Options

This page is linked from the Getting Started Section.

The options listed on this page influence the way how database commands are executed and XQuery expressions are evaluated. Options are divided into global options, which are valid for all BaseX instances, and local options, which are specific to a client or session. Values of options are either strings, numbers or booleans.

The .basex configuration file is parsed by every new local BaseX instance. It is used to store options to disk:

• Global options can only be set via the configuration file or system properties (see below).
• With Version 7.6 and later, local options can also be specified in the configuration file after the # Local Options comment.

Various ways exist to access and change options:

• The current value of an option can be requested with the GET and changed with the SET command. All values are static: they stay valid until they are changed once again by another operation. If an option is of type boolean, and if no value is specified, its existing value will be inverted.

• Initial values for options can also be specified via system properties, which can e.g. be passed on with the -D flag on command line, or using System.setProperty() before creating a BaseX instance. The specified keys needs to be prefixed with org.basex.. An example:

java -Dorg.basex.CHOP=false -cp basex.jar org.basex.BaseX -c"get chop"
CHOP: false

• Options can also be set in the prolog of an XQuery expression. In the option declaration, options need to be bound to the Database Module namespace. All values will be reset after the evaluation of a query:

declare option db:chop 'false';
...

(# db:chop false #) { parse-xml('<xml> hi </xml>') }

If options are implicitly changed by operations in the GUI, the underlying commands will be listed in the Info View.

Global Options

This article is part of the Getting Started Section. It lists all database commands supported by BaseX. Commands can e.g. be executed from the Command Line, Scripts, the Clients, REST, the input field in the GUI and 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.

Basics

Command Scripts

Database commands in both the string and XML syntax can be placed in a text file and stored on disk. The default extension for BaseX command scripts is .bxs. If the path to a command script is passed on to BaseX, it will automatically be recognized and evaluated as such.

String Syntax

Multiple commands can be written in a single line and separated by semicolons, or stored as command script. Lines starting with # are interpreted as comments and are skipped. The following script creates a database, adds two documents to it and performs a query:

CREATE DB test
ADD input.xml
ADD TO embedded.xml <root>embedded</root>
# run query
XQUERY count(//text())

XML Syntax

The string syntax is limited when XML snippets need to be embedded in a command, or when complex queries are to be specified.

This is why database commands can also be specified in XML. Multiple commands can be enclosed by a <commands/> root element:

<commands>
  <create-db name='test'/>
  <add>input.xml</add>
  <add path='embedded.xml'><root>embedded</root></add>
  <xquery>count(//text())</xquery>
</commands>

Glob Syntax

Some commands support the glob syntax 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}.

Aliases

In all commands, the DB keyword can be replaced by DATABASE.

Database Operations

CREATE DB

Syntax	CREATE DB [name] ([input])
XML Syntax	<create-db name='...'>([input])</create-db>
Permission	CREATE
Summary	Creates the database [name] with an optional [input] and opens it. The input may either be a reference to a single XML document, a directory, a remote URL, or a string containing XML: [name] must be a valid database name several additional Create Options can be set to influence the creation process.
Errors	The command fails if a database with the specified name is currently used by another process, if one of the documents to be added is not well-formed or if it cannot be parsed for some other reason.
Examples	CREATE DB input creates an empty database input. CREATE DB xmark http://files.basex.org/xml/xmark.xml creates the database xmark, containing a single initial document called xmark.xml. CREATE DATABASE coll /path/to/input creates the database coll with all documents found in the input directory. SET INTPARSE false; CREATE DB input input.xml creates a database input with input.xml as initial document, which will be parsed with Java's default XML parser. <create-db name='simple'><hello>Universe</hello></create-db> creates a database named simple with an initial document <hello>Universe</hello>.

OPEN

Syntax	OPEN [name]
XML Syntax	<open name='...'/>
Permission	READ
Summary	Opens the database specified by [name].
Errors	The command fails if the specified database does not exist, is currently being updated by another process or cannot be opened for some other reason.

CHECK

Syntax	CHECK [input]
XML Syntax	<check input='...'/>
Permission	READ/CREATE
Summary	This convenience command combines OPEN and CREATE DB: if a database with the name [input] exists, it is opened. Otherwise, a new database is created; if the specified input points to an existing resource, it is stored as initial content.
Errors	The command fails if the addressed database could neither be opened nor created.

