easysql (esql)

Canonical: gitlab.com/safteinzz/easysql · Mirror: github.com/safteinzz/easysql

getting to the sql prompt, quick and easy - saved connections, their passwords and their tunnels in one CLI + TUI

Install

cargo install easysql
esql self check   # is a newer release out?
esql self update  # install the latest

No cargo yet? Rust installs the same way on every distro: rustup.rs.

The real clients have to be on the machine, and cargo cannot bring them: they are not Rust. easysql works out the one command your machine needs and offers to run it, so you never have to go and find out.

Browse and connect

Legend: green answered, red did not, yellow means the tunnel it needs is not running; pw is a password on file, no client the program that opens it is missing, and a blue name refuses writes.

esql                        # the toolbox
esql warehouse              # straight into one, tunnel and all

Every connection you have saved, from every engine, in one list, with where it points and whether it answers. A yellow dot is not a dead server: whatever answers on that port cannot be the database, so it is worth knowing before you go in.

A forward dies with a reboot; the connection that needs it does not. easysql remembers which one, and Enter reopens it and connects in one step. The Tunnels tab lists every forward it knows about, the running ones and the remembered ones, and ↵ turns one off or back on.

Edit a connection

esql analytics 'select count(*) from orders'   # rows, as usual
esql analytics 'truncate orders'               # ERROR: cannot execute TRUNCATE TABLE in a read-only transaction
esql ls -v                                     # marks it (read-only)

e opens the form with the command it builds and what that command resolves to, updated as you type. Keys you added by hand are carried through untouched, and the file is backed up before every write.

Read only makes every session on it refuse writes: a Postgres connection gets default_transaction_read_only in its service block, so pgAdmin and every driver using that service get it too, and a SQLite one opens its file with -readonly. Before going in on a Postgres connection, easysql asks the server whether writes really are refused, and stops if they are not - a connection pooler such as pgbouncer can drop the setting on the way.

It is a guardrail, not a permission: a session can switch it back off, so a production database also wants a login role granted nothing but SELECT.

Passwords, where the client looks

Typed once into a hidden field, written straight to the file that engine's client reads, and never read back, never echoed, never put in an argv or an environment variable. easysql only ever shows you that one exists.

SQL Server's sqlcmd has no such file, so it asks every time - and a script or an agent cannot answer. Turn on sqlcmd passwords in Settings (or accept the offer p makes) and easysql keeps one in ~/.esqlpass (chmod 600), handed over in SQLCMDPASSWORD, never on the command line.

Saved queries

esql app :tables       # → psql … -c
esql notes :tables     # → sqlite3 … (bare argument)

The check you keep rewriting, kept as a .sql file and run against any connection. easysql hands each client the flag it wants, so the same word works on every engine, and o opens the file in your $EDITOR for a longer one.

For Postgres they also become \set shortcuts in ~/.psqlrc, so :tables expands at the psql prompt too. Your own lines in that file are left alone.

Settings

Which program opens each engine, whether ports are checked, what order the list is in. d puts any of them back.

Commands

The handful of things faster to type than to click. Everything else is in the toolbox, where ? lists every key.

esql                        # the toolbox
esql prod                   # open a saved connection
esql prod 'select 1'        # run one query and exit, like `ssh host 'cmd'`
esql prod/reporting         # the same connection, another database
esql prod -c 'select 1'     # anything starting with - goes to the client
esql ls                     # list them, one name per line
esql ls -v                  # ...and where each one points

esql --help and esql <command> --help have the rest.

Keys

Each tab's own keys are on its bottom line, and ? lists them all.

What it edits

Every write backs the file up first and rewrites only the one section, so your own comments, ordering and extra keys survive.

When it fails

A connect that does not work is the interesting case, so easysql asks the server the same question again non-interactively, reads the client's own answer, and offers the step that would actually get you in:

• no password supplied → save one in ~/.pgpass
• Connection refused, or no pg_hba.conf entry for host → open an ssh tunnel
• database "x" does not exist → edit the connection

Notes

• Nothing is sent anywhere. A front end, not a client: easysql speaks no wire protocol and holds no connection open, it writes the files your tools already read and runs them, so uninstalling it costs you nothing.
• apt, pacman, dnf, zypper and apk are recognised for the install offer. On anything else easysql names the program rather than guessing a package.
• From a script: rows go to stdout and easysql's own words to stderr. Once the client starts, the exit code is the client's; before that easysql exits 2 for a name, snippet or /db it cannot use, 127 when there is no client to run, and 1 when a tunnel it needs will not open or a read-only connection would not be read-only.

Compatibility

Four engines, each handed over to the client you already have: Postgres to psql, MySQL and MariaDB to mysql, SQLite to sqlite3, SQL Server to sqlcmd. Any of them can be pointed somewhere else in Settings.

SQL Server is the odd one out twice: no file both sqlcmd builds read, so easysql keeps that list itself and passes -S host,port -d db -U user, and by default it saves no password, because sqlcmd asking you is Microsoft's own advice over -P; Settings can let easysql keep one instead. It is in no distro's repos either, so there is no install to offer.

Linux. Tunnel liveness is read from /proc and killing a forward shells out to kill, so macOS and BSD need a different implementation first.

License

AGPL-3.0-only