How do I include and exclude database objects?

The --exclude-objects and --include-objects attributes help you filter the data that is exported by specifying objects and object types:

• --exclude-objects alters output to exclude the objects specified.

• --include-objects alters output to include only the objects specified.

Note: The attribute names for Maven are diffIncludeObjects and diffExcludeObjects. They have the same functionality as the attributes for the CLI.

Syntax

Note: Liquibase uses the java.util.regex engine to match regular expressions.

• An object name, which is a regular expression (regexp) you specify, will include or exclude any object from the database which name matches the regexp.

• Multiple expressions must be separated by a comma.

• The type:name logic will be applied to the tables containing columns, indexes, foreign keys, primary keys, unique constraints, and others.

When running the --exclude-objects or --include-objects attribute with the diff command, the objects you want to filter are not only the objects specified. They are also dependent objects. For example, if you run include-objects=new_table, you will see new_table in the output and the associated columns. If you run exclude-objects=new_table, the output will not include the table or the columns. This dependency logic works for columns, indexes, foreign keys, primary keys, unique constraints, and data.

Note: The name comparison is case-sensitive. If you want to run case-insensitive searches, use the (?i) regexp flag.

Examples

• "table_name" will match a table called "table_name". It will not match "other_table" or "TABLE_NAME".

• "(?i)table_name" will match a table called "table_name" or "TABLE_NAME".

• "table_name" will match all columns in the table called "table_name".

• "table:table_name" will match a table called "table_name". It will not match a column called "table_name".

• "table:table_name, column:.*_lock" will match a table called "table_name" and all columns that end with _lock".