CLOSE

Syntax	CLOSE
XML Syntax	<close/>
Permission	READ
Summary	Closes the currently opened database.
Errors	The command fails if the database files could not be closed for some reason.

EXPORT

Syntax	EXPORT [path]
XML Syntax	<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

Syntax	CREATE INDEX [TEXT|ATTRIBUTE|FULLTEXT]
XML Syntax	<create-index type='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

Syntax	DROP INDEX [TEXT|ATTRIBUTE|FULLTEXT]
XML Syntax	<drop-index type='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 DB

Syntax	ALTER DB [name] [newname]
XML Syntax	<alter-db 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 DB db tempdb renames the database db into tempdb.

DROP DB

Syntax	DROP DB [name]
XML Syntax	<drop-db 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

Syntax	CREATE BACKUP [name]
XML Syntax	<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. Please note that Java 7 is required to handle ZIP files larger than 4 GB.
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 the database directory.

RESTORE

Syntax	RESTORE [name]
XML Syntax	<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.

INSPECT

Syntax	INSPECT
XML Syntax	<inspect/>
Permission	READ
Summary	Performs some integrity checks on the opened database and returns a brief summary.

DROP BACKUP

Syntax	DROP BACKUP [name]
XML Syntax	<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.

SHOW BACKUPS

Syntax	SHOW BACKUPS
XML Syntax	<show-backups/>
Permission	CREATE
Summary	Shows all database backups.

COPY

Syntax	COPY [name] [newname]
XML Syntax	<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 DB

Syntax	INFO DB
XML Syntax	<info-db/>
Permission	READ
Summary	Shows information on the currently opened database.
Errors	The command fails if no database is opened.

INFO INDEX

Syntax	INFO INDEX ([TAG|ATTNAME|PATH|TEXT|ATTRIBUTE|FULLTEXT])
XML Syntax	<info-index type='tag|attname|path|text|attribute|fulltext'/>
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

Syntax	INFO STORAGE [start end] | [query]
XML Syntax	<info-storage>([query])</info-storage>
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

Syntax	LIST ([name] ([path]))
XML Syntax	<list (name='...' (path='...'))/>
Permission	NONE
Summary	Lists all available databases. If [name] is specified, the resources of a database are listed. The output can be further restricted to the resources matching the specified [path].
Errors	The command fails if the optional database cannot be opened, or if the existing databases cannot be listed for some other reason.

XQUERY

Syntax	XQUERY [query]
XML Syntax	<xquery>[query]</xquery>
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

Syntax	RETRIEVE [path]
XML Syntax	<retrieve path='...'/>
Permission	READ
Summary	Retrieves a raw file from the opened database at the specified [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.

FIND

Syntax	FIND [query]
XML Syntax	<find>[query]</find>
Permission	READ
Summary	Builds and runs a query for the specified [query] terms. 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

Syntax	CS [query]
XML Syntax	<cs>[query]</cs>
Permission	depends on query
Summary	Evaluates the specified [query] and declares the resulting nodes as new context set. In subsequent queries, the context set will be available via the context item expression of XQuery (.).
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

Syntax	REPO INSTALL [path]
XML Syntax	<repo-install path='...'/>
Permission	CREATE
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

Syntax	REPO LIST
XML Syntax	<repo-list/>
Permission	READ
Summary	Lists all installed packages.

REPO DELETE

Syntax	REPO DELETE [name]
XML Syntax	<repo-delete name='...'/>
Permission	CREATE
Summary	Deletes the package with name [name], optionally followed by a version.
Errors	The command fails if the package to be deleted participates in a dependency.

Updates

ADD

Syntax	ADD (TO [path]) [input]
XML Syntax	<add (path='...')>[input]</add>
Permission	WRITE
Summary	Adds a file, 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

Syntax	DELETE [path]
XML Syntax	<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

Syntax	RENAME [path] [newpath]
XML Syntax	<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

Syntax	REPLACE [path] [input]
XML Syntax	<replace path='...'>[input]</replace>
Permission	WRITE
Summary	Replaces a document in the currently opened database, addressed by [path], with the file or XML string specified by [input], or adds it as a new document.
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

Syntax	STORE (TO [path]) [input]
XML Syntax	<store (path='...')>[input]</store>
Permission	WRITE
Summary	Stores a raw file in the opened database 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

Syntax	OPTIMIZE (ALL)
XML Syntax	<optimize/> <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

Syntax	FLUSH
XML Syntax	<flush/>
Permission	WRITE
Summary	Explicitly flushes the buffers of the currently opened database to disk. This command is applied if AUTOFLUSH has been set to false.
Errors	The command fails if no database is opened.

