MDB Version Checker

This shell script scans a directory for Microsoft Access database files (.mdb and .accdb), determines their JET version using mdb-ver from mdbtools, and outputs a table with the file name, JET version, and migration status.

Features

• Searches for .mdb and .accdb files in a directory
• Optional recursive mode to scan subdirectories (see Options)
• Uses mdb-ver to detect the JET engine version
• Outputs a formatted table with:
  • File name
  • JET version
  • Migration status (OK, MDBTOOLS, or Unsupported)
• In recursive mode results are grouped by directory

Requirements

• Bash (Linux/macOS/WSL)
• mdbtools package (for mdb-ver)

Installation

Use your system package manager to install mdbtools. Common commands:

Platform / Package manager	Install command
Debian / Ubuntu	sudo apt-get install mdbtools
RHEL / CentOS (EPEL)	sudo yum install epel-release && sudo yum install mdbtools
Fedora	sudo dnf install mdbtools
Arch Linux	sudo pacman -S mdbtools
openSUSE	sudo zypper install mdbtools
Alpine	sudo apk add mdbtools

If your distribution doesn't package mdbtools, consider building from source (mdbtools GitHub) or using a prebuilt binary.

Make the script executable:

chmod +x mdbcheck.sh

Usage

./mdbcheck.sh [options] [DIR]

If DIR is not specified, the current directory is used. Examples:

• Non-recursive (default): ./mdbcheck.sh /path/to/dir
• Recursive: ./mdbcheck.sh -r /path/to/dir or ./mdbcheck.sh --recursive /path/to/dir

Options

• -r, --recursive — scan subdirectories recursively and group output by directory
• -c, --csv [file.csv] — write results to a CSV file (default: mdbcheck.csv) and also print the normal table output to the screen. If a filename is provided it must end with .csv; if the token after -c does not end with .csv it is treated as the DIR argument.
• -C, --csvonly [file.csv] — write results to a CSV file only (no table output); the script will show a progress dot for each file processed. The optional filename rules are the same as -c.
• -h, --help — show usage information

Default behavior is non-recursive (only top-level files in DIR).

CSV output details

• CSV header: Path,File,JETVersion,Status.
  • Path is the full absolute path to the file (no shortening).
  • File is the basename of the file.
  • JETVersion is the JET engine label (no space in the header).
  • Status is one of OK, MDBTOOLS, or Unsupported.
• -c writes the CSV file and still prints the normal table on-screen. -C writes only the CSV file and prints progress dots to indicate progress.

How output is grouped

• In non-recursive mode the script prints the scanned directory as a single header line above the file list.
• In recursive mode the script prints a directory header when files from that directory are first encountered. This avoids repeating the directory name for every file.
• Directory headers are displayed using the full absolute path, but are abbreviated if too long to fit the File column. The abbreviation keeps the first two and last two path components and replaces the middle components with .... If that abbreviation is still too long, a balanced truncation with ... in the middle is used.

Output Example

File                                     JET Version Status      
---------------------------------------- ---------- ------------
/absolute/path/to/scanned/dir
sample_access97_db.mdb                   JET4       OK          
sample_access95_db.mdb                   JET3       MDBTOOLS    
/absolute/path/to/scanned/dir/subdir1
sample2.mdb                              Error      Unsupported 

Status Column

• OK: JET4 or greater (ready for migration)
• MDBTOOLS: JET3 (use mdbtools table extraction to convert for migration)
• Unsupported: Error or unknown version

Notes

• The script uses mdb-ver from mdbtools. If it is not installed, the script will exit with an error.

License

MIT