Chapter 3. Start the Application

Table of Contents

Usage in the command line
databasefile
options

The most common way to start sqliteman is to run it from your desktop menu. Alternatively you can start it from the commnd line.

Usage in the command line

sqliteman [options] [databasefile]

databasefile

This optional argument must be the absolute or relative path to an sqlite3 database file, which will be loaded into the application directly. If the file does not exist, sqliteman will exit with an error message. If the file exists and is empty, it is a valid sqlite3 database with no tables or views, and sqliteman will open it. If the file exists and is not empty, but is not a valid sqlite3 database, sqliteman will start up and display its User Interface with an error message saying that the file is not a database. If no database is specified, sqliteman will either load the last used database or nothing according to the setting in Preferences.

options

Optional arguments. You can specify some switches to setup the application. Option list:

  • --help or -h displays small help and exits

  • --version or -v prints version and exits

  • -s scriptfile loads scriptfile into the SQL Editor.

  • -x scriptfile loads scriptfile into the SQL Editor and executes it. The scriptfile will only be executed if a databasefile is specified on the command line. This is to protect you against running a script on the wrong database by mistake. If neither scriptfile option is used (or -x scriptfile is ignored), sqliteman will either load the last used script file or nothing according to the setting in the Preferences dialog.

  • --lang or -l sets a GUI language. E.g. : sqliteman --lang cs

    Sqliteman checks your environment and tries to set itself up by your locale settings. This affects the GUI language – it should be in your language if there is a translation available. Some User Interface text has not yet been translated into languages other than English and French, the two languages spoken by the current maintainer. Assiatance with translation into other langauges will be gratefully accepted. Acknowledgements to translators can be found here. If you wish to use this application in English use --lang en or use the Preferences dialog.

  • --langs or -la lists available languages and exits

There are standard Qt options available too.

Starting from file browser

You may be able to configure your file browser to invoke sqliteman as the application to open database files. Please refer to your file browser's documentation for instructions on how to do this. The standard extension for sqlite databases is .sqlite, but you can use whatever extension you want. Sqliteman just tries to open the file it has been told to open, and will show an error message if it isn't an sqlite database.