Server Administration

SHOW SESSIONS

Syntax	SHOW SESSIONS
XML Syntax	<show-sessions/>
Permission	ADMIN
Summary	Shows all sessions that are connected to the current server instance.

SHOW USERS

Syntax	SHOW USERS (ON [database])
XML Syntax	<show-users (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

Syntax	KILL [target]
XML Syntax	<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

Syntax	CREATE EVENT [NAME]
XML Syntax	<create-event name='...'/>
Permission	ADMIN
Summary	Creates the specified event.
Errors	The command fails if event already exists.

SHOW EVENTS

Syntax	SHOW EVENTS
XML Syntax	<show-events/>
Permission	ADMIN
Summary	Shows all events that have been registered in the database.

DROP EVENT

Syntax	DROP EVENT [NAME]
XML Syntax	<drop-event name='...'/>
Permission	ADMIN
Summary	Drops the specified event.
Errors	The command fails if the event doesn't exist.

User Management

CREATE USER

Syntax	CREATE USER [name] ([password])
XML Syntax	<create-user name='...'>([password])</create-user>
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

Syntax	ALTER USER [name] ([password])
XML Syntax	<alter-user name='...'>([password])</alter-user>
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

Syntax	DROP USER [name] (ON [database]):
XML Syntax	<drop-user name='...' (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

Syntax	GRANT [NONE|READ|WRITE|CREATE|ADMIN] (ON [database]) TO [user]
XML Syntax	<grant name='...' permission='none|read|write|create|admin' (database='...')/>
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

Syntax	PASSWORD ([password])
XML Syntax	<password>([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

RUN

Syntax	RUN [file]
XML Syntax	<run file='...'/>
Permission	depends on input
Summary	Evaluates the contents of [file] as XQuery expression. If the file ends with the suffix .bxs, the file content will be evaluated as command script. This command can be used to run several commands in a single transaction.
Errors	The command fails if the specified file does not exist, or if the retrieved input is invalid. It will be canceled as soon as one of the executed commands fails.
Examples	RUN query.xq will evaluated the specified file as XQuery expression RUN commands.bxs will evaluated the specified file as command script

EXECUTE

Syntax	EXECUTE [input]
XML Syntax	<execute>[input]</execute>
Permission	depends on input
Summary	Evaluates the specified [input] as command script. This command can be used to run several commands in a single transaction.
Errors	The command fails if the syntax of the specified input is invalid. It will be canceled as soon as one of the executed commands fails.
Examples	EXECUTE "create db db1; create db db2" EXECUTE "<commands><create-db name='db1'/><create-db name='db2'/></commands>" both commands will create two databases db1 and db2 in a single transaction.

GET

Syntax	GET [option]
XML Syntax	<get option='...'/>
Permission	NONE
Summary	Returns the current value of the Option specified via [option]. Global options can only be requested by users with ADMIN permissions.
Errors	The command fails if the specified option is unknown.

SET

Syntax	SET [option] ([value])
XML Syntax	<set option='...'>([value])</set>
Permission	NONE
Summary	Sets the Option specified by [option] to a new [value]. Only local options can be modified. 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

Syntax	INFO
XML Syntax	<info/>
Permission	READ
Summary	Shows global information.

HELP

Syntax	HELP ([command])
XML Syntax	<help>([command])</help>
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

Syntax	EXIT
XML Syntax	<exit/>
Permission	NONE
Summary	Exits the console mode.

Changelog

Version 7.5

• Added: EXECUTE executes a command script.
• Added: INSPECT performs integrity checks.
• Added: automatic detection of Command Scripts.
• Removed: SHOW DATABASES; information is also returned by SHOW SESSIONS.
• Removed: OPEN: path argument.

Version 7.3

• Added: XML Syntax added
• Updated: CHECK can now be used to create empty databases.
• Updated: Names and paths in OPEN and LIST are now specified as separate arguments.

