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Interactive client for PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite3, Oracle and SQL Server.


Documentation: https://dblab.danvergara.com


Table of contents

Overview

dblab is a fast and lightweight interactive terminal based UI application for PostgreSQL, MySQL and SQLite3, written in Go and works on OSX, Linux and Windows machines. Main idea behind using Go for backend development is to utilize ability of the compiler to produce zero-dependency binaries for multiple platforms. dblab was created as an attempt to build very simple and portable application to work with local or remote PostgreSQL/MySQL/SQLite3/Oracle/SQL Server databases.

Features

  • Cross-platform support OSX/Linux/Windows 32/64-bit
  • Simple installation (distributed as a single binary)
  • Zero dependencies.

Installation

if you need to work with SQLite3, install the CGO enabled binary using the proper bash script listed below. The above comment is deprecated and CGO is not needed anymore. There will be a single binary capable to deal with all supported clients.

Homebrew

It works with Linux, too.

$ brew install danvergara/tools/dblab

Or

$ brew tap danvergara/tools
$ brew install dblab

Binary Release (Linux/OSX/Windows)

You can manually download a binary release from the release page.

Automated installation/update

Don't forget to always verify what you're piping into bash

Install the binarry using our bash script:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/danvergara/dblab/master/scripts/install_update_linux.sh | bash

Help

dblab is a terminal UI based interactive database client for Postgres, MySQL and SQLite3.

Usage:
  dblab [flags]
  dblab [command]

Available Commands:
  help        Help about any command
  version     The version of the project

Flags:
      --cfg-name string                   Database config name section
      --config                            Get the connection data from a config file (default locations are: current directory, $HOME/.dblab.yaml or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/.dblab.yaml)
      --db string                         Database name (optional)
      --driver string                     Database driver
      --encrypt string                    [strict|disable|false|true] data sent between client and server is encrypted or not
  -h, --help                              help for dblab
      --host string                       Server host name or IP
      --limit uint                        Size of the result set from the table content query (should be greater than zero, otherwise the app will error out) (default 100)
      --pass string                       Password for user
      --port string                       Server port
      --schema string                     Database schema (postgres only)
      --socket string                     Path to a Unix socket file
      --ssl string                        SSL mode
      --ssl-verify string                 [enable|disable] or [true|false] enable ssl verify for the server
      --sslcert string                    This parameter specifies the file name of the client SSL certificate, replacing the default ~/.postgresql/postgresql.crt
      --sslkey string                     This parameter specifies the location for the secret key used for the client certificate. It can either specify a file name that will be used instead of the default ~/.postgresql/postgresql.key, or it can specify a key obtained from an external “engine”
      --sslpassword string                This parameter specifies the password for the secret key specified in sslkey
      --sslrootcert string                This parameter specifies the name of a file containing SSL certificate authority (CA) certificate(s) The default is ~/.postgresql/root.crt
      --timeout string                    in seconds (default is 0 for no timeout), set to 0 for no timeout. Recommended to set to 0 and use context to manage query and connection timeouts
      --trace-file string                 File name for trace log
      --trust-server-certificate string   [false|true] server certificate is checked or not
  -u, --url string                        Database connection string
      --user string                       Database user
  -v, --version                           version for dblab
      --wallet string                     Path for auto-login oracle wallet

Use "dblab [command] --help" for more information about a command.

Usage

You can start the app passing no flags or parameters, you'll be asked for connection data instead. dblab-demo

$ dblab --host localhost --user myuser --db users --pass password --ssl disable --port 5432 --driver postgres --limit 50
$ dblab --db path/to/file.sqlite3 --driver sqlite
$ dblab --host localhost --user system --db FREEPDB1 --pass password --port 1521 --driver oracle --limit 50
$ dblab --host localhost --user SA --db msdb --pass '5@klkbN#ABC' --port 1433 --driver sqlserver --limit 50

Connection URL scheme is also supported:

$ dblab --url 'postgres://user:password@host:port/database?sslmode=[mode]'
$ dblab --url 'mysql://user:password@tcp(host:port)/db'
$ dblab --url 'file:test.db?_pragma=foreign_keys(1)&_time_format=sqlite'
$ dblab --url 'oracle://user:password@localhost:1521/db'
$ dblab --url 'sqlserver://SA:myStrong(!)Password@localhost:1433?database=tempdb&encrypt=true&trustservercertificate=false&connection+timeout=30'

if you're using PostgreSQL, you have the option to define the schema you want to work with, the default value is public.

$ dblab --host localhost --user myuser --db users --pass password --schema myschema --ssl disable --port 5432 --driver postgres --limit 50
$ dblab --url postgres://user:password@host:port/database?sslmode=[mode] --schema myschema

As a request made in #125, support for MySQL/MariaDB sockets was integrated.

$ dblab --url "mysql://user:password@unix(/path/to/socket/mysql.sock)/dbname?charset=utf8"
$ dblab --socket /path/to/socket/mysql.sock --user user --db dbname --pass password --ssl disable --port 5432 --driver mysql --limit 50

Postgres connection through Unix sockets:

$ dblab --url "postgres://user:password@/dbname?host=/path/to/socket"
$ dblab --socket /path/to/socket --user user --db dbname --pass password --ssl disable --port 5432 --driver postgres --limit 50

Now, it is possible to ensure SSL connections with PostgreSQL databases. SSL related parameters has been added, such as --sslcert, --sslkey, --sslpassword, --sslrootcert. More information on how to use such connection flags can be found here.

dblab --host  db-postgresql-nyc3-56456-do-user-foo-0.fake.db.ondigitalocean.com --user myuser --db users --pass password --schema myschema --port 5432 --driver postgres --limit 50 --ssl require --sslrootcert ~/Downloads/foo.crt

Configuration

Enter previous flags every time is tedious, so dblab provides a couple of flags to help with it: --config and --cfg-name.

dblab is going to look for a file called .dblab.yaml. Currently, there are three places where you can drop a config file:

  • $XDG_CONFIG_HOME ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME/.dblab.yaml)
  • $HOME ($HOME/.dblab.yaml)
  • . (the current directory where you run the command line tool)

If you want to use this feature, --config is mandatory and --cfg-name may be omitted. The config file can store one or multiple database connection sections under the database field. database is an array, previously was an object only able to store a single connection section at a time.

