Introduction

• Original project homepage: https://twiki.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/PSSGroup/SqlPython
• PyPI: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/sqlpython
• News: http://catherinedevlin.blogspot.com/search/label/sqlpython
• Current docs: http://packages.python.org/sqlpython/
• Mailing list: http://groups.google.com/group/sqlpython

SQLPython is a command-line interface to Oracle databases. It is intended as an alternative to Oracle’s SQL*Plus. For the most part, it can be used the same way SQL*Plus would be used; this documentation focuses on the places where SQLPython differs.

License

sqlpython is free and open-source software. Its use is governed by the MIT License.

Authorship

SQLPython was created by Luca Canali at CERN. Most recent development has been done by Catherine Devlin. A group of additional sqlpython contributors has formed at Google Groups.

Installation

If python-setuptools is present on your machine, you can easily install the latest release of sqlpython by issuing from a command prompt:

easy_install sqlpython

The development trunk (very unstable) is at assembla; you can install the trunk on your machine with:

hg clone http://hg.assembla.com/python-cmd2 cmd2
      cd cmd2
      python setup.py develop

      cd ..
      hg clone http://hg.assembla.com/sqlpython sqlpython
      cd sqlpython
      python setup.py develop

Using hg pull, hg update subsequently will update from the current trunk.

You may also install from the trunk with easy_install:

easy_install

Running

sqlpython [username[/password][@SID]] [“SQL command 1”, “@script.sql”, “SQL command 2...”]

Database connections can also be specified with URL syntax or with Oracle Easy Connect:

oracle://username:password@SID

oracle://username:password@hostname:port/dbname

oracle://username:password@hostname:port/dbname

SID represents an entry from the tnsnames.ora file.

Once connected, most familiar SQL*Plus commands can be used. Type help for additional information.

Bugs

Please report bugs at http://trac-hg.assembla.com/sqlpython or to catherine.devlin@gmail.com.

Origins

SQLPython is based on the Python standard library’s cmd module, and on an extension to it called cmd2. SQLPython also draws considerable inspiration from two Perl-based open-source SQL clients, Senora and YASQL.

Non-Oracle RDBMS

As of sqlpython 1.6.4, preliminary work has begun to adapt sqlpython to non-Oracle databases. You may use it to run queries against postgreSQL, MySQL, etc., but data-dictionary access commands (ls, grep, refs, etc.) will generate errors. Connection to non-Oracle databases is currently only possible via URL connection strings.