GNU SQLNAME
sql - execute a command on a database determined by a dburl

SYNOPSIS
sql [options] dburl [commands]
sql [options] dburl < commandfile#!/usr/bin/sql --shebang [options] dburl

DESCRIPTION
GNU sql aims to give a simple, unified interface for accessing databases through all the different
databases' command line clients. So far the focus has been on giving a common way to specify login
information (protocol, username, password, hostname, and port number), size (database and tablesize), and running queries.
The database is addressed using a DBURL. If commands are left out you will get that database's
interactive shell.
GNU sql is often used in combination with GNU parallel.
dburl
A DBURL has the following syntax: [sql:]vendor://[[user][:password]@][host][:port]/[database][?sqlquery]
See the section DBURL below.
commands
The SQL commands to run. Each argument will have a newline appended.
Example: "SELECT * FROM foo;" "SELECT * FROM bar;"
If the arguments contain '\n' or '\x0a' this will be replaced with a newline:
Example: "SELECT * FROM foo;\n SELECT * FROM bar;"
If no commands are given SQL is read from the keyboard or STDIN.
Example: echo 'SELECT * FROM foo;' | sql mysql:///--csv
CSV output.
--db-size--dbsize
Size of database. Show the size of the database on disk. For Oracle this requires
access to read the table dba_data_files - the user system has that.
--help-hPrint a summary of the options to GNU sql and exit.
--htmlHTML output. Turn on HTML tabular output.
--json--pretty
Pretty JSON output.
--list-databases--listdbs
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GNU SQL--show-databases--showdbs
List the databases (table spaces) in the database.
--listproc--proclist--show-processlist
Show the list of running queries.
--list-tables--show-tables--table-list
List the tables in the database.
--noheaders--no-headers-nRemove headers and footers and print only tuples. Bug in Oracle: it still prints
number of rows found.
-p pass-throughThe string following -p will be given to the database connection program asarguments. Multiple -p's will be joined with space. Example: pass '-U' and the username to the program:-p "-U scott" can also be written -p -U -p scott.
--precision <rfc3339|h|m|s|ms|u|ns>
Precision of timestamps.
Specifiy the format of the output timestamps: rfc3339, h, m, s, ms, u or ns.
-rTry 3 times. Short version of --retries 3.
--retries ntimes
Try ntimes times. If the client program returns with an error, retry the command.
Default is --retries 1.
--sep string-s string
Field separator. Use string as separator between columns.
--skip-first-line
Do not use the first line of input (used by GNU sql itself when called with --shebang).
--table-size--tablesize
Size of tables. Show the size of the tables in the database.
--verbose-v
Print which command is sent.
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GNU SQL--version-V
Print the version GNU sql and exit.
--shebang-YGNU sql can be called as a shebang (#!) command as the first line of a script. Like
this:#!/usr/bin/sql -Y mysql:///SELECT * FROM foo;
For this to work --shebang or -Y must be set as the first option.

DBURL
A DBURL has the following syntax: [sql:]vendor://[[user][:password]@][host][:port]/[database][?sqlquery]
To quote special characters use %-encoding specified in http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986#section-2.1(E.g. a password containing '/' would contain '%2F').
Examples:mysql://scott:tiger@my.example.com/mydb
influxdb://scott:tiger@influxdb.example.com/foo
sql:oracle://scott:tiger@ora.example.com/xe
postgresql://scott:tiger@pg.example.com/pgdb
pg:///
postgresqlssl://scott@pg.example.com:3333/pgdb
sql:sqlite2:////tmp/db.sqlite?SELECT * FROM foo;sqlite3:///../db.sqlite3?SELECT%20*%20FROM%20foo;
Currently supported vendors: MySQL (mysql), MySQL with SSL (mysqls, mysqlssl), Oracle (oracle,ora), PostgreSQL (postgresql, pg, pgsql, postgres), PostgreSQL with SSL (postgresqlssl, pgs,pgsqlssl, postgresssl, pgssl, postgresqls, pgsqls, postgress), SQLite2 (sqlite, sqlite2), SQLite3(sqlite3), InfluxDB 1.x (influx, influxdb), InfluxDB with SSL (influxdbssl, influxdbs, influxs, influxssl)
Aliases must start with ':' and are read from /etc/sql/aliases and ~/.sql/aliases. The user's own~/.sql/aliases should only be readable by the user.
Example of aliases::myalias1 pg://scott:tiger@pg.example.com/pgdb:myalias2 ora://scott:tiger@ora.example.com/xe# Short form of mysql://`whoami`:nopassword@localhost:3306/`whoami`:myalias3 mysql:///# Short form of mysql://`whoami`:nopassword@localhost:33333/mydb:myalias4 mysql://:33333/mydb# Alias for an alias:m:myalias4# the sortest alias possible:
sqlite2:////tmp/db.sqlite# Including an SQL query:query sqlite:////tmp/db.sqlite?SELECT * FROM foo;

