Please note that this documentation is out of date. It will be updated soon!
Have you ever wanted to just run a quick sql command from the command line? Ever been distracted by having to load a memory intensive gui application? Ever think 'wow - it'd be great to just run this sql statement from my text editor'?? If so then read on...
Sqelsh is a command line interface for JDBC enabled databases. It is easy to set up and use and just runs instantaneously... You can connect to several different databases within a session and switch between them easily by specifying the url of the database.
You can even pipe input from another command and redirect output to a file if you wish!
Latest
Sqelsh 1.2(RC1) is available.
06/06/2008
Changes
- Removed JLine dependency (too slow)
- Queries are now run in a separate thread so that long running queries may be cancelled by pressing RETURN key.
- Removing the need for SQELSH_HOME environment variable so the application can be loaded and run on a flash drive.
TODO
- Update documentation
- Add command to close a connection - Previously, the program cached all connections until termination.
- Add alias mechanism to properties file.
- Add an optional auto update notifier.
25/04/2008 sqelsh-core-1.0.1.jar released. Fixes problem with redirected input.
24/04/2008 sqelsh-meta-plugin-1.0.1.jar released to fix a bug. Download
Installation
Download and extract a package from sqelsh-package.
Create an environment variable called SQELSH_HOME with the location
of the extracted directory as its value.
Add the following to your CLASSPATH:
25/04/2008 corrected classpath: $SQELSH_HOME/sqelsh-1.0.jar;$SQELSH_HOME/lib/plugin-core-1.0.jar;$SQELSH_HOME/lib/cli-annotations-1.0.jar;
$SQELSH_HOME/lib/commons-cli-1.1.jar;$SQELSH_HOME/lib/jline-0.9.94.jar;$SQELSH_HOME/lib/log4j-1.2.14.jar;
Linux users need a colon instead of a semi-colon though - and the notation for an environment variable is different...
Also, put the location of the jar containing your database JDBC driver into your system environment
variable CLASSPATH.
Put the class name of your driver into an environment variable or system property
called jdbc.drivers.
Edit the sqelsh.properties (see Properties)
file to reflect your default connection settings and put it in your home directory.
If you need help, please post a message on the forum.
Updates
When an update is released, it can replace the original jar. If it is a core
jar, you will have to update your CLASSPATH variable accordingly
because the version number is likely to change.
Plugins
Plugins reside in the plugins directory under SQELSH_HOME.
They are loaded at runtime and don't need to be referenced in the classpath. If a new
plugin is released, simply download it and place it here. It will be loaded the next
time you start the program.
Running it!
The program is designed to be run in a command shell, so your shell window's width will have to be quite large in order to display the output in a legible format.
To run it, type java ie.potz.Sqelsh -i at the command prompt.
You will be prompted with sql:
So now you can enter sql statements or internal sqelsh commands. SQL should
be terminated with a semi-colon. Type quit to exit the program.
Properties
Sqelsh examines the working directory for a file called sqelsh.properties.
If it can't find one, it tries the user's home directory. The following properties
may be set in the properties file as key-value pairs. A sample properties file
is provided in the installation packages.
sqelsh.url
JDBC URL for the database to connect to.
sqelsh.user
Username to use for the connection.
sqelsh.pass
Password for user
sqelsh.fetch
Maximum fetch size - won't return more rows than this for a single query.
Command Line Arguments
Settings in the sqelsh.properties file may be overridden at the
command line. The following flags may be set on the command line.
-u url
JDBC URL for the database to connect to. This overrides property sqelsh.url
-U username
Username to connect with. This overrides property sqelsh.user
-p password
Password for connection. This overrides property sqelsh.pass
-s size
ResultSet fetch size. This overrides property sqelsh.fetch
-i
Interactive mode.
-v
Verbose logging.
-h
Display help.
-d
Display connection url.
-l
Long output for metadata commands.
-P table
Primary key for table.
-x table
Display indexes for table.
-t table
Show column information for table.
-r table
References for table.
-f table
Foreign keys for table.
-D pattern
List database tables matching pattern
Internal Sqelsh Commands
The following commands may be entered at any time at the 'sql:' prompt - even if you are in the process of entering sql. The statement will be lost however... All arguments are optional. The user will be prompted accordingly...
/u url Connect to database defined by url.
/d display current url
/U username Username to use when connecting to the database.
This overrides property sqelsh.user. Will prompt for username
if not provided.
/p password for connection. Overrides property sqelsh.pass
/s size Fetch size. This overrides property sqelsh.fetch.
Specifying a zero size or not specifying a size at all means return all rows.
/D pattern Show tables in current database. Enter /D % for all.
/t table Show table column information for table. Will
prompt for table if not provided.
/x table Show indexes for table. Will
prompt for table if not provided.
/f table Show table column information for table. Will
prompt for table if not provided.
/P table Show primary key information for table. Will
prompt for table if not provided.
/r table Show references for table. Will
prompt for table if not provided.
/h Show help
/q Quit the program
FAQ
Can I use transactions?
Yes. You can start a transaction at any time. Connections are cached within the application, so you can even connect to a different database with the /u command and when you /u back to the original url, you will still be in the transaction.
How do I save output to a file?
I do it like this for short sql commands: echo select * from table;| java ie.potz.Sqelsh > myfile
and like this for long sql commands: cat file.sql | java ie.potz.Sqelsh > filename.unl
How do I run it from vi?
Good question... Something to do with :r and creating a custom command... please let me know!
I need help!
email me at the address below.
So thats it! More technical information and javadocs to follow soon. If you like or dislike Sqelsh or would like to see something added, please leave a message in the forum or email me potzie at users.sourceforge.net.