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Run Liquibase against the H2 sandbox

Last updated: August 11, 2026

Liquibase is a Java-based application that runs on minimal hardware. To use Liquibase, Java must be installed on your host machine.

Download Java

Try out Liquibase

This tutorial is intended for developers setting up Liquibase for the first time. It walks you through installing Liquibase and exploring its basic functionality using the built-in sandbox. The sandbox includes a packaged H2 database and pre-made changelog files so you can practice running Liquibase commands immediately.

When you’re ready to move beyond the sandbox and start your full implementation, visit our Implementation guide.

In this tutorial, you'll do the following:

  • Install Liquibase on Windows, macOS, or Linux. Check out our full installation guide for additional ways to install, including NPM, Maven, and others.

  • Set up a Liquibase project by removing the sample files from the installation and creating a clean project with the essentials, including a liquibase.properties file, a changelog, and an H2 database.

  • Add a Changeset to the Changelog. This is the core task you’ll perform to manage and control secure changes to your database once you've implemented Liquibase.

Screenshot 2025-08-12 at 1.33.35 PM

Procedure

1

Download the Liquibase installer

Our downloads pages include installers for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Unix:

Liquibase Secure — download the installer

Liquibase Community — download the installer

2

Select download to run the installer.

If the Liquibase Installer does not start automatically after downloading, locate the Installer file in your Downloads directory and run it.

Note: If Windows security prevents the Liquibase Installer from running, click Run Anyway. Depending on your version of Windows, you might need to click More info first.

Note: If you downloaded a .zip or .tar.gz archive instead of an installer, extract the contents to a local directory.

3

Add Liquibase to your system PATH.

To run Liquibase commands from any terminal window, you must add the Liquibase/bindirectory to your systemPATH. For detailed instructions, refer to the documentation for your operating system.

  • Windows - Follow the official Microsoft documentation. Do not delete any existing values in the PATH. Just add your Liquibase path to the end, separated by a semicolon.

  • macOS, Unix, and Linux - Use the Linux guide to add a directory to PATH to your system path. If you're using if you're using Zsh (default on macOS 10.15+), you'll add the export path to your ~/.zshrc file. If you're using Bash (common on Linux and other Unix systems), you'll add the export path to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile file. Example line to add: export PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/liquibase/bin"

Be sure to use the full path to the /bin directory inside the folder where you extracted. For example: /usr/local/liquibase/bin when you add Liquibase to your system path.

4

Verify Liquibase has been added to your system PATH

Once added, open a new Command Prompt and run:

liquibase --version

If it returns the version number, Liquibase is installed and ready to use.

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