rollback-to-date-sql

Last published July 28, 2025

The rollback-to-date-sql command is a helper command that allows you to inspect the SQL Liquibase will run while using the rollback-to-date command.

Uses

The rollback-to-date-sql command is typically used when you want to inspect the raw SQL before running the rollback-to-date command, so you can correct any issues that may arise before running the command.

Syntax

Before running the rollback-to-date-sql command, you can see the dates of all previous changes by running the history command.

Note: Unlike the rollback-to-date command, there is no impact to your database while using this command.

To run the rollback-to-date-sql 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 rollback-to-date-sql command:

liquibase rollback-to-date-sql --date=2020-05-07 --changelog-file=example-changelog.xml

Parameters

Global parameters

Attribute

Definition

Requirement

--output-file=<string>

File path to where the command output will be written. If not specified, output goes to STDOUT. See --output-file.

Optional

Command parameters

Attribute

Definition

Requirement

--changelog-file=<string>

The root changelog

Required

--date=<string>

The date and time your database rolls back to. The date format is YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS or YYYY-MM-DD'T'HH:MM:SS. However, it is possible to indicate the date or time only. Specify as --date=myDate. Positional format <command> <date> deprecated in 4.4+.

Required

--url=<string>

The JDBC database connection URL.

Required

--change-exec-listener-class=<string>

Fully-qualified class that specifies a ChangeExecListener. For more information, see Implementing a Custom ChangeExecListener Class with Liquibase and ChangeExecListenerCommandStep.

Optional

--change-exec-listener-properties-file=<string>

Path to a properties file for the ChangeExecListener class. For more information, see Implementing a Custom ChangeExecListener Class with Liquibase and ChangeExecListenerCommandStep.

Optional

--context-filter=<string>

Specifies the changeset contexts to match. Contexts are tags you can add to changesets to control which changesets are executed in any particular migration run.

Note: If you use Liquibase 4.23.0 or earlier, use the syntax --contexts instead of --context-filter.

Optional

--default-catalog-name=<string>

Name of the default catalog to use for the database connection

Optional

--default-schema-name=<string>

Name of the default schema to use for the database connection. If defaultSchemaName is set, then objects do not have to be fully qualified. This means you can refer to just mytable instead of myschema.mytable.

Note: In the properties file and JAVA_OPTS only: in 4.18.0 and earlier, specify this parameter using the syntax defaultSchemaName. In 4.19.0 and later, use the syntax liquibase.command.defaultSchemaName.

Note: In Liquibase 4.12.0 and later, you can use mixed-case schema names if you set --preserve-schema-case to true. However, in Liquibase 4.12.0–4.22.0, the Liquibase validator still throws a DatabaseException error if you specify a mixed-case value of defaultSchemaName. In 4.23.0 and later, the Liquibase validator accepts any casing.

Optional

--driver=<string>

The JDBC driver class

Optional

--driver-properties-file=<string>

The JDBC driver properties file

Optional

--label-filter=<string>

Specifies the changeset labels to match. Labels are tags you can add to changesets to control which changesets will be executed in any migration run.

Optional

--output-default-catalog=<true|false>

Control whether names of objects in the default catalog are fully qualified or not. If true, they are. If false, only objects outside the default catalog are fully qualified. Default: true.

Optional

--output-default-schema=<true|false>

Control whether names of objects in the default schema are fully qualified or not. If true, they are. If false, only objects outside the default schema are fully qualified. Default: true.

Optional

--password=<string>

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

--rollback-script=<string>

The path to the script to use to perform the rollback. Only needed if the rollback is not already defined in the changelog, and if it is not a rollback statement that Liquibase automatically generates.

Optional

--username=<string>

Username to connect to the target database.

Tip: It is best practice to store sensitive data in a Secrets Management tool with Liquibase Pro.

Optional

Output

Liquibase Community 4.9.1 by Liquibase -- ********************************************************************* --rollback to 2022-05-04 Script -- ********************************************************************* -- Change Log: example-changelog.sql -- Ran at: 5/6/22, 1:16 PM -- Against: DBUSER@jdbc:h2:tcp://localhost:9090/mem:dev -- Liquibase version: 4.9.1 -- ********************************************************************* -- Lock Database UPDATE PUBLIC.DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK SET LOCKED = TRUE, LOCKEDBY = 'DESKTOP-SQVSSV2 (192.168.1.179)', LOCKGRANTED = NOW() WHERE ID = 1 AND LOCKED = FALSE; -- Rolling Back ChangeSet: example-changelog.sql::3::other.dev ALTER TABLE person DROP COLUMN country; DELETE FROM PUBLIC.DATABASECHANGELOG WHERE ID = '3' AND AUTHOR = 'other.dev' AND FILENAME = 'example-changelog.sql'; -- Rolling Back ChangeSet: example-changelog.sql::2::your.name DROP TABLE company; DELETE FROM PUBLIC.DATABASECHANGELOG WHERE ID = '2' AND AUTHOR = 'your.name' AND FILENAME = 'example-changelog.sql'; -- Rolling Back ChangeSet: example-changelog.sql::1::your.name DROP TABLE person; DELETE FROM PUBLIC.DATABASECHANGELOG WHERE ID = '1' AND AUTHOR = 'your.name' AND FILENAME = 'example-changelog.sql'; -- Release Database Lock UPDATE PUBLIC.DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK SET LOCKED = FALSE, LOCKEDBY = NULL, LOCKGRANTED = NULL WHERE ID = 1; Liquibase command 'rollback-to-date-sql' was executed successfully.