SQLITE3(1) General Commands Manual SQLITE3(1)

sqlite3 - A command line interface for SQLite version 3

sqlite3 [options] [databasefile] [SQL]

sqlite3 is a terminal-based front-end to the SQLite library that can evaluate queries interactively and display the results in multiple formats. sqlite3 can also be used within shell scripts and other applications to provide batch processing features.

To start a sqlite3 interactive session, invoke the sqlite3 command and optionally provide the name of a database file. If the database file does not exist, it will be created. If the database file does exist, it will be opened.

For example, to create a new database file named "mydata.db", create a table named "memos" and insert a couple of records into that table:

$ sqlite3 mydata.db
SQLite version 3.43.2 2023-10-10 13:08:14
Enter ".help" for usage hints.
sqlite> CREATE TABLE memos(text, priority INTEGER);
sqlite> INSERT INTO memos VALUES('deliver project description', 10);
sqlite> INSERT INTO memos VALUES('lunch with Christine', 100);
sqlite> SELECT * FROM memos;
deliver project description|10
lunch with Christine|100
sqlite>

If no database name is supplied, the ATTACH sql command can be used to attach to existing or create new database files. ATTACH can also be used to attach to multiple databases within the same interactive session. This is useful for migrating data between databases, possibly changing the schema along the way.

Optionally, a SQL statement or set of SQL statements can be supplied as a single argument. Multiple statements should be separated by semi-colons.

For example:

$ sqlite3 -line mydata.db 'SELECT * FROM memos WHERE priority > 20;'
text = lunch with Christine
priority = 100

The interactive interpreter offers a set of meta-commands that can be used to control the output format, examine the currently attached database files, or perform administrative operations upon the attached databases (such as rebuilding indices). Meta-commands are always prefixed with a dot (.).

A list of available meta-commands can be viewed at any time by issuing the '.help' command. For example:

sqlite> .help



The available commands differ by version and build options, so
    they are not listed here. Please refer to your local copy for all available
    options.












sqlite3 has the following options:



  

  
Run .archive ARGS and exit

  

  
Append the database to the end of the file.

  

  
Set output mode to 'ascii'.

  

  
Stop after hitting an error.

  

  
Force batch I/O.

  

  
Set output mode to 'box'.

  

  
Query results will be displayed in a table like form, using whitespace
      characters to separate the columns and align the output.

  

  
run command before reading stdin

  

  
Set output mode to CSV (comma separated values).

  

  
Open the database using sqlite3_deserialize()

  

  
Print commands before execution.

  

  
Read and execute commands from file , which can contain a mix of
      SQL statements and meta-commands.

  
-[no]header

  
Turn headers on or off.

  

  
Show help on options and exit.

  

  
Open database with hexadecimal encryption key.

  

  
Query results will be output as simple HTML tables.

  

  
Force interactive I/O.

  

  
Open database with raw encryption key key

  

  
Set output mode to 'json'.

  

  
Query results will be displayed with one value per line, rows separated by
      a blank line. Designed to be easily parsed by scripts or other
    programs

  

  
Query results will be displayed with the separator (|, by default)
      character between each field value. The default.

  

  
Use n entries of size bytes for lookaside memory

  

  
Set output mode to 'markdown'.

  

  
Limits size of a -deserialize database to N bytes

  

  
Trace all memory allocations.

  

  
Set output row separator. Default is '\n'.

  

  
Refuse to open paths containing symbolic links.

  

  
Set the safe-mode escape nonce to string

  

  
Set string used to represent NULL values. Default is '' (empty
    string).

  

  
Set output mode to quote.

  

  
Open the database read-only.

  

  
Enable safe-mode.

  

  
Set output field separator. Default is '|'.

  

  
Print memory stats before each finalize.

  

  
Text to be hashed into the encryption key.

  

  
Set output mode to 'table'.

  

  
Set output mode to 'tabs'.

  

  
Show SQLite version.

  

  
Use name as the default VFS.

  

  
Open the file as a zip archive.
    

  










sqlite3 reads an initialization file to set the
    configuration of the interactive environment. Throughout initialization, any
    previously specified setting can be overridden. The sequence of
    initialization is as follows:


o The default configuration is established as follows:






mode            = LIST
separator       = "|"
main prompt     = "sqlite> "
continue prompt = "   ...> "




o If the file ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/sqlite3/sqliterc or
    ~/.sqliterc exists, the first of those to be found is processed
    during startup. It should generally only contain meta-commands.


o If the -init option is present, the specified file is
  processed.


o All other command line options are processed.










https://sqlite.org/cli.html
  

  https://sqlite.org/fiddle (a WebAssembly build of the CLI app)
  

  The sqlite3-doc package.








This manual page was originally written by Andreas Rottmann
    <rotty@debian.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used
    by others). It was subsequently revised by Bill Bumgarner
    <bbum@mac.com>, Laszlo Boszormenyi <gcs@debian.hu>, Scott Perry
    <sqlite@numist.net>, and the sqlite3 developers.







  

    Thu Oct 12 13:53:24 PDT 2023