Skip to content

mssql-scripter Usage

Usage Guide

Contents:

Options

Examples

Environment Variables

Description

mssql-scripter is the multiplatform command line equivalent of the widely used Generate Scripts Wizard experience in SSMS.

You can use mssql-scripter on Linux, macOS, and Windows to generate data definition language (DDL) and data manipulation language (DML) T-SQL scripts for database objects in SQL Server running anywhere, Azure SQL Database, and Azure SQL Data Warehouse. You can save the generated T-SQL script to a .sql file or pipe it to standard *nix utilities (for example, sed, awk, grep) for further transformations. You can edit the generated script or check it into source control and subsequently execute the script in your existing SQL database deployment processes and DevOps pipelines with standard multiplatform SQL command line tools such as sqlcmd.

Options

For option parameters, pass in ‘-h’:

$ mssql-scripter -h
usage: mssql-scripter [-h] [--connection-string  | -S ] [-d] [-U] [-P] [-f]
                  [--file-per-object] [--data-only | --schema-and-data]
                  [--script-create | --script-drop | --script-drop-create]
                  [--target-server-version {2005,2008,2008R2,2012,2014,2016,vNext,AzureDB,AzureDW}]
                  [--target-server-edition {Standard,Personal,Express,Enterprise,Stretch}]
                  [--include-objects [[...]]] [--exclude-objects [[...]]]
                  [--include-schemas [[...]]] [--exclude-schemas [[...]]]
                  [--include-types [[...]]] [--exclude-types [[...]]]
                  [--ansi-padding] [--append] [--check-for-existence] [-r]
                  [--convert-uddts] [--include-dependencies]
                  [--exclude-headers] [--constraint-names]
                  [--unsupported-statements]
                  [--disable-schema-qualification] [--bindings]
                  [--collation] [--exclude-defaults]
                  [--exclude-extended-properties] [--logins]
                  [--object-permissions] [--owner]
                  [--exclude-use-database] [--statistics]
                  [--change-tracking] [--exclude-check-constraints]
                  [--data-compressions] [--exclude-foreign-keys]
                  [--exclude-full-text-indexes] [--exclude-indexes]
                  [--exclude-primary-keys] [--exclude-triggers]
                  [--exclude-unique-keys] [--display-progress]
                  [--enable-toolsservice-logging] [--version]

Microsoft SQL Server Scripter Command Line Tool. Version 1.0.0a14

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --connection-string   Connection string of database to script. If connection
                        string and server are not supplied, defaults to value
                        in environment variable
                        MSSQL_SCRIPTER_CONNECTION_STRING.
  -S , --server         Server name.
  -d , --database       Database name.
  -U , --user           Login ID for server.
  -P , --password       If not supplied, defaults to value in environment
                        variable MSSQL_SCRIPTER_PASSWORD.
  -f , --file-path      File to script out to or directory name if scripting
                        file per object.
  --file-per-object     By default script to a single file. If supplied and
                        given a directory for --file-path, script a file per
                        object to that directory.
  --data-only           By default only the schema is scripted. if supplied,
                        generate scripts that contains data only.
  --schema-and-data     By default only the schema is scripted. if supplied,
                        generate scripts that contain schema and data.
  --script-create       Script object CREATE statements.
  --script-drop         Script object DROP statements.
  --script-drop-create  Script object CREATE and DROP statements.
  --target-server-version {2005,2008,2008R2,2012,2014,2016,vNext,AzureDB,AzureDW}
                        Script only features compatible with the specified SQL
                        Version.
  --target-server-edition {Standard,Personal,Express,Enterprise,Stretch}
                        Script only features compatible with the specified SQL
                        Server database edition.
  --include-objects [ [ ...]]
                        Database objects to include in script.
  --exclude-objects [ [ ...]]
                        Database objects to exclude from script.
  --include-schemas [ [ ...]]
                        Database objects of this schema to include in script.
  --exclude-schemas [ [ ...]]
                        Database objects of this schema to exclude from
                        script.
  --include-types [ [ ...]]
                        Database objects of this type to include in script.
  --exclude-types [ [ ...]]
                        Database objects of this type to exclude from script.
  --ansi-padding        Generates ANSI Padding statements.
  --append              Append script to file.
  --check-for-existence
                        Check that an object with the given name exists before
                        dropping or altering or that an object with the given
                        name does not exist before creating.
  -r, --continue-on-error
                        Continue scripting on error.
  --convert-uddts       Convert user-defined data types to base types.
  --include-dependencies
                        Generate script for the dependent objects for each
                        object scripted.
  --exclude-headers     Exclude descriptive headers for each object scripted.
  --constraint-names    Include system constraint names to enforce declarative
                        referential integrity.
  --unsupported-statements
                        Include statements in the script that are not
                        supported on the target SQL Server Version.
  --disable-schema-qualification
                        Do not prefix object names with the object schema.
  --bindings            Script options to set binding options.
  --collation           Script the objects that use collation.
  --exclude-defaults    Do not script the default values.
  --exclude-extended-properties
                        Exclude extended properties for each object scripted.
  --logins              Script all logins available on the server, passwords
                        will not be scripted.
  --object-permissions  Generate object-level permissions.
  --owner               Script owner for the objects.
  --exclude-use-database
                        Do not generate USE DATABASE statement.
  --statistics          Script all statistics.
  --change-tracking     Script the change tracking information.
  --exclude-check-constraints
                        Exclude check constraints for each table or view
                        scripted.
  --data-compressions   Script the data compression information.
  --exclude-foreign-keys
                        Exclude foreign keys for each table scripted.
  --exclude-full-text-indexes
                        Exclude full-text indexes for each table or indexed
                        view scripted.
  --exclude-indexes     Exclude indexes (XML and clustered) for each table or
                        indexed view scripted.
  --exclude-primary-keys
                        Exclude primary keys for each table or view scripted.
  --exclude-triggers    Exclude triggers for each table or view scripted.
  --exclude-unique-keys
                        Exclude unique keys for each table or view scripted.
  --display-progress    Display scripting progress.
  --enable-toolsservice-logging
                        Enable verbose logging.
  --version             show program's version number and exit

