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 tables that have a rowid. This is often  a  better  choice  for  finding
       differences,  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 (binary) changeset file into FILE.   The
              changeset can be interpreted 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 explanation 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 entire 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 inaccessible rowid is:

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

       The sqldiff utility does not (currently) display differences in TRIGGERs 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 (sometimes 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 underlying 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)