update-sql

Last published July 28, 2025

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

Note: The update-sql command outputs the expected SQL of an update operation so that you can evaluate it. The command does not automatically check SQL for correctness and does not anticipate database deployment errors resulting from malformed SQL.

Uses

The update-sql command is used when you want to inspect the raw SQL before running the update command, so you can correct any issues that may arise before running the command. Liquibase uses the raw SQL to apply database changes you have added to the changelog file.

Syntax

To run the update-sql command, specify the driver, classpath, and URL in the Liquibase properties file. You can also specify properties from the command line.

Run the update-sql command:

liquibase update-sql --changelog-file=example-changelog.xml

* Liquibase checks the changelog and any nested changelogs for the definitions of the changesets to update.

Note: The username and password attributes are not required for connections and systems that use alternate means of authentication. Also, you can specify database credentials as part of the url attribute.

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

--url=<string>

The JDBC database connection URL.

Required

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

Fully-qualified class which 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 best practice to store sensitive data in a Secrets Management tool with Liquibase Pro.

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

Precondition behavior

Preconditions are tags you add to your changelog or individual changesets to control the execution of an update based on the state of the database. You can specify the following attributes to control whether the update-sql command runs preconditions:

  • onSqlOutput: controls how preconditions are evaluated with the update-sql command for XML, YAML, and JSON changelogs.

  • onUpdateSql: controls how preconditions are evaluated with the update-sql command for formatted SQL changelogs.

You can specify the following values for onSqlOutput and onUpdateSql:

Value

Description

FAIL

When you run the

update-sql

command, Liquibase fails any preconditions.

IGNORE

When you run the

update-sql

command, Liquibase ignores any preconditions.

TEST

When you run the

update-sql

command, Liquibase evaluates preconditions normally.

Learn more about preconditions here: Preconditions

Output

Liquibase Version: 4.9.1 Liquibase Community 4.9.1 by Liquibase -- ********************************************************************* -- Update Database Script -- ********************************************************************* -- Change Log: example-changelog.sql -- Ran at: 5/9/22, 9:44 AM -- 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; -- Release Database Lock UPDATE PUBLIC.DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK SET LOCKED = FALSE, LOCKEDBY = NULL, LOCKGRANTED = NULL WHERE ID = 1; Liquibase command 'update-sql' was executed successfully.