Commands

This page is linked from the Getting Started Section.

This page lists all commands that are supported by BaseX. Commands can be run from the Command Line, the Clients, REST, the input field in the GUI, or some other ways. If the GUI is used, all commands that are triggered by the GUI itself will show up in the Info View. The Permission fields indicate which rights are required by a user to perform a command in the client/server architecture. A shortcut exists for some of the command keywords. For example, you may replace the DATABASE keyword with DB.

Glob Syntax

For some commands, the glob syntax can be used to address more than one database or user. Question marks and asterisks can be used to match one or more characters, and commas can be used to separate multiple patterns. Some examples:

• AB? addresses all names with the characters AB and one more character.
• *AB addresses all names ending with the characters AB.
• X*,Y*,Z* addresses all names starting with the characters X, Y, or Z.

Valid Names

Both database and user names must follow the same naming constraints. Valid names may contain letters, numbers, underscores and dashes. Names must have at least one character; they also should not be longer than 128 characters, although this is not enforced. A regular expression matching valid names is [-_a-zA-Z0-9]{1,128}.

Database Operations

CREATE DATABASE

Signature	CREATE DATABASE [name] ([input])
Permission	CREATE
Summary	Creates the database [name] with an optional [input]. The input may either be a single XML document, a directory, a remote URL or a plain XML string. [name] must be a valid database name.
Errors	The command fails if a database with the specified name is currently used by another process, or if one of the documents to be added is not well-formed or could not be parsed for some other reason.
Examples	CREATE DATABASE input creates an empty database input. CREATE DATABASE xmark http://files.basex.org/xml/xmark.xml creates the database input with the remote file xmark.xml as initial content. CREATE DATABASE coll /path/to/input creates the database coll with all documents from the input directory as initial content. SET INTPARSE false;CREATE DB input input.xml creates a database input, using Java's default XML parser.

OPEN

Signature	OPEN [path]
Permission	READ
Summary	Opens the documents in a database. [path] is the name of the database, optionally followed by a path to the requested documents.
Errors	The command fails if the specified database cannot be opened for some unknown reason.

CHECK

Signature	CHECK [input]
Permission	CREATE
Summary	Opens an existing database for the specified [input] or creates a new instance.
Errors	The command fails if the database could beither be opened nor created.

CLOSE

Signature	CLOSE
Permission	NONE
Summary	Closes the currently opened database.
Errors	The command fails if the database files could not be closed for some unknown reason.

EXPORT

Signature	EXPORT [path]
Permission	CREATE
Summary	Exports all documents in the database to the specified [path], using the serializer options specified by the EXPORTER option.
Errors	The command fails if no database is opened, if the target path points to a file or is invalid, if the serialization parameters are invalid, or if the documents cannot be serialized for some other reason.

CREATE INDEX

Template:Mark PATH removed as argument; path summary is now updated by OPTIMIZE command

Signature	CREATE INDEX [TEXT|ATTRIBUTE|FULLTEXT]
Permission	WRITE
Summary	Creates the specified database index.
Errors	The command fails if no database is opened, if the specified index is unknown, or if indexing fails for some other reason.

DROP INDEX

Template:Mark PATH removed as argument; path summary is now always available

Signature	DROP INDEX [TEXT|ATTRIBUTE|FULLTEXT]
Permission	WRITE
Summary	Drops the specified database index.
Errors	The command fails if no database is opened, if the specified index is unknown, or if it could not be deleted for some other reason.

Administration

ALTER DATABASE

Signature	ALTER DATABASE [name] [newname]
Permission	CREATE
Summary	Renames the database specified by [name] to [newname]. [newname] must be a valid database name.
Errors	The command fails if the target database already exists, if the source database does not exist or is currently locked, or if it could not be renamed for some other reason.
Examples	ALTER DATABASE db tempdb renames the database db into tempdb.

