frequently-asked-questions-faq-for-odbc-linux.yml

### YamlMime:FAQ
metadata:
  title: "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for ODBC Linux and macOS"
  description: "Find answers to common questions about the Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server on Linux and macOS."
  ms.custom: ""
  ms.date: "05/06/2020"
  ms.service: sql
  ms.prod_service: connectivity
  ms.reviewer: ""
  ms.subservice: connectivity
  ms.topic: conceptual
  ms.assetid: 65bfd6d2-c83d-4528-a5e1-a85b125a4f4a
  author: David-Engel
  ms.author: davidengel
    
title: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for ODBC Linux and macOS
summary: |
  [!INCLUDE[Driver_ODBC_Download](../../../includes/driver_odbc_download.md)]
  
  The following are answers to questions about the ODBC Driver for [!INCLUDE[ssNoVersion](../../../includes/ssnoversion-md.md)] on Linux and macOS.
    

sections:
  - name: Ignored
    questions:
      - question: Frequently Asked Questions
        answer: |
          **How do existing ODBC applications on Linux or macOS work with the driver?**  
          You should be able to compile and run the ODBC applications that you have been compiling and running on Linux or macOS using other drivers. 
            
          **Which features of [!INCLUDE[ssSQL11](../../../includes/sssql11-md.md)] does this version of the driver support?**
          
          The ODBC driver on Linux and macOS supports all server features in [!INCLUDE[ssSQL11](../../../includes/sssql11-md.md)] except LocalDB. For more information about [!INCLUDE[ssNoVersion](../../../includes/ssnoversion-md.md)] supported features, see [Programming Guidelines](../../../connect/odbc/linux-mac/programming-guidelines.md).  
            
          **Does the driver support Kerberos authentication?**  
          Yes. If you have an existing Kerberos environment setup, you should be able to connect to servers using the `Trusted_Connection=Yes` DSN or connection string option. For more information, see [Using Integrated Authentication](../../../connect/odbc/linux-mac/using-integrated-authentication.md).  
            
          **Which Unicode encoding should an application use?**  
          UTF-8 for SQL_CHAR data and UTF-16 for SQL_WCHAR data. Depending on the system locale and driver version, non-UTF-8 data in one of several encodings may also be supported. For more information, see [Programming Guidelines](../../../connect/odbc/linux-mac/programming-guidelines.md).
          
          **Are there ODBC samples that I can download and run with the driver to experiment with or evaluate it?**
          
          See [Use Existing MSDN C++ ODBC Samples for the ODBC Driver on Linux](/archive/blogs/sqlblog/use-existing-msdn-c-odbc-samples-for-microsoft-linux-odbc-driver) for a sample. This is also applicable to the macOS ODBC driver.
          
          **Is the ODBC driver on Linux or macOS open source?**
          
          No, the ODBC drivers on Linux and macOS are not an open source product.  
          
      - question: See Also
        answer: |
          - [Installing the Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server on Linux](../../../connect/odbc/linux-mac/installing-the-microsoft-odbc-driver-for-sql-server.md)
          - [Installing the Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server on macOS](../../../connect/odbc/linux-mac/install-microsoft-odbc-driver-sql-server-macos.md)