We strongly encourgae you to adopt the new format as of v0.18.0. --cfg-name takes the name of the desired database section to connect with. It can be omitted and its default values will be the first item on the array.

As of v0.21.0, ssl connections options are supported in the config file.

# default: test
$ dblab --config

$ dblab --config --cfg-name "prod"

.dblab.yaml example:

database:
  - name: "test"
    host: "localhost"
    port: 5432
    db: "users"
    password: "password"
    user: "postgres"
    driver: "postgres"
    # optional
    # postgres only
    # default value: public
    schema: "myschema"
  - name: "prod"
    # example endpoint
    host: "mydb.123456789012.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com"
    port: 5432
    db: "users"
    password: "password"
    user: "postgres"
    schema: "public"
    driver: "postgres"
    ssl: "require"
    sslrootcert: "~/.postgresql/root.crt."
  - name: "oracle"
    host: "localhost"
    port: 1521
    db: "FREEPDB1 "
    password: "password"
    user: "system"
    driver: "oracle"
    ssl: "enable"
    wallet: "path/to/wallet"
    ssl-verify: true
  - name: "sqlserver"
    driver: "sqlserver"
    host: "localhost"
    port: 1433
    db: "msdb"
    password: "5@klkbN#ABC"
    user: "SA"
# should be greater than 0, otherwise the app will error out
limit: 50

Or for sqlite:

database:
  - name: "prod"
    db: "path/to/file.sqlite3"
    driver: "sqlite"

Only the host and ssl fields are optionals. 127.0.0.1 and disable, respectively.

Navigation

If the query panel is active, type the desired query and press Ctrl+Space to see the results on the rows panel below. Otherwise, you might me located at the tables panel, then you can navigate by using the arrows Up and Down (or the keys k and j respectively). If you want to see the rows of a table, press Enter. To see the the schema of a table, locate yourself on the rows panel and press Ctrl+S to switch to the structure panel, then switch Ctrl+S to switch back. The same can be achieved for the constraints view by pressing Ctrl+F to go back and forth between the rows and the constraints panels.

Now, there's a menu to navigate between hidden views by just clicking on the desired options:

As you may have noticed, navigation has already been added, so every time you query the content of a listed table, the result set is going to be paginated. This allows to the user dealing with large tables, optimizing resources. Just hit the BACK and NEXT buttons to go back and forth.

The navigation buttons were removed since they are too slow to really navigate the content of a table. The user is better off typing a SELECT statement with proper OFFSET and LIMIT.

The --db flag is now optional (except for Oracle), meaning that the user will be able to see the list of databases they have access to. The regular list of tables will be replaced with a tree structure showing a list of databases and their respective list of tables, branching off each database. Due to the nature of the vast majority of DBMSs that don't allow cross-database queries, dblab has to open an independent connection for each database. The side effect of this decision, is that the user has to press Enter on the specific database of interest. An indicator showing the current active database will appear at the bottom-right of the screen. To change the focus, just hit enter on another database. Once a database is selected, the usual behavior of inspecting tables remains the same.

Key Bindings

Key Description
Ctrl+Space If the query panel is active, execute the query
Enter If the tables panel is active, list all the rows as a result set on the rows panel and display the structure of the table on the structure panel
Ctrl+S If the rows panel is active, switch to the schema panel. The opposite is true
Ctrl+T If the rows panel is active, switch to the constraints view. The opposite is true
Ctrl+I If the rows panel is active, switch to the indexes view. The opposite is true
Ctrl+H Toggle to the panel on the left
Ctrl+J Toggle to the panel below
Ctrl+K Toggle to the panel above
Ctrl+L Toggle to the panel on the right
Arrow Up Vertical scrolling on the panel. Views: rows, table, constraints, structure and indexes
k Vertical scrolling on the panel. Views: rows, table, constraints, structure and indexes
Arrow Down Vertical on the panel. Views: rows, table, constraints, structure and indexes
j Vertical on the panel. Views: rows, table, constraints, structure and indexes
Arrow Right Horizontal scrolling on the panel. Views: rows, constraints, structure and indexes
l Horizontal scrolling on the panel. Views: rows, constraints, structure and indexes
Arrow Left Horizontal scrolling on the panel. Views: rows, constraints, structure and indexes
h Horizontal scrolling on the panel. Views: rows, constraints, structure and indexes
g Move cursor to the top of the panel's dataset. Views: rows, constraints, structure and indexes
G Move cursor to the bottom of the panel's dataset. Views: rows, constraints, structure and indexes
Ctrl-F Move down by one page. Views: rows, constraints, structure and indexes
Ctrl-B Move up by one page. Views: rows, constraints, structure and indexes
Ctrl+c Quit

Contribute

  • Fork this repository
  • Create a new feature branch for a new functionality or bugfix
  • Commit your changes
  • Execute test suite
  • Push your code and open a new pull request
  • Use issues for any questions
  • Check wiki for extra documentation

License

The MIT License (MIT). See LICENSE file for more details.