

All commands emit JSON to stdout, which makes it easy to post-process results:

# Pretty-print a schema
aux4 mdb describe --file inventory.mdb --table Products | jq .

# Extract a single column with jq
aux4 mdb data --file inventory.mdb --table Products | jq '.[].Name'

License

Apache-2.0. See the LICENSE file for details.