isql(1) UnixODBC manual pages isql(1)
NAME
isql, iusql - unixODBC command-line interactive SQL tool
SYNOPSIS
isql DSN [USER [PASSWORD]] [options]
DESCRIPTION
isql is a command line tool which allows the user to execute SQL in
batch or interactively. It has some interesting options such as an
option to generate output wrapped in an HTML table.
iusql is the same tool with built-in Unicode support.
ARGUMENTS
DSN The Data Source Name, which should be used to make connection to
the database. The data source is looked for in the
/etc/odbc.ini and $HOME/.odbc.ini files in that order, with the
latter overwriting the former.
USER Specifies the database user/role under which the connection
should be made.
PASSWORD
Password for the specified USER.
OPTIONS
-b Run isql in non-interactive batch mode. In this mode, the isql
processes its standard input, expecting one SQL command per
line.
-dDELIMITER
Delimits columns with delimiter.
-xHEX Delimits columns with HEX, which is a hexadecimal code of the
delimiting character in the format 0xNN - i.e. 0x09 for the TAB
character.
-w Format the result as HTML table.
-c Output the names of the columns on the first row. Has any effect
only with the -d or -x options.
-mNUM Limit the column display width to NUM characters.
-lLOCALE
Sets locale to LOCALE.
-q Wrap the character fields in double quotes.
-3 Use the ODBC 3 calls.
-n Use the new line processing. (multiple lines of SQL, terminated
with command GO).
-e Use the SQLExecDirect instead of Prepare.
-k Use SQLDriverConnect.
-v Turn on the verbose mode, where the errors are fully described.
Useful for debugging.
--version
Prints the program version and exits.
-LNUM Alter the maximum number of characters displayed from a charac-
ter field to NUM characters. Default is 300.
COMMANDS
This section briefly describes some isql runtime commands.
help
List all tables in the database.
help table
List all columns in the table.
help help
List all help options.
EXAMPLES
$ isql WebDB MyID MyPWD -w -b < My.sql
Connects to the WebDB as user MyID with password MyPWD, then execute
the commands in the My.sql file and returns the results wrapped in HTML
table. Each line in My.sql must contain exactly 1 SQL command, except
for the last line, which must be blank (unless the -n option is speci-
fied).
FILES
/etc/odbc.ini
System-wide DSN definitions. See odbc.ini(5) for details.
$HOME/.odbc.ini
User-specific DSN definitions. See odbc.ini(5) for details.
SEE ALSO
odbcinst(1), odbc.ini(5)
AUTHORS
The authors of unixODBC are Peter Harvey <pharvey AT codebydesign.com> and
Nick Gorham <nick AT lurcher.org>. For the full list of contributors see
the AUTHORS file.
COPYRIGHT
unixODBC is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License. For
details about the license, see the COPYING file.
version 2.3.6 Tue 25 Jun 2013 isql(1)