sqldiff

sqldiff(1)                  General Commands Manual                 sqldiff(1)

NAME
       sqldiff - sqlite3 database difference utility

SYNOPSIS
       sqldiff [options] database1.sqlite database2.sqlite

DESCRIPTION
       The  sqldiff binary is a command-line utility program that displays the
       differences between SQLite databases.   The  usual  output  is  an  SQL
       script  that  will  transform  database1.sqlite (the "source" database)
       into database2.sqlite (the "destination" database).

       The sqldiff utility works by finding rows in the source and destination
       that  are logical "pairs". The default behavior is to treat two rows as
       pairs if they are in tables with the same name and they have  the  same
       rowid,  or  in  the case of a WITHOUT ROWID table if they have the same
       PRIMARY KEY. Any differences in the content of paired rows  are  output
       as  UPDATEs.  Rows  in the source database that could not be paired are
       output as DELETEs. Rows in the destination database that could  not  be
       paired are output as INSERTs.

       The  --primarykey  flag  changes the pairing algorithm slightly so that
       the schema-declared PRIMARY KEY is always used for pairing, even on ta-
       bles  that have a rowid. This is often a better choice for finding dif-
       ferences, however it can lead to missed differences in the case of rows
       that have one or more PRIMARY KEY columns set to NULL.

OPTIONS
       --changset FILE
              Do  not  write changes to standard output. Instead, write a (bi-
              nary) changeset file into FILE.  The  changeset  can  be  inter-
              preted using the sessions extension to SQLite.

       --lib LIBRARY, -L LIBRARY
              Load the shared library or DLL file LIBRARY into SQLite prior to
              computing the differences. This can be used to add  application-
              defined collating sequences that are required by the schema.

       --primarykey
              Use  the schema-defined PRIMARY KEY instead of the rowid to pair
              rows in the source and destination database. (See additional ex-
              planation below.)

       --schema
              Show only differences in the schema not the table content

       --summary
              Show  how  many rows have changed on each table, but do not show
              the actual changes

       --table TABLE
              Show only the differences in content for TABLE, not for the  en-
              tire database

       --transaction
              Wrap SQL output in a single large transaction

       --vtab Add  support  for  handling FTS3, FTS5 and rtree virtual tables.
              See below for details.

LIMITATIONS
       The sqldiff utility is unable to compute differences for  rowid  tables
       for  which the rowid is inaccessible. An example of a table with an in-
       accessible rowid is:

       CREATE TABLE inaccessible_rowid(
          "rowid" TEXT,
          "oid" TEXT,
          "_rowid_" TEXT
       );

       The sqldiff utility does not (currently) display differences  in  TRIG-
       GERs or VIEWs.

       By  default, differences in the schema or content of virtual tables are
       not reported on.

       However, if a virtual table implementation creates real  tables  (some-
       times  referred to as "shadow" tables) within the database to store its
       data in, then sqldiff.exe does calculate the difference between  these.
       This  can  have  surprising effects if the resulting SQL script is then
       run on a database that is not exactly the same as the source  database.
       For  several  of SQLite's bundled virtual tables (FTS3, FTS5, rtree and
       others), the surprising effects may include corruption of  the  virtual
       table content.

       If the --vtab option is passed to sqldiff, then it ignores all underly-
       ing shadow tables belonging to an FTS3, FTS5 or rtree virtual table and
       instead includes the virtual table differences directly.

SEE ALSO
       sqlite3(1).

                                  2018-05-10                        sqldiff(1)