FREEBCP(1) BSD General Commands Manual FREEBCP(1)NAMEfreebcp — bulk loading utility for Sybase and Microsoft databases
SYNOPSISfreebcp [[⟨database⟩.]⟨owner⟩.]⟨object_name⟩ {in | [query]out} datafile
{-c | -n | -f formatfile} [-S servername] [-D dbname]
[-U username] [-P password] [-b batchsize] [-F firstrow]
[-L lastrow] [-e errfile] [-I interfaces] [-m maxerror]
[-t field_term] [-r row_term] [-h hints] [-T textsize]
[-A packet_size] [-O options] [-i inputfile] [-o outputfile]
[-C charset] [-EdVv]
DESCRIPTIONfreebcp is a utility program distributed with FreeTDS. freebcp repli‐
cates (in part at least) the functionality of the bcp utility programs
distributed by Sybase and Microsoft. freebcp makes use of the DB-Library
bcp API provided by FreeTDS. This API is also available to application
developers.
The manual pages or online help for Sybase or SQL Server can be refer‐
enced for more detailed information on bcp functionality.
TABLES AND FILES
database
The name of the database containing object to be copied.
Optional if the table/view is in the default database for
username.
schema The schema of the object being copied. If not provided, the
default schema for username is used.
object The name of the database object you wish to access, typically a
table. It can also be a view. All views can be read; some can be
written, subject to constraints. With queryout, object can also
be an SQL query.
in Copy data from a host file to a database table.
out Copy data from a database table to a host file.
queryout
indicates that table_name is in fact SQL, rather than a database
object. freebcp will execute the query and write the results to
a file. (It is a good idea to have the query return one and only
one result set.)
datafile
The name of an operating system file.
OPTIONS-A packet_size
Set the size of a TDS packet to packet_size. Not sure why you
would want to do this, except as an experiment.
-D dbname
The name of the default database to use. Overrides default data‐
base associated with the login account. Causes freebcp to issue
a USE dbname command immediately after logging in, before com‐
mencing BCP operations.
-E Write the data in datafile to the table's IDENTITY column. With‐
out this flag, the identity data present in the datafile will be
ignored, and new IDENTITY values will be generated for the
imported rows.
-F firstrow
The first row to copy from the input file or database table. The
default is the first row, row 1.
-I interfaces
The name and location of the interfaces file to search when con‐
necting to servername. Overrides freetds.conf.
-L lastrow
The last row to copy from an input file or database table. The
default is the last row.
-O options
SQL text to set connection options prior to the bcp operation.
If options is a valid filename, the SQL is read from the file
instead. Sometimes needed for queryout. Example: -O `SET
QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON'.
-P password
The password associated with username.
-S servername
The name of the Database Server to which to connect.
-T textsize
For text or image columns, set the maximum number of characters
to request from the server. Defaults to the setting in
freetds.conf. If not specified anywhere, defaults to the full
size of the data.
-U username
A database login name. For TDS 7+ connections, a domain login is
attempted if username is not provided.
-b batchsize
The number of rows per batch of data copied. Batching applies
only when you are bulk copying into the database. Each batch of
data is effectively “committed” into the database. The default
value for batchsize is 1000.
-c The host data file is (or will be) in "character" format, i.e., a
text file. Encoding is determined by the client charset attribute
in freetds.conf.
-d Turn off any logging. (Unintuitive, perhaps.)
-e errfile
Write errors to errfile. For uploads. Includes line and column
information, and the row data.
-f formatfile
The format of the host data file is described by formatfile. The
layout of formatfile is identical to that understood by the
Sybase and Microsoft bcp utilities, but is too complicated to
describe here.
-h hints
Set bcp hints. For valid values, cf. bcp_options() in the
FreeTDS Reference Manual.
-m maxerror
Stop after encountering maxerror errors. Default 10.
-n The host data file is in “native” format. This is a format that
freebcp will be able to process, but is not portable or readable.
-r row_term
The row terminator for a character file. May be more than one
character. Default is newline ('\n'). Cf. -c, above.
-t field_term
The field terminator for character file. Also known as a column
delimiter. May be more than one character. Default is tab
('\t'). Cf. -c, above.
-v
-V Print the version information and exit.
-i inputfile
Read input data from file specified.
-o outputfile
Write output data to file specified.
-C charset
Specify character set to use to talk to server.
ENVIRONMENT
DSQUERY default servername
NOTES
When connecting to a Sybase database server, it is required that the TDS
5.0 protocol be used. When connecting to a Microsoft SQL Server 2000
database server, the TDS 7 (or later) protocol is required.
Sybase and Microsoft define different versions of the bcp portion of TDS
4.2. Because FreeTDS has no way of knowing which type of server it's
connected to, freebcp does not support version 4.2 of the TDS protocol.
HISTORYfreebcp first appeared in FreeTDS 0.60
AUTHORS
The freebcp utility was written by Bill Thompson
⟨thompbil@exchange.uk.ml.com⟩
BUGS
Currently, there is no support for text data types in freebcp, when SQL
Server 2000 is the target server.
FreeTDS dev.0.99.479 March 25, 2015 FreeTDS dev.0.99.479
