ODBC datasources are accessed using a datasource name of the form ODBC:userid/password@dsn,table_list. With optional items dropped the following are also acceptable:
By default the ODBC searches for GEOMETRY_COLUMNS table. If found it is used to identify the set of spatial tables that should be treated as layers by OGR. If not found, then all tables in the datasource are returned as non-spatial layers. However, if a table list (a list of comma seperated table names) is provided, then only those tables will be represented as layers (non-spatial). Fetching the full definition of all tables in a complicated database can be quite timeconsuming, so the ability to restrict the set of tables accessed is primarily a performance issue.
If the GEOMETRY_COLUMNS table is found, it is used to select a column to be the geometry source. However, it is currently a hardcoded assumption that the geometry is in Well Known Binary (WKB) format if the field is binary, or Well Known Text (WKT) otherwise. The GEOMETRY_COLUMNS table should have at least the columns F_TABLE_NAME, F_GEOMETRY_COLUMN and GEOMETRY_TYPE.