Version 7.2.1

• Updated: permissions for GET and SET changed from READ to NONE

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

Client/Server Architecture

HOST

Signature	HOST [host]
Default	localhost
Summary	This host name is used by the client when connecting to a server. This option can also be changed when running the client on command line via -n.

PORT

Signature	PORT [port]
Default	1984
Summary	This port is used by the client when connecting to a server. This option can also be changed when running the client on command line via -p.

SERVERPORT

Signature	SERVERPORT [port]
Default	1984
Summary	This is the port the database server will be listening to. This option can also be changed when running the server on command line via -p.

EVENTPORT

Signature	EVENTPORT [port]
Default	1985
Summary	This port is used by the client to listen for server events. It will only be bound if a client attaches itself to a database event. This option can also be changed when running the server on command line via -e.

USER

Signature	USER [name]
Default	empty
Summary	Represents a user name, which is used for accessing the server or an HTTP service: The default value will be overwritten if a client specifies its own credentials. If the default value is empty, login will only be possible if the client specifies credentials. The option can also be changed on command line via -U.

PASSWORD

Signature	PASSWORD [password]
Default	empty
Summary	Represents a password, which is used for accessing the server or an HTTP service: The default value will be overwritten if a client specifies its own credentials. If the default value is empty, login will only be possible if the client specifies credentials. The option can also be changed on command line via -P. Please note that it is a security risk to specify your password in plain text.

SERVERHOST

Signature	SERVERHOST [host|ip]
Default	empty
Summary	This is the host name or ip address the server is bound to. If the option is set to an empty string (which is the default), the server will be open to all clients.

PROXYHOST

Signature	PROXYHOST [host]
Default	empty
Summary	This is the host name of a proxy server.

PROXYPORT

Signature	PROXYPORT [port]
Default	80
Summary	This is the port number of a proxy server.

NONPROXYHOSTS

Signature	NONPROXYHOSTS [hosts]
Default	empty
Summary	This is a list of hosts that should be directly accessed.

TIMEOUT

Signature	TIMEOUT [seconds]
Default	30
Summary	Specifies the maximum time a read-only transaction may take. If an operation takes longer than the specified timeout, it will be aborted. Write operations will not be affected by this timeout, as this would corrupt the integrity of the database. The timeout is deactivated if the timeout is set to 0. It is ignored for ADMIN operations.

KEEPALIVE

Signature	KEEPALIVE [seconds]
Default	600
Summary	Specifies the maximum time a client will be remembered by the server. If there has been no interaction with a client for a longer time than specified by this timeout, it will be disconnected. Running operations will not be affected by this option. The keepalive check is deactivated if the value is set to 0.

PARALLEL

Signature	PARALLEL [number]
Default	8
Summary	Denotes the maximum allowed number of parallel read transactions.

LOG

Signature	LOG [boolean]
Default	true
Summary	Turns Logging of server operations and HTTP requests on/off. This option can also be changed when running the server on command line via -z.

LOGMSGMAXLEN

Signature	LOGMSGMAXLEN [length]
Default	1000
Summary	Specifies the maximum length of a single log message.

HTTP Options

If BaseX is run as Web Application, the HTTP options are either determined by the web server, or specified in the webapp/WEB-INF directory and the jetty.xml and web.xml configuration files.

WEBPATH

Signature	WEBPATH [path]
Default	{home}/BaseXWeb or {home}/webapp
Summary	Points to the directory in which all the Web Application contents are stored, including XQuery, Script, RESTXQ and configuration files.

RESTXQPATH

Signature	RESTXQPATH [path]
Default	empty
Summary	Points to the directory which contains the RESTXQ modules of a web application. Relative paths will be resolved against the WEBPATH directory.

HTTPLOCAL

Signature	HTTPLOCAL [boolean]
Default	false
Summary	By default, a database server instance will be opened along with the web server. If the flag is set to true, all commands will be executed in an embedded database context. If BaseX is run as Web Application, and if the flag is false, the server will be started as soon as the first HTTP service is called.

STOPPORT

Signature	STOPPORT [port]
Default	8985
Summary	This is the port on which the HTTP Server can be locally closed: The listener for stopping the web server will only be started if the specified value is greater than 0. The option is ignored if BaseX is used as a Web Application or started via Maven. This option can also be changed when running the HTTP server on command line via -s.

