How does dropall work with multiple schemas?

Behavior

When you run dropall with --schemas=, Liquibase treats schemas differently depending on whether they are target schemas or the current schema:

• Target schemas (--schemas=schema1,schema2): All database objects are dropped, including tables, views, sequences, and functions.

• Current schema: Only the Liquibase tracking tables are dropped (databasechangelog and databasechangeloglock). No other objects are removed.

Usage scenarios

Scenario 1: Using the default schema

If no currentSchema is specified in the connection URL, the database default schema is used as the current schema.

liquibase dropall --schemas=schema1,schema2

With this configuration:

• All objects are dropped from schema1 and schema2.

• The databasechangelog and databasechangeloglock tables are dropped from the default schema.

• No other objects are removed from the default schema.

Scenario 2: Explicit current schema in connection URL

If you specify currentSchema in the connection URL, that schema becomes the current schema. For example:

jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/mydb?currentSchema=schema0

With this configuration:

• All objects are dropped from schema1 and schema2.

• The databasechangelog and databasechangeloglock tables are dropped from schema0.

• No other objects are removed from schema0.

Important notes

• The current schema is protected from a full wipe. Only Liquibase tracking tables are removed from it, whether it is the default schema or explicitly specified.

• Schemas listed in --schemas= are completely cleaned of all database objects.

• This behavior lets you clean up target schemas completely while preserving other objects in the schema that stores Liquibase metadata.