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GNU SQL

EXAMPLES
Get an interactive prompt
The most basic use of GNU sql is to get an interactive prompt:
sql sql:oracle://scott:tiger@ora.example.com/xe
If you have setup an alias you can do:
sql :myora

Run a query
To run a query directly from the command line:
sql :myalias "SELECT * FROM foo;"
Oracle requires newlines after each statement. This can be done like this:sql :myora "SELECT * FROM foo;" "SELECT * FROM bar;"Or this:sql :myora "SELECT * FROM foo;\nSELECT * FROM bar;"Copy a PostgreSQL database
To copy a PostgreSQL database use pg_dump to generate the dump and GNU sql to import it:
pg_dump pg_database | sql pg://scott:tiger@pg.example.com/pgdb

Empty all tables in a MySQL database
Using GNU parallel it is easy to empty all tables without dropping them:sql -n mysql:/// 'show tables' | parallel sql mysql:/// DELETE FROM {};Drop all tables in a PostgreSQL database
To drop all tables in a PostgreSQL database do:sql -n pg:/// '\dt' | parallel --colsep '\|' -r sql pg:/// DROP TABLE {2};Run as a script
Instead of doing:sql mysql:/// < sqlfile
you can combine the sqlfile with the DBURL to make a UNIX-script. Create a script called demosql:#!/usr/bin/sql -Y mysql:///SELECT * FROM foo;
Then do:chmod +x demosql; ./demosql

Use --colsep to process multiple columns
Use GNU parallel's --colsep to separate columns:
sql -s '\t' :myalias 'SELECT * FROM foo;' | parallel --colsep '\t' do_stuff {4} {1}

Retry if the connection fails
If the access to the database fails occasionally --retries can help make sure the query succeeds:
sql --retries 5 :myalias 'SELECT * FROM really_big_foo;'Page 4

GNU SQL

Get info about the running database system
Show how big the database is:sql --db-size :myalias
List the tables:
sql --list-tables :myaliasList the size of the tables:
sql --table-size :myalias
List the running processes:
sql --show-processlist :myalias

REPORTING BUGS
GNU sql is part of GNU parallel. Report bugs to <bug-parallel@gnu.org>.

AUTHOR
When using GNU sql for a publication please cite:
O. Tange (2011): GNU SQL - A Command Line Tool for Accessing Different Databases Using
DBURLs, ;login: The USENIX Magazine, April 2011:29-32.
Copyright (C) 2008-2010 Ole Tange http://ole.tange.dk
Copyright (C) 2010-2024 Ole Tange, http://ole.tange.dk and Free Software Foundation, Inc.

LICENSEThis program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU
General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of theLicense, or at your option any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; withouteven the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not,see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Documentation license I
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this documentation under the terms of theGNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software
Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A
copy of the license is included in the file LICENSES/GFDL-1.3-or-later.txt.

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Attribution
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in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
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With the understanding that:
WaiverAny of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyrightholder.
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NoticeFor any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of thiswork.
A copy of the full license is included in the file as cc-by-sa.txt.

DEPENDENCIES
GNU sql uses Perl. If mysql is installed, MySQL dburls will work. If psql is installed, PostgreSQLdburls will work. If sqlite is installed, SQLite2 dburls will work. If sqlite3 is installed, SQLite3 dburls
will work. If sqlplus is installed, Oracle dburls will work. If rlwrap is installed, GNU sql will have acommand history for Oracle.

FILES~/.sql/aliases - user's own aliases with DBURLs/etc/sql/aliases - common aliases with DBURLs

SEE ALSOmysql(1), psql(1), rlwrap(1), sqlite(1), sqlite3(1), sqlplus(1), influx(1)Page 6