Execution

The Libgda's SQL console tool runs is a terminal emulator, and can be launched using the gda-sql (or gda-sql-<version> for a specific version):

gda-sql [--help] [-l] [-L] [-C command] [-f commands file] [-o output file] [-sport to use to run embedded HTTP server] [-tauthentication token required to authenticate clients when running the embedded HTTP server] [connection specification...]

The options are the following ones:

the --help option gives a short help summary

the -l and -L options respectively output a list of the defined data sources (DSN) and of the installed database adaptaters (database providers):

[prompt]> gda-sql -l
List of defined data sources
DSN       | Provider | Description                          | Connection string     | Username | Global
----------+----------+--------------------------------------+-----------------------+----------+-------
SalesTest | SQLite   | Test database for a sales department | DB_NAME=sales_test.db |          | FALSE 
(1 row)

[prompt]> gda-sql -L
                                                        List of installed providers
Provider    | Description                         | DSN parameters     | Authentication | File 
                                     
------------+-------------------------------------+--------------------+----------------+----------------------
-------------------------------------
PostgreSQL  | Provider for PostgreSQL databases   | DB_NAME,           | USERNAME,      | [...]libgda-postgres.so
                                                    SEARCHPATH,          PASSWORD               
                                                    HOST,                
                                                    PORT,                    
                                                    OPTIONS,                             
                                                    USE_SSL          
MSAccess    | Provider for Microsoft Access files | DB_NAME,           |                | [...]libgda-mdb.so     
                                                    DB_DIR 
[...]

the -C and -f options repectively allow one to specify a single command to be run or a filename containing the commands to run before the tool exits
the -o option allows to specify a file to write the output to
the -s requests the embedded HTTP server to be executed, listening on the port specified.
the -t specifies a token string which clients will have to supply to authenticate themselves to the HTTP server, if running.

Connections to be opened can be specified on the command line using either:

defined data sources (the ones listed using the -l option)
connection strings which have the following format: "[<provider>://][<username>[:<password>]@]<connection_params>". If a username or password is required, and is not specified either by a DSN's definition or in the connection string, then it will be requested dynamically. Note that if provided, <username>, <password> and <provider> must be encoded as per RFC 1738
for SQLite and MS Access files: the file name

Connections can also be opened while the tool is running using the .c internal command.

Examples:

[prompt]> gda-sql Sales
[prompt]> gda-sql Postgresql://username@DB_NAME=mydb SQLite://DB_NAME=fspot Sales
[prompt]> gda-sql path/to/dbfile.db