Troubleshooting – Generating an ODBC trace log

Users reporting issues with pyodbc will often be asked to provide an ODBC trace log for diagnostic purposes. Fortunately, generating the log file is easy.

Note: Please add log files to an issue as file attachments rather than pasting the contents of the log file into the message body.

Windows

Launch the 64-bit or 32-bit ODBC Administrator depending on whether you are using 64-bit or 32-bit Python:

If you are running 64-bit Python, launch

C:\Windows\System32\odbcad32.exe

If you are running 32-bit Python, launch

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe

On the "Tracing" tab, click the "Start Tracing Now" button. Details of subsequent ODBC activity will be appended to the file specified in "Log File Path", which defaults to %TEMP%\SQL.LOG.

unixODBC (the more common driver manager for Linux)

To enable ODBC tracing with unixODBC, add an [ODBC] section to odbcinst.ini and include the following two lines:

[ODBC]
Trace = yes
TraceFile = /tmp/odbctrace.log

NOTE: A bug in unixODBC 2.3.6 and earlier can interfere with logging under some ODBC drivers. If you are having difficulty generating a trace log then check your installed version of unixODBC with the odbcinst -j command and upgrade if necessary.

iODBC (often used with macOS)

To enable ODBC tracing with iODBC, add an [ODBC] section to odbc.ini (not odbcinst.ini) and include the following two lines:

[ODBC]
Trace = 1
TraceFile = /tmp/odbctrace.log

General Notes

• Always review your trace logs before submitting them. They may contain your connection string, which might include the server address/port, user credentials, or other details you might not want to make public.

• Remember to turn off ODBC tracing after generating your log file. Logging ODBC activity slows down ODBC operations and the log file will quickly become very large.