Examples

Below are example commands that run against the AdventureWorks database. Here is the list of examples:

Dump database object schema

Dump database object data

Dump database object schema and data

Include database objects

Exclude database objects

Include database object types

Target server version

Target server edition

Pipe a generated script to sed

Script data to a file

Dump database object schema

# generate DDL scripts for all objects in the Adventureworks database and save the script to a file
mssql-scripter -S localhost -d AdventureWorks -U sa

# alternatively, specify the schema only flag to generate DDL scripts for all objects in the Adventureworks database and save the script to a file
mssql-scripter -S localhost -d AdventureWorks -U sa -f ./adventureworks.sql

Dump database object data

# generate DDL scripts for all objects in the Adventureworks database and save the script to stdout.
mssql-scripter -S localhost -d AdventureWorks -U sa --data-only

Dump the database object schema and data

# script the database schema and data piped to a file.
mssql-scripter -S localhost -d AdventureWorks -U sa --schema-and-data  > ./adventureworks.sql

# execute the generated above script with sqlcmd
sqlcmd -S mytestserver -U sa -i ./adventureworks.sql

Include database objects

# generate DDL scripts for objects that contain 'Employee' in their name to stdout
mssql-scripter -S localhost -d AdventureWorks -U sa --include-objects Employee

# generate DDL scripts for the dbo schema and pipe the output to a file
mssql-scripter -S localhost -d AdventureWorks -U sa --include-objects dbo. > ./dboschema.sql

Exclude database objects

# generate DDL scripts for objects that do not contain 'Sale' in their name to stdout
mssql-scripter -S localhost -d AdventureWorks -U sa --exclude-objects Sale

Include database object types

# generate DDL scripts for stored procedures to stdout  
# The list of object types is specified in the DatabaseObjectTypes Enum of Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo 
# https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/microsoft.sqlserver.management.smo.databaseobjecttypes?view=sql-smo-160
mssql-scripter -S localhost -d AdventureWorks -U sa --include-types StoredProcedure

Target server version

# specify the version of SQL Server the script will be run against
mssql-scripter -S myServer -d AdventureWorks -U myUser –-target-server-version "AzureDB" > myData.sql

Target server edition

# specify the edition of SQL Server the script will be run against
mssql-scripter -S localhost -d AdventureWorks -U myUser –-target-server-edition "Enterprise" > myData.sql

Pipe a generated script to sed

Note this example is for Linux and macOS usage.

# change a schema name in the generated DDL script
# 1) generate DDL scripts for all objects in the Adventureworks database
# 2) pipe generated script to sed and change all occurrences of SalesLT to SalesLT_test and save the script to a file
$ mssql-scripter -S localhost -d Adventureworks -U sa | sed -e "s/SalesLT./SalesLT_test./g" > adventureworks_SalesLT_test.sql 

Script data to a file

# script all the data to a file.
mssql-scripter -S localhost -d AdventureWorks -U sa --data-only > ./adventureworks-data.sql 

Environment Variables

You can set environment variables for your connection string through the following steps:

# (linux/bash)
# set environment variable MSSQL_SCRIPTER_CONNECTION_STRING with a connection string.
$ export MSSQL_SCRIPTER_CONNECTION_STRING='Server=myserver;Database=mydb;User Id=myuser;Password=mypassword;'
$ mssql-scripter

# (linux/bash)
# set environment variable MSSQL_SCRIPTER_PASSWORD so no password input is required.
$ export MSSQL_SCRIPTER_PASSWORD='[PLACEHOLDER]'
$ mssql-scripter -S localhost -d AdventureWorks -U sa

# (windows)
# set environment variable MSSQL_SCRIPTER_CONNECTION_STRING with a connection string.
$Env:MSSQL_SCRIPTER_CONNECTION_STRING = 'Server=myserver;Database=mydb;User Id=myuser;Password=mypassword;'
mssql-scripter

# (windows)
# set environment variable MSSQL_SCRIPTER_PASSWORD so no password input is required.
$Env:MSSQL_SCRIPTER_PASSWORD = "placeholder"
mssql-scripter -S localhost -d AdventureWorks -U sa

Backlinks:

list from [[mssql-scripter Usage]] AND -"Changelog"