generateChangeLog command


The generateChangeLog command creates a changelog file that has a sequence of changesets which describe how to re-create the current state of the database.

Uses

The generateChangeLog command is typically used when you want to capture the current state of a database, then apply those changes to any number of databases. This is typically only done when a project has an existing database, but hasn't used Liquibase before. See How to set up Liquibase with an Existing Project and Multiple Environments for more details.

Note: When using the update command to apply the changes in the changelog, Liquibase will not create a new database or schema. You must create them before applying the changelog to it.

Running the generateChangeLog command

To generate a changelog:

  1. Configure the liquibase.properties file to include your driver class path, URL, and user authentication information for the database you want to capture.

Note: For information on how to configure your liquibase.properties file, view the Creating and configuring a liquibase.properties file topic. Instead of using a liquibase.properties file, you can also pass the necessary information on the command line.

  1. Open your command prompt or Linux terminal and run the following command:
                liquibase --changeLogFile=dbchangelog.xml generateChangeLog


generateChangeLog Global Parameters

Parameter Definition Requirement
–changeLogFile Specifies the root changelog. Required
–url Specifies the JDBC database connection URL. Required
–username Specifies the database username. Required
–password Specifies the database password. Required
–liquibaseProLicenseKey Your Liquibase Pro license key. Optional

generateChangeLog command parameters

Parameter Definition Requirement
–defaultCatalogName=<name> Default database catalog to use. Optional
–defaultSchemaName=<name> Default database schema to use. Optional
–schemas=<name1, name2> Database schemas you want to include. Optional
–outputSchemaAs=<name1,name2> Can be used to Optional
–includeCatalog=[boolean] If true, the catalog will be included in generated changesets. Defaults to false. Optional
–includeSchema=[boolean] If true, the schema will be included in generated changesets. Defaults to false. Optional
–includeTablespace=[boolean] If true, the tablespace of tables and indexes will be included. Defaults to false. Optional *
–dataOutputDirectory=DIR Output data as CSV in the given directory Optional
–diffTypes List of diff types to include in changelog expressed as a comma separated list (no spaces) from: catalog,tables,functions,views,columns,indexes,foreignkeys,primarykeys,uniqueconstraints,data,storedprocedure,triggers,sequences. Optional **

* The default value of --includeTablespace is False. --includeTablespace only captures the tablespace if it was specified in the create table statement.

** If this is null then the default types will be: tables, views, columns, indexes, foreignkeys, primarykeys, uniqueconstraints.

Output

The generateChangeLog command generates a changelog that contains all of your Objects (represented as changesets) and places the file in the same directory where the command was ran.

The extension provided determines the format of the changelog, so if you specify the filename as changelog.xml you will get an XML formatted changelog. However, if you specify the filename as changelog.yaml or changelog.json or changelog.postgresql.sql you will get changelogs formatted in YAML or JSON or SQL, respectively.

Note: When generating an SQL formatted changelog, you must specify the short name of the targeted database type as part of the filename (as shown above). Liquibase Community

