Using Liquibase with Apache Derby
Apache Derby is an open-source relational database implemented entirely in Java and available under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
Supported Versions
- 10.14
- 10.15
Note: The supported versions are the versions that were tested with Liquibase Test Harness.
Prerequisites
Before using Liquibase with your database, ensure you have:
- Installed Liquibase.
- Created a Liquibase project folder to store all Liquibase files.
- Created a new Liquibase properties file or are using the existing
liquibase.properties
file included in the installation package. For more information, see Specifying Properties in a Connection Profile.
Driver Information
Apache Derby is based on the Java, JDBC, and SQL standards. To use Liquibase and Apache Derby, you need to have Java and JDBC. For the JDBC driver:
- Ensure you downloaded the Derby client JDBC jar driver file. To download it, go to the Apache Derby: Downloads page. You can also find the Apache Derby driver in the
derbytools.jar
file by going to the Apache Derby Tools Maven repository. - Place the
derbytools.jar
file in theliquibase/lib
directory.
Note: If you put the derbytools.jar
file in a different directory, specify the path in the Liquibase properties file, as follows: classpath:../path_to_drivers/derbytools.jar
. For more information, see Specifying Properties in a Connection Profile.
If you use Maven, you also need to download the Apache Derby driver jar file and put the driver in a location that your Maven build can access. Configure the Maven pom.xml
file to use the local copy of the driver jar file. For example:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.derby</groupId>
<artifactId>derbytools</artifactId>
<version>10.15.2.0</version>
</dependency>
Testing Your Connection
For Liquibase and Apache Derby to work, you need to:
- Ensure your Apache Derby database is configured. As an option, you can run the
sysinfo
command to check the output of Derby system information. For more details, see the Install Software documentation. - Specify the database URL in Liquibase properties file, as follows:
-
Create a text file called changelog (
.xml
,.sql
,.json
, or.yaml
) in your project directory and add a changeset.
url: jdbc:derby://localhost:1527/MYDATABASE;create=true
Note: If you created MYDATABASE
, use create=false
or remove create=true
from URL.
Tip: To apply a Liquibase Pro key to your project, add the following property to the Liquibase properties file: liquibaseProLicenseKey: <paste code here>

<?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:ext="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext"
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-4.9.xsd
http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-ext.xsd
http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-4.9.xsd">
<changeSet id="1" author="Liquibase">
<createTable tableName="test_table">
<column name="test_id" type="int">
<constraints primaryKey="true"/>
</column>
<column name="test_column" type="varchar"/>
</createTable>
</changeSet>
</databaseChangeLog>

-- liquibase formatted sql
-- changeset liquibase:1
CREATE TABLE test_table (test_id INT, test_column VARCHAR, PRIMARY KEY (test_id))
Note: Formatted SQL changelogs generated by using Liquibase versions previous to 4.2 might cause issues because of the lack of space after a double dash ( -- ).
Tip: To fix those issues, add a space after the double dash. For example: -- liquibase formatted sql
instead of --liquibase formatted sql
and -- changeset myname:create-table
instead of --changeset myname:create-table

databaseChangeLog:
- changeSet:
id: 1
author: Liquibase
changes:
- createTable:
columns:
- column:
name: test_column
type: INT
constraints:
primaryKey: true
nullable: false
tableName: test_table

{
"databaseChangeLog": [
{
"changeSet": {
"id": "1",
"author": "Liquibase",
"changes": [
{
"createTable": {
"columns": [
{
"column":
{
"name": "test_column",
"type": "INT",
"constraints":
{
"primaryKey": true,
"nullable": false
}
}
}]
,
"tableName": "test_table"
}
}]
}
}]
}
- Navigate to your project folder in the CLI and run the Liquibase status command to see whether the connection is successful. You can pass arguments in the CLI or keep them in the Liquibase properties file.
- Run your first update with the update command, which makes changes to your database. You can also run the update-sql command to inspect the SQL before running the
update
command.
liquibase --username=test --password=test --changelog-file=<changelog.xml> status
liquibase --changelog-file=<changelog.xml> update-sql
liquibase --changelog-file=<changelog.xml> update
From a database UI tool, ensure that your database contains the table you added along with the DATABASECHANGELOG table and DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK table.
Troubleshooting issues on the macOS
If your Derby Server is not running or you are not using the embedded driver, use the following commands on the Mac to start the Derby Server:
export DERBY_HOME=<location_of the unzipped directory_for_derby>
Example: export DERBY_HOME=/Users/myname/Downloads/db-derby-10.15.2.0-bin
export JAVA_HOME=<path_to_your_JRE>
Note: Use the actual installed location of the JRE in place of <path_to_your_JRE>
since Apache Derby will expect a bin directory as a subfolder. For example, export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/adoptopenjdk-14.jdk/Contents/Home
java -jar $DERBY_HOME/lib/derbynet.jar start -h 0.0.0.0

Change Type | Supported |
---|---|
addColumn | Supported |
addDefaultValue | Supported |
addForeignKeyConstraint | Supported |
addLookupTable | Not Supported |
addNotNullConstraint | Supported |
addPrimaryKey | Supported |
addUniqueConstraint | Supported |
alterSequence | Not Supported |
createFunction | Not Supported |
createIndex | Supported |
createPackage | Not Supported |
createPackageBody | Not Supported |
createProcedure | Supported |
createSequence | Supported |
createTable | Supported |
createView | Supported |
delete | Supported |
dropColumn | Supported |
dropDefaultValue | Supported |
dropForeignKeyConstraint | Supported |
dropIndex | Supported |
dropNotNullConstraint | Supported |
dropPrimaryKey | Supported |
dropProcedure | Supported |
dropSequence | Supported |
dropTable | Supported |
dropUniqueConstraint | Supported |
dropView | Supported |
renameColumn | Supported |
renameTable | Supported |
renameView | Not Supported |
sql | Supported |