ODB API offers some command line tools. Most of them are available via single executable called odb. First parameter of the program is the name of the tool/command for example 'compare', 'sql', 'split', after that follow flags and parameters of the specific tool/command.

When executed without any parameters the tool prints out list of available commands:

$ odb
Usage:
        odb <command> [<command's-parameters>]
        odb help <command>

Available commands:
        compare Compares two ODB files
        count   Counts number of rows
        ecml    Executes ECML script(s) with ODB module imported
        header  Shows header(s) and metadata(s) of file
        import  Imports data from a text file
        index   Creates index of reports for a given file
        ls      Shows file's contents
        mdset   Creates a new file resetting types or values (constants only) of columns.
        merge   Merges rows from files
        oda2request     Creates MARS ARCHIVE request for a given file
        set     Creates a new file setting columns to given values
        split   Splits file according to given template
        sql     Executes SQL statement

More details is available via command 'help' followed by the name of a command, for example to see details of the 'sql' command:

$ odb help sql                       
Executes SQL statement

Usage:

        sql <select-statement> | <script-filename>
             [-T]                  Disables printing of column names
             [-offset <offset>]    Start processing file at a given offset
             [-length <length>]    Process only given bytes of data
             [-N]                  Do not write NULLs, but proper missing data values
             [-i <inputfile>]      ODB input file
             [-o <outputfile>]     ODB output file
             [-f default|wide|odb] ODB output format (default is ascii; odb is binary ODB, wide is ascii with bitfields definitions in header)
             [-delimiter <delim>]  Changes the default values' delimiter (TAB by default)
                                   delim can be any character or string
             [--binary]            Print bitfields in binary notation
             [--no_alignment]      Do not align columns