output-line-separator

Last updated: January 21, 2026

The output-line-separator global parameter determines the string that separates lines in STDOUT, such as when you use the update-sql command or the future-rollback-sql command. By default, it is set to the line separator used by the operating system:

Mac/Linux: LF (line feed; encoded as \n) Windows: CR LF (carriage return line feed; encoded as \r\n)

Uses

If you want to use a different character than your operating system’s default string as a line separator in Liquibase, you can set output-line-separator to a string value of any length. For example, you can set it to multiple newlines or a substring between two newlines.

If you want STDOUT to display all text in a single line, you can set output-line-separator to a non-newline character. The character you set delimits each substring in STDOUT.

Syntax

You can set this parameter in the following ways:

Option

Syntax

Liquibase properties file (defaults file)

liquibase.outputLineSeparator: <string>

Global flow file argument

globalArgs: { output-line-separator: "<string>" }

Global CLI parameter

liquibase --output-line-separator=<string> update --changelog-file=example-changelog.xml

JVM system property (JAVA_OPTS environment variable)

Unix:

JAVA_OPTS=-Dliquibase.outputLineSeparator=<string>

Windows:

JAVA_OPTS=-D"liquibase.outputLineSeparator"=<string>

Liquibase environment variable

LIQUIBASE_OUTPUT_LINE_SEPARATOR=<string>

For more information, see Working with command parameters