Invoking isql
Go Up to Command-line isql Tool
To start the isql utility, type the following at a UNIX shell prompt or Windows console prompt:
isql [options] [database_name]
where options are command-line options and <database_name> is the name of the database to connect to, including disk and directory path.
If no options are specified, isql starts an interactive session. If no database is specified, you must connect to an existing database or create a new one. If a database was specified, isql starts the interactive session by connecting to the named database.
If options are specified, isql starts interactively or noninteractively, depending on the options. For example, reading an input file and writing to an output file are noninteractive tasks, so the -input or -output options do not start an interactive session. Additional noninteractive options include -a,
-database, -extract, and -x, which are used when extracting DDL statements.
When you start an interactive isql session, the following prompt appears:
SQL>
You must then end each command with a terminator character. The default terminator is a semicolon (;). You can change the terminator to any character or group of characters with the SET TERMINATOR command or with the -terminator command-line option. If you omit the terminator, a continuation prompt appears (CON>).
- Note: For clarity, all of the commands and examples in this chapter end with the default semicolon terminator.