omnisql

Synopsis

omnisql [<database>]
       [{--user|-u} <user>]
       [{--passwd|-p} <password>]
       [--port <port number>]
       [{-s|--server} <server host>]
       [--http] [--history=<filename>]

Description

omnisql is the client-side SQL console that displays query results for SQL statements you submit to the OmniSciDB Server.

Arguments

Argument Description
database The database to connect to. Default = omnisci.

Options

Option Description
--user | -u User name. Default = omnisci.
--passwd | -p User password. Default = HyperInteractive.
--port Port number of OmniSciDB server. Default = 6274.
--server | -s OmniSciDB server hostname in DNS name or IP address. Default = localhost.
--http Use the Thrift HTTP transport instead of the default TCP transport. Must set --port to the omnisci_web_server port. Default = 6273.
--history omnisql saves history to $HOME/.omnisql_history by default. If you want to load and (when exiting) save to a file, use --history=<filename.txt> to control where the file is stored.

Running omnisql

After starting omnisql, you can enter SQL queries or backslash commands from the command line.

The OmniSci server has a default one hour timeout on individual HTTP requests, including those made from omnisql, when using Thrift HTTP transport. If your queries are expected to exceed the timeout, use either the default omnisql TCP transport or increase the timeout using the omnisci_web_server --timeout option.

If the connection to the server is lost, omnisql automatically attempts to reconnect.

Commands

You can use the backslash commands listed in the table below for a variety of tasks beyond SQL queries.

Note The commands listed below return results based on privileges granted to the current user. For example, the \d command lists only those databases to which the active omnisql user has access privileges.
Command Description
\c <database> <user> <password> Connect to a database.
\clear_cpu Clear the CPU memory. Generally, the server takes care of memory management and you would not need to use this command. If you are having unexpected memory issues, you can try clearing the CPU memory to see if performance improves.
\clear_gpu Clear the GPU memory. Generally, the server takes care of memory management and you would not need to use this command. If you are having unexpected memory issues, you can try clearing the GPU memory to see if performance improves.
\copy <file path> <table> Copy or append data from client-side file to table. The file is assumed to be in CSV format unless the file name ends with .tsv. OmniSci supports Latin-1 ASCII format and UTF-8. If you want to load data with another encoding (for example, UTF-16), convert the data to UTF-8 before loading it to OmniSci.
\cpu Switch to CPU mode in the current session.
\d <table> Describe table columns using a SQL CREATE TABLE statement.
\d <view> Describe the results of a view SELECT statement.
\dashList all dashboards accessible by the current user.
\detect [parquet] {<filePath> | <s3Link>} Displays the inferred schema for CSV/TSV files, or the actual schema for Parquet files.

\detect does not support custom parameters. It uses default values, such as commas as the delimiter (tabs in .tsv files). This is not applicable for Parquet files.
\export_dashboard <dashboard name> <filename> Exports a dashboard to a filepath. Files with spaces in their names should be quoted. If there is a quote within a quoted string, it should be escaped with a backslash.
\gpu Switch to GPU mode in the current session.
\h Help. List available backslash commands.
\historylen <number> Set the history buffer size (default is 100).
\import_dashboard <dashboard name> <filename> Imports a dashboard from a filepath. Files with spaces in their names should be quoted. If there is a quote within a quoted string, it should be escaped with a backslash.
\l List databases.
\memory_summary Print memory usage summary.
\multiline Set multi-line command mode.
\notiming Do not print timing information.
\o <table> Return the optimal CREATE TABLE statement for a table, based on the size of the actual data stored.
\object_privileges {database|table} <object_name> Reports all privileges granted to an object for all roles and users.
\privileges {<rolename>|<userName>} Reports all database object privileges granted to role or user.
\qQuit omnisql.
\role_list <username> Reports all roles granted to user.
\roles Reports all roles.
\singleline Set single-line command mode.
\status Get the status of the server and its leaf nodes.
\t [<regex>] List tables, with optional regular expression.
\timing Print timing information.
\u [<regex>] List users, with optional regular expression.
\v [<regex>] List views, with optional regular expression.
\version Print OmniSciDB server version.

Unlike SQL statements, backslash commands do not require a terminating semicolon character.

Runtime Examples

The \t, \u, and \v commands might return a long list of values. You can use a regular expression match pattern to filter the results. For example, you could use the following command to return only tables that start with the word flight.

omnisql> \t ^flight.*
flights_2008_10k
flights_2008_7M

SQL query example:

omnisql> SELECT * FROM movies WHERE movieId=260;
movieId|title|genres
260|Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)|Action|Adventure|Sci-Fi

Backslash command example that describes a table:

omnisql> \d movies
CREATE TABLE movies (
movieId INTEGER,
title TEXT ENCODING DICT(32),
genres TEXT ENCODING DICT(32))

If you frequently perform the same tasks, you can create a script and pipe it to omnisql. You can use both SQL commands and omnisql commands in your script.

cat script.sql | omnisql -p <password>

For example, if you periodically upload data to the movies table, you can append rows from files named movies.csv using the following script, and display the results.

\copy ./movies.csv movies
select * movies;

When you pipe the script to omnisql, you get results similar to the following.

$ cat ~/script.sql | ./omnisql -p MyPasswordShhSecret
User omnisci connected to database omnisci
movieId|title|genres
1|Explosions Extravaganza|Action
2|Cuddle Time|Romantic Comedy
3|Chuckle Buddies|Comedy
4|All the Feels|Drama
User omnisci disconnected from database omnisci