Create Options

General

MAINMEM

Signature	MAINMEM [boolean]
Default	false
Summary	If this option is turned on, new databases will be exclusively created in main memory. Most queries will be evaluated faster in main memory mode, but all data is lost if BaseX is shut down. The value of this option will be assigned once to a new database, and cannot be changed after that.

ADDCACHE

Signature	ADDCACHE [boolean]
Default	false
Summary	If this option is activated, documents that are added via ADD will first be cached to disk before being added to the final database. This option is helpful when larger documents are to be imported, and if the existing heuristics cannot estimate the size of the input (e.g. when adding directories).

Parsing

CREATEFILTER

Signature	CREATEFILTER [filter]
Default	*.xml
Summary	File filter in the Glob Syntax, which is applied whenever new databases are created, or resources are added to a database.

ADDARCHIVES

Signature	ADDARCHIVES [boolean]
Default	true
Summary	If this option is set to true, files within archives (ZIP, GZIP, DOCX, etc.) are parsed whenever new database are created or resources are added to a database.

SKIPCORRUPT

Signature	SKIPCORRUPT [boolean]
Default	false
Summary	Skips corrupt (i.e., not well-formed) files while creating a database or adding new documents. If this option is activated, document updates are slowed down, as all files will be parsed twice. Next, main memory consumption will be higher as parsed files will be cached in main memory.

ADDRAW

Signature	ADDRAW [boolean]
Default	false
Summary	If this option is activated, and if new resources are added to a database, all files that are not filtered by the CREATEFILTER option will be added as raw files (i.e., in their binary representation).

PARSER

Signature	PARSER [type]
Default	XML
Summary	Defines a parser for importing new files to the database. Currently, 'XML', 'JSON', 'CSV', 'TEXT', 'HTML' are available as parsers. HTML will be parsed as normal XML files if Tagsoup is not found in the classpath.

PARSEROPT

Signature	PARSEROPT [options]
Default	empty
Summary	Defines parser-specific options; see Parsers for more information.

HTMLOPT

Signature	HTMLOPT [options]
Default	empty
Summary	Allows to specify TagSoup options for HTML parsing; see HTML Parser for more information.

XML Parsing

CHOP

Signature	CHOP [boolean]
Default	true
Summary	Chops all leading and trailing whitespaces from text nodes while building a database, and discards empty text nodes. By default, this option is set to true, as it often reduces the database size by up to 50%. It can also be turned off on command line via -w.

INTPARSE

Signature	INTPARSE [boolean]
Default	true
Summary	Uses the internal XML parser instead of the standard Java XML parser. The internal parser is faster, more fault tolerant and supports common HTML entities out-of-the-box, but it does not support all features needed for parsing DTDs.

DTD

Signature	DTD [boolean]
Default	false
Summary	Parses referenced DTDs and resolves XML entities. By default, this option is switched to false, as many DTDs are located externally, which may completely block the process of creating new databases. The CATFILE option can be changed to locally resolve DTDs.

CATFILE

Signature	CATFILE [path]
Default	empty
Summary	Specifies a catalog file to locally resolve DTDs; see the entry on Catalog Resolvers for more details.

Indexing

The current index and full-text index options will be stored in a new database, and take effect if indexes are rebuilt via the OPTIMIZE.

TEXTINDEX

Signature	TEXTINDEX [boolean]
Default	true
Summary	Creates a text index whenever a new database is created. A text index speeds up queries with equality comparisons on text nodes; see Indexes for more details.

ATTRINDEX

Signature	ATTRINDEX [boolean]
Default	true
Summary	Creates an attribute index whenever a new database is created. An attribute index speeds up queries with equality comparisons on attribute values; see Indexes for more details.

FTINDEX

Signature	FTINDEX [boolean]
Default	false
Summary	Creates a full-text index whenever a new database is created. A full-text index speeds up queries with full-text expressions; see Indexes for more details.

MAXLEN

Signature	MAXLEN [int]
Default	96
Summary	Specifies the maximum length of strings that are to be indexed by the name, path, value, and full-text index structures. The value of this option will be assigned once to a new database, and cannot be changed after that.

MAXCATS

Signature	MAXCATS [int]
Default	100
Summary	Specifies the maximum number of distinct values (categories) that will be stored together with the element/attribute names or unique paths in the Name Index or Path Index. The value of this option will be assigned once to a new database, and cannot be changed after that.

