Command-line options

• 1: -A --no-align
• 2: -a --echo-all
• 3: -c --command
• 4: -d --dbname
• 5: -E
• 6: -e --echo-queries
• 7: -F --field-separator
• 8: -f --file
• 9: ? --help
• 10: -H --html
• 11: -h --host
• 12: -i -- timing
• 13: -g --label
• 14: -l --list
• 15: -m --sslmode
• 16: -n
• 17: -o --output
• 18: -P --pset
• 19: -p --port
• 20: -q --quiet
• 21: -R --record-separator
• 22: -S --single-line
• 23: -s --single-step
• 24: -T --table-attr
• 25: -t --tuples-only
• 26: -V --version
• 27: -v --variable --set
• 28: -X --no-vsqlrc
• 29: -x --expanded

1 - -A --no-align

-A or --no-align switches to unaligned output mode. The default output mode is aligned.

2 - -a --echo-all

-a or --echo-all prints all input lines to standard output as they are read. This is more useful for script processing than interactive mode. It is equivalent to setting the variable ECHO to all.

3 - -c --command

-c command or--command command runs one command and exits. This is useful in shell scripts.

Use either:

• A command string that can be completely parsed by the server that does not contain features specific to vsql

• A single meta-command

You cannot mix SQL and vsql meta-commands. You can, however, pipe the string into vsql as shown:

echo "\\timing\\\\select * from t" | ../Linux64/bin/vsql
                Timing is on.
                i | c | v
                ---+---+---
                (0 rows)

4 - -d --dbname

-d db-name or --dbname db-name specifies the name of the database to connect to. This is equivalent to specifying db-name as the first non-option argument on the command line.

5 - -E

-E displays queries generated by internal commands.

6 - -e --echo-queries

-e --echo-queries copies all SQL commands sent to the server to standard output as well. This is equivalent to setting the variable ECHO to queries.

7 - -F --field-separator

-F separator or --field-separator separator specifies the field separator for unaligned output (default: "|") (-P fieldsep=). (See -A --no-align.) This is equivalent to \pset fieldsep or \f.

To set the field separator value to a control character, use your shell's control character escape notation. In Bash, you specify a control character in an argument using a dollar sign ($) followed by a string contained in single quotes. This string can contain C-string escapes (such as \t for tab), or a backslash () followed by an octal value for the character you want to use.

The following example demonstrates setting the separator character to tab (\t), vertical tab (\v) and the octal value of vertical tab (\013).

$ vsql -At -c "SELECT * FROM testtable;"
A|1|2|3
B|4|5|6

$ vsql -F $'\t' -At -c "SELECT * FROM testtable;"
A       1       2       3
B       4       5       6

$ vsql -F $'\v' -At -c "SELECT * FROM testtable;"
A
 1
  2
   3
B
 4
  5
   6
$ vsql -F $'\013' -At -c "SELECT * FROM testtable;"
A
 1
  2
   3
B
 4
  5
   6

8 - -f --file

-f filename or --file filename uses filename as the source of commands instead of reading commands interactively. After the file is processed, vsql terminates.

If filename is a hyphen (-), standard input is read.

Using this option is different from writing vsql < filename. Using -f enables some additional features such as error messages with line numbers. Conversely, the variant using the shell's input redirection should always yield exactly the same output that you would have gotten had you entered everything manually.

9 - ? --help

-? --help displays help about vsql command line arguments and exits.

10 - -H --html

-H --html turns on HTML tabular output. This is equivalent to \pset format html or the \H command.

11 - -h --host

-h hostname or --host hostname specifies the host name of the machine on which the server is running. Use this flag to connect to Vertica remotely.

The following requirements and restrictions apply:

• If you use client authentication with a Kerberos connection method of either gss or krb5, you must specify -h hostname.

• Use the -h option if you want to connect to Vertica from a local connection, but want to use the an authentication record with the access method HOST (rather than LOCAL).

12 - -i -- timing

Enables the \timing meta-command. You can only use this command with the -c --command and -f --file commands:

$VSQL -h host1 -U user1 -d VMart -p 15 -w ****** -i -f transactions.sql

You can only use -i with the -c (command) and -f (filename) commands. For more information see Command-line options.

From the command line enter the -i option before running a session to turn timing on. For example:

$VSQL -h host1 -U user1 -d VMart -p 15 -w ****** -i -f transactions.sql

$VSQL-h host1 -U user1 -d VMart -p 15 -w ****** -i -c "SELECT user_name,
ssl_state, authentication_method, client_authentication_name, client_type FROM sessions
WHERE session_id=(SELECT session_id FROM current_session);"

13 - -g --label

Assigns a client label to the connection at the start of the session. Client connections and their labels appear in the SESSIONS and some Data collector tables like DC_REQUESTS_ISSUED. Client labels set with this option appear in DC_SESSION_STARTS.

If used, this option takes precedence over the VSQL_CLIENT_LABEL environment variable.

To set client labels for ongoing sessions, use SET_CLIENT_LABEL.

14 - -l --list

-l or --list returns all available databases, then exits. Other non-connection options are ignored. This command is similar to the internal command \list.

15 - -m --sslmode

-m or --sslmode specifies the policy for making SSL connections to the server. Options are verify_full, verify_ca require, prefer, allow, and disable. You can also set the VSQL_SSLMODE variable to achieve the same effect. If the variable is set, the command-line option overrides it.

For information on these modes see Configuring TLS for ODBC Clients.

16 - -n

-n disables command line editing.

17 - -o --output

-o filename or --output filename writes all query output into file filename. This is equivalent to the vsql meta-command \o.

18 - -P --pset

-P assignment or --pset assignment lets you specify printing options in the style of \pset on the command line. Note that you have to separate name and value with an equal sign instead of a space. Thus to set the output format to LaTeX, you could write -P format=latex.

19 - -p --port

-p port or--port port specifies the TCP port or the local socket file extension on which the server is listening for connections. Defaults to port 5433.

20 - -q --quiet

-q or --quiet specifies that vsql do its work quietly. By default, it prints welcome messages and various informational output. If this option is used, none of this appears. This is useful with the -c option. Within vsql you can also set the QUIET variable to achieve the same effect.

21 - -R --record-separator

-R separator or --record-separator separator specifies separator as the record separator. This is equivalent to the \pset recordsep command.

22 - -S --single-line

-S --single-line runs in single-line mode where a newline terminates a SQL command, like the semicolon does.

23 - -s --single-step

-s --single-step runs in single-step mode for debugging scripts. Forces vsql to prompt before each statement is sent to the database and allows you to cancel execution.

24 - -T --table-attr

-T table-options or --table-attr table-options lets you specify options to be placed within the HTML table tag. See \pset for details.

25 - -t --tuples-only

-t or --tuples-only disables printing of column names, result row count footers, and so on. This is equivalent to the vsql meta-command \t.

26 - -V --version

-V or --version prints the vsql version and exits.

27 - -v --variable --set

-v assignment, --variable assignment, and --set assignment perform a variable assignment, like the vsql meta-command \set.

To unset a variable, omit the equal sign. To set a variable without a value, use the equals sign but omit the value. Make these assignments at a very early stage of start-up, so that variables reserved for internal purposes can get overwritten later.

28 - -X --no-vsqlrc

-X --no-vsqlrc prevents the start-up file from being read: the system-wide vsqlrc file or the user's ~/.vsqlrc file.

29 - -x --expanded

-x or --expanded enables extended table formatting mode. This is equivalent to the vsql meta-command \x.