Example

Liquibase Community changelog 
                    
                        <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>  
<databaseChangeLog  
  xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"  
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"  
  xmlns:pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro"  
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-3.8.xsd
      http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-3.8.xsd">  
    <changeSet  author="diff-generated"  id="1185214997195-1">  
        <createTable  name="BONUS">  
            <column  name="ENAME"  type="VARCHAR2(10,0)"/>  
            <column  name="JOB"  type="VARCHAR2(9,0)"/>  
            <column  name="SAL"  type="NUMBER(22,0)"/>  
            <column  name="COMM"  type="NUMBER(22,0)"/>  
        </createTable>  
    </changeSet>  
    <changeSet  author="diff-generated"  id="1185214997195-2">  
        <createTable  name="DEPT">  
            <column  name="DEPTNO"  type="NUMBER(2,0)"/>  
            <column  name="DNAME"  type="VARCHAR2(14,0)"/>  
            <column  name="LOC"  type="VARCHAR2(13,0)"/>  
        </createTable>  
    </changeSet>  
    <changeSet  author="diff-generated"  id="1185214997195-3">  
        <createTable  name="EMP">  
            <column  name="EMPNO"  type="NUMBER(4,0)"/>  
            <column  name="ENAME"  type="VARCHAR2(10,0)"/>  
            <column  name="JOB"  type="VARCHAR2(9,0)"/>  
            <column  name="MGR"  type="NUMBER(4,0)"/>  
            <column  name="HIREDATE"  type="DATE(7,0)"/>  
            <column  name="SAL"  type="NUMBER(7,2)"/>  
            <column  name="COMM"  type="NUMBER(7,2)"/>  
            <column  name="DEPTNO"  type="NUMBER(2,0)"/>  
        </createTable>  
    </changeSet>  
    <changeSet  author="diff-generated"  id="1185214997195-4">  
        <createTable  name="SALGRADE">  
            <column  name="GRADE"  type="NUMBER(22,0)"/>  
            <column  name="LOSAL"  type="NUMBER(22,0)"/>  
            <column  name="HISAL"  type="NUMBER(22,0)"/>  
        </createTable>  
    </changeSet>  
    <changeSet  author="diff-generated"  id="1185214997195-5">  
        <addForeignKeyConstraint  baseColumnNames="DEPTNO"  
            baseTableName="DEPT"  constraintName="FK_NAME"  
            referencedColumnNames="DEPTNO"  referencedTableName="EMP"/>  
    </changeSet>  
    <changeSet  author="diff-generated"  id="1185214997195-6">  
        <createIndex  indexName="PK_DEPT"  tableName="DEPT">  
            <column  name="DEPTNO"/>  
        </createIndex>  
    </changeSet>  
    <changeSet  author="diff-generated"  id="1185214997195-7">  
        <createIndex  indexName="PK_EMP"  tableName="EMP">  
            <column  name="EMPNO"/>  
        </createIndex>  
    </changeSet>  
    <changeSet  author="diff-generated"  id="1185214997195-8">  
        <addPrimaryKey  columnNames="DEPTNO"  tableName="DEPT"/>  
    </changeSet>  
    <changeSet  author="diff-generated"  id="1185214997195-9">  
        <addPrimaryKey  columnNames="EMPNO"  tableName="EMP"/>  
    </changeSet>  
</databaseChangeLog>


Additional functionality with Liquibase Pro

While Liquibase Community stores all changesets in a changelog, Liquibase Pro creates a directory called Objects and places the directory at the same level as your changelog. The Objects directory contains a subdirectory for each of the following stored logic types.

  • package
  • packagebody
  • function
  • stored procedure
  • trigger
  • view

Note: Not all database platforms support all of these types.

Example

Liquibase Pro changelog 
                    
                        <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>  
<databaseChangeLog  
  xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"  
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"  
  xmlns:pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro"  
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog
         http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-3.8.xsd">  
    <changeSet  author="Administrator (generated)"  id="1571345362466-8">  
           <pro:createTrigger  disabled="false"  path="objects/trigger/TS_T_EXEMPLAR_SEQEXEMPLAR.sql"  relativeToChangelogFile="true"  tableName="T_EXEMPLAR"  triggerName="TS_T_EXEMPLAR_SEQEXEMPLAR"/>  
       </changeSet>  
       <changeSet  author="Administrator (generated)"  id="1571345362466-12">  
           <createView  fullDefinition="true"  path="objects/view/OREDERS_VIEW.sql"  relativeToChangelogFile="true"  viewName="OREDERS_VIEW"/>  
       </changeSet>  
       <changeSet  author="Administrator (generated)"  id="1571345362466-14">  
           <createProcedure  path="objects/storedprocedure/P_CUSTOMER_HAS_NUM_FILM.sql"  procedureName="P_CUSTOMER_HAS_NUM_FILM"  relativeToChangelogFile="true"/>  
       </changeSet>  
       <changeSet  author="Administrator (generated)"  id="1571345362466-20">  
           <pro:createFunction  functionName="F_CUSTOMER_HAS_NUM_FILM"  path="objects/function/F_CUSTOMER_HAS_NUM_FILM.sql"  relativeToChangelogFile="true"/>  
       </changeSet>  
</databaseChangeLog>