update-testing-rollback

Last published July 28, 2025

update-testing-rollback tests rollback support by deploying all pending changesets to the database, executes a rollback sequentially for the equal number of changesets that were deployed, and then runs the update again deploying all changesets to the database.

Uses

update-testing-rollback is typically used when you want to test rollback functionality when deploying changesets in your changelog sequentially. Run this command only when all pending changelogs have been verified as ready to be deployed as you cannot specify changesets to exclude.

update-testing-rollback utilizes a multi-step operation and runs in sequential order:

  1. update changeset1; update changeset2; update changeset3

  2. rollback changeset3; rollback changeset2; rollback changeset1

  3. update changeset1; update changeset2 update changeset3

Note: If you use the earlier versions of Liquibase, the order of operations may differ.

If any of the changesets fail rollback:

  • Any changesets that come before the failed changesets are deployed to the database.

  • Any changesets that come after the failed changesets are not tested or updated.

In Liquibase Pro 4.28.0 and later, you can enable Operation Reports to summarize the update-testing-rollback command. This generates an Update Report, Rollback Report, and final Update Report. By default, they are sorted by name:

  • Update-report-1of3-03-Apr-2024-130655

  • Rollback-report-2of3-03-Apr-2024-130656

  • Update-report-3of3-03-Apr-2024-130657

Syntax

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

Then run the update-testing-rollback command:

liquibase update-testing-rollback --changelog-file=example-changelog.xml

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

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 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

--force-on-partial-changes=<true|false>

Liquibase Pro only. Use this argument only if you are specifying --rollback-on-error=true to automatically roll back update operations containing errors. --force-on-partial-changes=true specifies whether Liquibase rolls back partially invalid changesets, such as a changeset containing two changes: one with an error and one without an error. This ensures that you can successfully roll back all changes if a deployment has an error, even if the changeset contains multiple changes. Available in Liquibase 4.25.0+. Default: false. See also: failOnError.

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

--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

--report-enabled=<true|false>

Enables a report at the command level. Overrides the global parameter --reports-enabled. Default: true.

Optional

--report-name=<string>

Specifies the name of the report file at the command level. Overrides the global parameter --reports-name. By default, Liquibase generates a new report file labeled with a timestamp (user's local time). If you set a custom name, Liquibase overwrites the existing file every time you generate a new report. Default: report-<DD-Mon-YYYY-HHmmss>.html.

Optional

--report-path=<string>

Specifies the file path to the report file at the command level. Overrides the global parameter --reports-path. Default: ./.

Optional

--report-suppress-exception=<true|false>

Liquibase 4.31.0+. Specifies whether to hide exceptions (which may contain SQL) from the operation report at the command level. Overrides the global parameter --reports-suppress-exception. Default: false. However:

If --report-suppress-exception is not set and --report-suppress-sql=true, Liquibase suppresses all SQL, including exception SQL.

If --report-suppress-exception=false and --report-suppress-sql=true, Liquibase suppresses most SQL but shows exception SQL.

Optional

--report-suppress-sql=<true|false>

Liquibase 4.31.0+. Specifies whether to hide changeset SQL in operation reports at the command level. Overridden by the global parameter --reports-suppress-sql. Default: false.

Optional

--rollback-on-error=<true|false>

Liquibase Pro only. If any changeset in a deployment fails, --rollback-on-error stops the update operation and rolls back all changesets you just deployed. Available in Liquibase 4.18.0+. Default: false.

Note: A changeset marked failOnError=false does not trigger as an error, so rollback-on-error will not occur. Additionally, if a changeset is not auto-rollback compliant or does not have a rollback script, then rollback-on-error does not occur for any changeset. Read more: failOnError.

Optional

--tag=<string>

The tag identifies which tagged changesets in the changelog to evaluate. Specify as --tag=myTag. Positional format <command> <tag> deprecated in 4.4+.

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

When successful, the update-testing-rollback command produces the following output:

Liquibase Version: 4.9.1 Liquibase Community 4.9.1 by Liquibase Liquibase command 'update-testing-rollback' was executed successfully.