UPDINDEX

Signature	UPDINDEX [boolean]
Default	false
Summary	If turned on, incremental indexing will be activated: all update operations will also update the value index structures (texts and attribute values). The value of this option will be assigned once to a new database, and cannot be changed after that. The advantage of incremental indexes is that the value index structures will always be up-to-date. The downside is that updates will take a little bit longer. The article on Index Structures includes additional details.

INDEXSPLITSIZE

Signature	INDEXSPLITSIZE [num]
Default	0
Summary	This option affects the construction of new text and attribute indexes. It specifies the number of index build operations that are performed before writing partial index data to disk. By default, if the value is set to 0, some dynamic split heuristics are applied.

FTINDEXSPLITSIZE

Signature	FTINDEXSPLITSIZE [num]
Default	0
Summary	This option affects the construction of new full-text indexes. It specifies the number of index build operations that are performed before writing partial index data to disk. By default, if the value is set to 0, some dynamic split heuristics are applied.

Full-Text

STEMMING

Signature	STEMMING [boolean]
Default	false
Summary	A new full-text index will stem all tokens and speed up queries on stemmed tokens. The same stemming normalization will be applied to all query tokens that are checked against tokens in this index.

CASESENS

Signature	CASESENS [boolean]
Default	false
Summary	A new full-text index will preserve the case of all tokens. The same case normalization will be applied to all query tokens that are checked against tokens in this index.

DIACRITICS

Signature	DIACRITICS [boolean]
Default	false
Summary	A new full-text index will preserve the diacritics of all tokens. The same diacritics normalization will be applied to all query tokens that are checked against tokens in this index.

LANGUAGE

Signature	LANGUAGE [lang]
Default	en
Summary	A new full-text index will use the given language to normalize all tokens. This option is mainly important if tokens are to be stemmed, or if the tokenization of a language differs from Western languages.

STOPWORDS

Signature	STOPWORDS [path]
Default	empty
Summary	A new full-text index will drop tokens that are listed in the specified stopword list. A stopword list may decrease the size of the full text index. A standard stopword list for English texts is provided in the directory etc/stopwords.txt in the official releases.

Query Options

QUERYINFO

Signature	QUERYINFO [boolean]
Default	false
Summary	Prints more information on internal query rewritings, optimizations, and performance. By default, this info is shown in the Info View in the GUI. It can also be activated on command line via -V.

XQUERY3

Signature	XQUERY3
Default	true
Summary	Enables all XQuery 3.0 features supported by BaseX. If this option is set to false, the XQuery parser will only accept expressions of the XQuery 1.0 specification.

BINDINGS

Signature	BINDINGS [vars]
Default	empty
Summary	Contains external variables to be bound to a query: Variable names and values are separated by equality signs, and multiple variables are delimited by commas. Variables may optionally be introduced with a leading dollar sign. Commas that occur in the value itself are encoded by duplication. If a variable uses a namespace different to the default namespace, it can be specified with the Clark Notation or Expanded QName Notation. This option can also be used on command line with the flag -b.
Examples	$a=1,$b=2   binds the values 1 and 2 to the variables $a and $b a=1,,2   binds the value 1,2 to the variable $a {URI}a=x   binds the value x to the variable $a with the namespace URI.

QUERYPATH

Signature	QUERYPATH [path]
Default	empty
Summary	Contains the path (base URI) to the executed query (default: empty). This directory will be used to resolve relative paths to documents, query modules, and other resources addressed in a query.

CACHEQUERY

Signature	CACHEQUERY [boolean]
Default	false
Summary	Caches the query results before returning them to the client. This option may be set to true if the whole result is needed for further operations (such as is e.g. the case in the GUI of BaseX).

FORCECREATE

Signature	FORCECREATE [boolean]
Default	false
Summary	By activating this option, the XQuery doc() and collection() functions will create database instances for the addressed input files.

CHECKSTRINGS

Signature	CHECKSTRINGS [boolean]
Default	true
Summary	If this option is turned off, strings from external sources will be adopted as is, i. e., without being checked for valid XML characters: This option affects Java Bindings and the string conversion and input functions archive:create, archive:extract-text, archive:update, convert:binary-to-string, fetch:text, file:read-text, and zip:text-entry. Please be aware that an inconsiderate use of this option may cause unexpected behavior when storing or outputting strings.

