bsqlodbc(1)

bsqlodbc1

Batch sql script processor using odbc

Usage

bsqlodbc [-hqv] [-U username] [-P password] [-S server] [-D database] [-i input_file] [-o output_file] [-e error_file] [-t field_term] [-V odbc_version]

Overview

bsqlodbc is a utility program distributed with FreeTDS.

bsqlodbc is a non-interactive equivalent of the ‘isql’ utility programs distributed by Sybase and Microsoft. Like them, bsqlodbc uses the command ‘go’ on a line by itself as a separator between batches. The last batch need not be followed by ‘go’.

bsqlodbc makes use of the ODBC API provided by FreeTDS. This API is of course also available to application developers.

Options

-U username

Database server login name.

-P password

Database server password.

-S server

Database server to which to connect.

-D database

Database to use.

-i input_file

Name of script file, containing SQL.

-o output_file

Name of output file, holding result data.

-e error_file

Name of file for errors.

-t field_term

Specifies the field terminator. Default is two spaces ( ‘ ’). Recognized escape sequences are tab ( ‘\t’), carriage return ( ‘\r’), newline ( ‘\n’), and backslash ( ‘\\’).

-h

Print column headers with the data to the same file.

-q

Do not print column metadata, return status, or rowcount. Overrides -h.

-v

Verbose mode, for more information about the ODBC interaction. This also reports the result set metadata, including and return code. All verbose data are written to standard error (or -e), so as not to interfere with the data stream.

-V odbc_version

Specify ODBC version (2 or 3).

Notes

bsqlodbc is a filter; it reads from standard input, writes to standard output, and writes errors to standard error. The -i, -o, and -e options override these defaults.

Exit status

bsqlodbc exits 0 on success, and >0 if the server cannot process the query.

Releases

9 releases since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); the text changed 5 times.

  1. 6.0
  2. 7–9
  3. 10
  4. 11
  5. 12–13
  6. Arch

-V since Debian 10 (Buster).

History

bsqlodbc first appeared in FreeTDS 0.65.

Authors

The bsqlodbc utility was written by James K. Lowden ⟨[email protected]⟩.

From freetds 1.5.20-1 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's mdoc source.