drop-all
Last published July 28, 2025
drop-all drops all database objects owned by the user. drop-all will not drop functions, procedures, or packages for Liquibase Open Source. Functions, procedures, packages, and synonyms can only be dropped for Liquibase Pro supported objects.
Uses
drop-all is typically used when there is a need to prepare an environment schema to be identical to another environment schema. drop-all is useful in the developer and test environments to remove unwanted objects to reset the database to "empty".
The command makes it easier to standardize another schema, compared to manually deleting the objects, or dropping and recreating the desired schema.
drop-all should not be used in a production environment to prevent removal of required objects.
Syntax
To run the drop-all command, specify the driver, classpath, and URL in the Liquibase properties file. You can also specify these properties in your command line.
Then run the drop-all command:
liquibase drop-all
If you use Liquibase 4.27.0 and later, it is a best practice to specify liquibase.command.dropAll.requireForce or LIQUIBASE_COMMAND_DROP_ALL_REQUIRE_FORCE in your liquibase.properties file or as an environment variable. This makes it mandatory for developers to specify --force whenever they run drop-all in the CLI:
liquibase drop-all --force
Impact
Using the drop-all command comes with risks of unintended consequences. Because of this, in Liquibase 4.27.0 and later, the command lets you use --require-force to require developers to specify a --force flag to indicate that they intend to run it.
Warning: Look for potential unintended consequences before using this command.
Note: The username and password attributes are not required for connections and systems which use alternate means of authentication. Also, you can specify database credentials as part of the url attribute.
Command parameters
Attribute | Definition | Requirement |
| A required parameter which indicates you intend to use this feature. If you specify Liquibase 4.27.0+ only. If you use an earlier version, this flag is optional. Note: In Liquibase 4.27.0 and later, if you specify | Required |
| The JDBC database connection URL. | Required |
| Name of the default catalog to use for the database connection | Optional |
| Name of the default schema to use for the database connection. If Note: In the properties file and Note: In Liquibase 4.12.0 and later, you can use mixed-case schema names if you set | Optional |
| The JDBC driver class | Optional |
| The JDBC driver properties file | Optional |
| Liquibase 4.27.0+. If | Optional |
| Password to connect to the target database. Tip: It is a best practice to store sensitive data in a Secrets Management tool with Liquibase Pro. | Optional |
| Specifies whether Liquibase requires the user to specify the | Optional |
| Schemas to include in drop. You can drop multiple schemas using a comma-separated list. | Optional |
| Username to connect to the target database. Tip: It is a best practice to store sensitive data in a Secrets Management tool with Liquibase Pro. | Optional |
Output
When successful, the drop-all command produces the following output:
Liquibase Pro 3.9.0 licensed to Liquibase Pro Customer until Tue Sep 22 19:00:00 CDT 2020
All objects dropped from MVN_UAT@jdbc:oracle:thin:@support.datical.net:1521:ORCL
Liquibase command 'drop-all' was executed successfully.
Output in Liquibase 4.27.0 and later
Value of | Value of | Command executes? | Output message |
|
| Yes | Standard success message |
|
| No |
|
|
| Yes | Standard success message |
|
| Yes | Standard success message as well as the following message: |