DROP DATABASE

Signature	DROP DATABASE [name]
Permission	CREATE
Summary	Drops the database with the specified [name]. The Glob syntax can be used to address more than one database.
Errors	The command fails if the specified database does not exist or is currently locked, or if the database could not be deleted for some other reason.

CREATE BACKUP

Signature	CREATE BACKUP [name]
Permission	CREATE
Summary	Creates a zipped backup of the database specified by [name]. The backup file will be suffixed with the current timestamp and stored in the database directory. The Glob syntax can be used to address more than one database.
Errors	The command fails if the specified database does not exist, or if it could not be zipped for some other reason.
Examples	BACKUP db creates a zip archive of the database db (e.g. db-2011-04-01-12-27-28.zip) in your database directory.

RESTORE

Signature	RESTORE [name]
Permission	CREATE
Summary	Restores a database with the specified [name]. The name may include the timestamp of the backup file.
Errors	The command fails if the specified backup does not exist, if the database to be restored is currently locked, or if it could not be restored for some other reason.

DROP BACKUP

Signature	DROP BACKUP [name]
Permission	CREATE
Summary	Drops all backups of the database with the specified [name]. The Glob syntax can be used to address more than one database.
Examples	DROP BACKUP abc* deletes the backups of all databases starting with the characters abc.

COPY

Signature	COPY [name] [newname]
Permission	CREATE
Summary	Creates a copy of the database specified by [name]. [newname] must be a valid database name.
Errors	The command fails if the target database already exists, or if the source database does not exist.

INFO DATABASE

Signature	INFO DATABASE
Permission	READ
Summary	Shows information on the currently opened database.
Errors	The command fails if no database is opened.

INFO INDEX

Signature	INFO INDEX ([TEXT|ATTRIBUTE|FULLTEXT|PATH])
Permission	READ
Summary	Shows information on the existing index structures. The output can be optionally limited to the specified index.
Errors	The command fails if no database is opened, or if the specified index is unknown.

INFO STORAGE

Signature	INFO STORAGE [start end] | [query]
Permission	READ
Summary	Shows the internal main table of the currently opened database. An integer range or a query may be specified as argument.
Errors	The command fails if no database is opened, or if one of the specified arguments is invalid.

Querying

LIST

Signature	LIST ([path])
Permission	NONE
Summary	Lists all available databases, or the documents in a database. [path] is the name of the database, optionally followed by a path to the requested documents.
Errors	The command fails if the optional database cannot be opened, or if the existing databases cannot be listed for some other reason.

XQUERY

Signature	XQUERY [query]
Permission	depends on query
Summary	Runs the specified [query] and prints the result.
Errors	The command fails if the specified query is invalid.
Examples	XQUERY 1 to 10 returns the sequence (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10). SET RUNS 10;XQUERY 1 to 10 runs the query 10 times, returns the result and prints the average execution time. SET XMLPLAN true;XQUERY 1 to 10 returns the result and prints the query plan as XML.

RETRIEVE

Signature	RETRIEVE [path] [input]
Permission	READ
Summary	Retrieves raw data from the specified database [path].
Errors	The command fails if no database is opened, if the source path is invalid or if the data cannot not be retrieved for some other reason.

RUN

Signature	RUN [file]
Permission	depends on query
Summary	Runs the query contained in [file] and prints the result.
Errors	The command fails if the specified file does not exist, or if the retrieved query is invalid.

FIND

Signature	FIND [keywords]
Permission	READ
Summary	Builds and runs a query for the specified [keywords]. Keywords can be enclosed in quotes to look for phrases. The following modifiers can be used to further limit search: = looks for exact text nodes ~ looks for approximate hits @= looks for exact attribute values @ looks for attributes
Errors	The command fails if no database is opened.

CS

Signature	CS [query]
Permission	depends on query
Summary	Evaluates the specified [query] and sets the result as new context set.
Errors	The command fails if no database is opened, if the specified query is invalid or if it does not return nodes of the currently opened database.

