NAME

DBI::Shell - Interactive command shell for the DBI

SYNOPSIS

perl -MDBI::Shell -e shell [<DBI data source> [<user> [<password>]]]

or

dbish [<DBI data source> [<user> [<password>]]]

DESCRIPTION

The DBI::Shell module (and dbish command, if installed) provide a simple but effective command line interface for the Perl DBI module.

DBI::Shell is very new, very experimental and very subject to change. Your milage will vary. Interfaces will change with each release.

TO DO

Proper docs - but not yet, too much is changing.

Commands: load (query?) from file save (query?) to file

Use Data::ShowTable if available.

Define DBI::Shell plug-in semantics. Implement import/export as plug-in module

Batch mode

Completion hooks

Set/Get DBI::Shell options

Set/Get DBI handle attributes

Portability

COMMANDS

Many commands - few documented, yet!

help

/help

connect

/connect               (pick from available drivers and sources)
/connect dbi:Oracle    (pick source from based on driver)
/connect dbi:YourDriver:YourSource i.e. dbi:Oracle:mysid

AUTHORS and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The DBI::Shell has a long lineage.

It started life around 1994-1997 as the pmsql script written by Andreas König. Jochen Wiedmann picked it up and ran with it (adding much along the way) as dbimon, bundled with his DBD::mSQL driver modules. In 1998, around the time I wanted to bundle a shell with the DBI, Adam Marks was working on a dbish modeled after the Sybase sqsh utility.

Wanting to start from a cleaner slate than the feature-full but complex dbimon, I worked with Adam to create a fairly open modular and very configurable DBI::Shell module. Along the way Tom Lowery chipped in ideas and patches. As we go further along more useful code from Jochen's dbimon is bound to find it's way back in.

COPYRIGHT

The DBI::Shell module is Copyright (c) 1998 Tim Bunce. England. All rights reserved. Portions are Copyright by Jochen Wiedmann, Adam Marks and Tom Lowery.

You may distribute under the terms of either the GNU General Public License or the Artistic License, as specified in the Perl README file.