Command Line Arguments

The table below summarizes DuckDB's command line options. To list all command line options, use the command:

duckdb -help

For a list of dot commands available in the CLI shell, see the Dot Commands page.

Argument	Description
-append	Append the database to the end of the file
-ascii	Set output mode to ascii
-bail	Stop after hitting an error
-batch	Force batch I/O
-box	Set output mode to box
-column	Set output mode to column
-cmd COMMAND	Run COMMAND before reading stdin
-c COMMAND	Run COMMAND and exit
-csv	Set output mode to csv
-echo	Print commands before execution
-init FILENAME	Run the script in FILENAME upon startup (instead of ~/.duckdbrc)
-header	Turn headers on
-help	Show this message
-html	Set output mode to HTML
-interactive	Force interactive I/O
-json	Set output mode to json
-line	Set output mode to line
-list	Set output mode to list
-markdown	Set output mode to markdown
-newline SEP	Set output row separator. Default: \n
-nofollow	Refuse to open symbolic links to database files
-noheader	Turn headers off
-no-stdin	Exit after processing options instead of reading stdin
-nullvalue TEXT	Set text string for NULL values. Default: empty string
-quote	Set output mode to quote
-readonly	Open the database read-only
-s COMMAND	Run COMMAND and exit
-separator SEP	Set output column separator to SEP. Default: |
-stats	Print memory stats before each finalize
-table	Set output mode to table
-unsigned	Allow loading of unsigned extensions
-version	Show DuckDB version