REPO INSTALL

Signature	REPO INSTALL [path]
Permission	CREATE (Template:Mark: ADMIN)
Summary	Installs the package with path [path].
Errors	The command fails in the following cases: The package to be installed is not a xar file. The package to be installed does not exist or is already installed. The package descriptor is with invalid syntax. The package to be installed depends on a package which is not installed. The package is not supported by the current version of BaseX. A component of the package is already installed as part of another package.

REPO LIST

Signature	REPO LIST
Permission	READ (Template:Mark: ADMIN)
Summary	Lists all installed packages.

REPO DELETE

Signature	REPO DELETE [name|dir]
Permission	CREATE (Template:Mark: ADMIN)
Summary	Deletes the package with name [name] or with directory [dir].
Errors	The command fails if the package to be deleted participates in a dependency.

Updates

ADD

Signature	ADD (TO [path]) [input]
Permission	WRITE
Summary	Adds the files, directory or XML string specified by [input] to the currently opened database at the specified [path]. [input] may either be a single XML document, a directory, a remote URL or a plain XML string. If the path denotes a directory, it needs to be suffixed with a slash (/).
Errors	The command fails if no database is opened, if one of the documents to be added is not well-formed, or if it could not be parsed for some other reason.
Examples	ADD input.xml adds the file input.xml to the database. ADD TO temp/one.xml input.xml adds input.xml to the database and moves it to temp/one.xml. ADD TO target/ xmldir adds all files from the xmldir directory to the database in the target path.

DELETE

Signature	DELETE [path]
Permission	WRITE
Summary	Deletes all documents from the currently opened database that start with the specified [path].
Errors	The command fails if no database is opened.

RENAME

Signature	RENAME [path] [newpath]
Permission	WRITE
Summary	Renames all document paths in the currently opened database that start with the specified [path]. The command may be used to either rename single documents or directories.
Errors	The command fails if no database is opened, or if the target path is empty.
Examples	RENAME one.xml two.xml renames the document one.xml to two.xml. RENAME / TOP moves all documents to a TOP root directory.

REPLACE

Signature	REPLACE [path] [input]
Permission	WRITE
Summary	Replaces the documents in the currently opened database, addressed by [path], with the file or XML string specified by [input]. The original file name and path is preserved by the operation.
Errors	The command fails if no database is opened, if the specified path points to a database directory, or if the input is not found.
Examples	REPLACE one.xml input.xml replaces the document one.xml with the contents of the file input.xml. REPLACE top.xml <xml/> replaces the document top.xml with the document <xml/>.

STORE

Signature	STORE (TO [path]) [input]
Permission	WRITE
Summary	Stores raw data to the specified [path]. [input] may either be a file reference, a remote URL, or a plain string. If the path denotes a directory, it needs to be suffixed with a slash (/).
Errors	The command fails if no database is opened, if the specified resource is not found, if the target path is invalid or if the data cannot not be written for some other reason.

OPTIMIZE

Signature	OPTIMIZE (ALL)
Permission	WRITE
Summary	Optimizes the index structures, meta data and statistics of the currently opened database. If the ALL flag is specified, the internal database structures are completely rebuilt; this often leads to a reduction of the total database size.
Errors	The command fails if no database is opened, or if the currently opened database is a main-memory instance.

FLUSH

Signature	FLUSH
Permission	WRITE
Summary	Explicitly flushes the buffers of the currently opened database to disk. This command is applied if the AUTOFLUSH option has been set to false.
Errors	The command fails if no database is opened.

Server Administration

SHOW BACKUPS

Signature	SHOW BACKUPS
Permission	CREATE
Summary	Shows all database backups.

SHOW DATABASES

Signature	SHOW DATABASES
Permission	ADMIN
Summary	Shows all databases that are opened in the current server instance.

SHOW SESSIONS

Signature	SHOW SESSIONS
Permission	ADMIN
Summary	Shows all sessions that are connected to the current server instance.

SHOW USERS

Signature	SHOW USERS (ON [database])
Permission	ADMIN
Summary	Shows all users that are registered in the database. If a [database] is specified, local users are shown.
Errors	The command fails if the optional database could not be opened.

