[Freegis-list] reading Arc/Info geo_dataset

[Steffens, Ludger]

Hi,

does anybody ever read an Arc/Info database (cover, grid ie.) with tools other than coming from ESRI, preferable with in C/C++ ? Is there a port to Linux?
I want to read some information from a grid with C/C++ like the Arc/Info describe-comand does. 
Is there a library doing such things?

Ludger Steffens