LSERROR

Signature	LSERROR [error]
Default	0
Summary	This option specifies the maximum Levenshtein error for the BaseX-specific fuzzy match option. See the page on Full-Texts for more information on fuzzy querying.

RUNS

Signature	RUNS [num]
Default	1
Summary	Specify number of runs a query is executed by the XQUERY command. The result is only serialized once, and the measured times are averages of all runs.

Serialization Options

SERIALIZE

Signature	SERIALIZE [boolean]
Default	true
Summary	Results of XQuery expressions will be serialized if this option is turned on. For debugging purposes and performance measurements, this option can be set to false. It can also be turned off on command line via -z.

SERIALIZER

Signature	SERIALIZER [params]
Default	empty
Summary	Contains parameters for serializing query results: Keys and values are separated by equality signs. Multiple parameters are delimited by commas. The option can also be used on command line with the flag -s.
Example	encoding=US-ASCII,omit-xml-declaration=no : sets the encoding to US-ASCII and prints the XML declaration.

EXPORTER

Signature	EXPORTER [params]
Default	empty
Summary	Contains parameters for exporting all resources of a database; see Serialization for more details. Keys and values are separated by equality signs, multiple parameters are delimited by commas.

XMLPLAN

Signature	XMLPLAN [boolean]
Default	false
Summary	Prints the execution plan of an XQuery expression in its XML representation. This option can also be activated on command line via -x.

COMPPLAN

Signature	COMPPLAN [boolean]
Default	true
Summary	Creates the query plan before or after the compilation step. Query plans might change due to optimizations.

DOTPLAN

Signature	DOTPLAN [boolean]
Default	false
Summary	Visualizes the execution plan of an XQuery expression with dotty and saves its dot file in the query directory.

DOTCOMPACT

Signature	DOTCOMPACT [boolean]
Default	false
Summary	Chooses a compact dot representation.

DOTDISPLAY

Signature	DOTDISPLAY [boolean]
Default	true
Summary	Visualizes the dot representation after the query execution.

DOTTY

Signature	DOTTY [path]
Default	dotty
Summary	Location of the dotty executable.

Other Options

AUTOFLUSH

Signature	AUTOFLUSH [boolean]
Default	true
Summary	Flushes database buffers to disk after each update. If this option is set to false, bulk operations (multiple single updates) will be evaluated faster. As a drawback, the chance of data loss increases if the database is not explicitly flushed via the FLUSH command.

WRITEBACK

Signature	WRITEBACK [boolean]
Default	false
Summary	Updates on XML nodes are written back to the input files. No backups of your original files will be created if this option is turned on. This option can also be activated on command line via -u.

MAXSTAT

Signature	MAXSTAT [num]
Default	30
Summary	Specifies the maximum number of index occurrences printed by the INFO INDEX command.

Changelog

Version 7.7

• Added: ADDCACHE, FTINDEXSPLITSIZE, INDEXSPLITSIZE, CHECKSTRINGS

Version 7.6

• Added: GLOBALLOCK
• Added: store local options in configuration file after # Local Options comments.

Version 7.5

• Added: options can now be set via system properties
• Added: a pragma expression can be used to locally change database options
• Added: USER, PASSWORD, LOG, LOGMSGMAXLEN, WEBPATH, RESTXQPATHHTTPLOCAL, CREATEONLY, STRIPNS
• Removed: HTTPPATH; HTTPPORT: jetty.xml configuration file is used instead
• Removed: global options cannot be changed anymore during the lifetime of a BaseX instance

Version 7.3

• Updated: KEEPALIVE, TIMEOUT: default values changed
• Removed: WILDCARDS; new index supports both fuzzy and wildcard queries
• Removed: SCORING; new scoring model will focus on lengths of text nodes and match options

Version 7.2

• Added: PROXYHOST, PROXYPORT, NONPROXYHOSTS, HTMLOPT
• Updated: TIMEOUT: ignore timeout for admin users

Version 7.1

• Added: ADDRAW, MAXLEN, MAXCATS, UPDINDEX
• Updated: BINDINGS

Version 7.0

• Added: SERVERHOST, KEEPALIVE, AUTOFLUSH, QUERYPATH