KILL

Signature	KILL [target]
Permission	ADMIN
Summary	Kills sessions of a user or an IP:port combination, specified by [target]. The Glob syntax can be used to address more than one user.
Errors	The command fails if a user tried to kill his/her own session.

CREATE EVENT

Signature	CREATE EVENT [NAME]
Permission	ADMIN
Summary	Creates the specified event.
Errors	The command fails if event already exists.

SHOW EVENTS

Signature	SHOW EVENTS
Permission	ADMIN
Summary	Shows all events that have been registered in the database.

DROP EVENT

Signature	DROP EVENT [NAME]
Permission	ADMIN
Summary	Drops the specified event.
Errors	The command fails if the event doesn't exist.

User Management

CREATE USER

Signature	CREATE USER [name] ([password])
Permission	ADMIN
Summary	Creates a user with the specified [name] and [password]. [name] must be a valid user name. The password must be a valid MD5 hash value. If no password is specified in the console mode, it is requested via standard input.
Errors	The command fails if the specified user already exists, or if the password is no valid MD5 hash value.

ALTER USER

Signature	ALTER USER [name] ([password])
Permission	ADMIN
Summary	Alters the [password] of the user specified by [name]. The password must be a valid MD5 hash value. If no password is specified in the console mode, it is requested via standard input.
Errors	The command fails if the specified user does not exist, or if the password is no valid MD5 hash value.

DROP USER

Signature	DROP USER [name] (ON [database]):
Permission	ADMIN
Summary	Drops the user with the specified [name]. If a [database] is specified, the user is only dropped locally. The Glob syntax can be used to address more than one database or user.
Errors	The command fails if admin is specified as user name, if the specified user does not exist or is logged in, or if the optional database could not be opened for modification.

GRANT

Signature	GRANT [NONE|READ|WRITE|CREATE|ADMIN] (ON [database]) TO [user]
Permission	ADMIN
Summary	Grants the specified permission to the specified [user]. If a [database] is specified, the permissions are only granted locally. The Glob syntax can be used to address more than one database or user.
Errors	The command fails if admin is specified as user name, if the specified user does not exist, or if the optional database could not be opened for modification.
Examples	GRANT READ TO JoeWinson grants READ permission to the user JoeWinson. GRANT WRITE ON Wiki TO editor* grants WRITE permissions on the Wiki database to all users starting with the characters editor*.

PASSWORD

Signature	PASSWORD ([password])
Permission	NONE
Summary	Changes the [password] of the current user. The password must be a valid MD5 hash value. If no password is specified in the console mode, it is requested via standard input.
Errors	The command fails if the password is no valid MD5 hash value.

General Commands

GET

Signature	GET [option]
Permission	READ
Summary	Returns the current value of the Option specified via [key].
Errors	The command fails if the specified option is unknown.

SET

Signature	SET [option] ([value])
Permission	READ
Summary	Sets the Option with the specified [key] to a new [value]. If no value is specified, and if the value is boolean, it will be inverted.
Errors	The command fails if the specified option is unknown or if the specified value is invalid.

INFO

Signature	INFO
Permission	READ
Summary	Shows global information.

HELP

Signature	HELP ([command])
Permission	NONE
Summary	If [command] is specified, information on the specific command is printed; otherwise, all commands are listed.
Errors	The command fails if the specified command is unknown.

EXIT

Signature	EXIT
Permission	NONE
Summary	Exits the console mode.

Changelog

Version 7.2

• Updated: CREATE INDEX, DROP INDEX (PATH argument removed. Path summary is always available now and updated with OPTIMIZE)
• Updated: permissions for REPO DELETE, REPO INSTALL and REPO LIST

Version 7.1

• Updated: KILL (killing sessions by specifying IP:port)

Version 7.0

• Added: FLUSH, RETRIEVE, STORE
• Updated: ADD: simplified arguments