ByteHouse Command Line Interface (CLI)
ByteHouse CLI is a command-line application for the most direct way to interact with Bytehouse Services
Installation
MacOS
To install the ByteHouse CLI, make sure you have Homebrew installed on your machine and run the following commands:
brew tap bytehouse-cloud/homebrew-core
brew install bytehouse-cli
To upgrade the ByteHouse CLI, run the following command:
brew upgrade bytehouse-cli
Linux
You can get the most updated version here: https://github.com/bytehouse-cloud/cli/releases/
curl -o bytehouse-cli -L https://github.com/bytehouse-cloud/cli/releases/download/v1.5.21/bytehouse-linux-amd64
chmod +x bytehouse-cli
# You might want to add this binary executable to your `~/.bashrc` as alias, or `~/.zshrc`l
echo "alias bytehouse-cli=\"$(pwd)/bytehouse-cli\"" > ~/.bashrc
Windows
Download the latest installer (bytehouse-vX.X.XX.X-windows-amd64) from https://github.com/bytehouse-cloud/cli/releases
Getting Started
Credentials
There are few credentials you would need to get started
-
Account Name
-
User Name
-
Password
-
Region
Note: The information you would need is the same as how you would log in with Web UI.

If you are unsure, you can also check your details on the top right corner of the Web Console.

Using the CLI
The simplest way to start the application is to run it in your command line or PowerShell.
With Flags
When specifying flag and its value when starting the application, the format is
--<flag> value
, eg --user mary
Flags also have an alias, see in Reference: Alias
An example of starting bytehouse-cli is shown below:
bytehouse-cli --user <user name> --account <account name> --password <password> --region <region name> --secure
# Example
$ bytehouse-cli --user bob --account AWSXXX --password coolbob --region cn-north-1 --secure
- Note:
--secure
flag is needed when connecting to bytehouse's public domain
With Configuration File
Sometimes it's neater and more manageable to keep all flags in a configuration file. With the configuration file, you can also specify query settings in it. You can use the -cf
flag with the path to configuration file as value.
For full usage of configuration File, see in Reference: Configuration File
An example of configuration file and usage is shown below:
$ cat bytehouse_conf.toml
# Settings for connection
account = "AWSXXXXX"
user = "bob"
password = "coolbob"
region = "cn-north-1"
secure = true
# Settings for query Settings
ansi_sql = true
$ bytehouse-cli -cf bytehouse_conf.toml
Non-Interactive Mode
Sometimes you could be writing shell script and it could be impractical to get into interactive mode. Bytehouse CLI allows the user to execute a SQL command and exit automatically.
With Query Flag
If you launch bytehouse-cli with -q
or --query
flag, that SQL statement will be executed and bytehouse-cli will exit immediately after the execution.
$ bytehouse-cli -q "select 1"
With stdin
Users can also allow bytehouse-cli to take in input from stdin
.
$ echo "select 1" | bytehouse-cli
Scripting
Users can also write a SQL script and pipe the input to bytehouse-cli
-
Queries are separated by
;
-
Queries will be run sequentially
-
Stops further execution when first query execution returns with an error
$ cat example.sql
CREATE DATABASE bob_db;
USE bob_db;
CREATE TABLE bob_numbers
(
i Int32
)
ENGINE = CnchMergeTree
ORDER BY i;
SHOW CREATE TABLE bob_numbers;
$ bytehouse-cli < example.sql
# This is also accepted
$ cat example.sql | bytehouse-cli
Data Insertion
It is very common to load data from a file, below shows some examples on how to do so.
From query
Interactive Mode
Bytehouse » INSERT INTO bob_db.bob_number VALUES (1), (2), (3)
Non-Interactive Mode
$ bytehouse-cli -q "INSERT INTO bob_db.bob_number VALUES (1), (2), (3)"
From a local file
Interactive Mode
Bytehouse » INSERT INTO bob_db.bob_number FORMAT csv INFILE 'path/to/data.csv'
Non-Interactive Mode
$ bytehouse-cli -q "INSERT INTO bob_db.bob_number FORMAT csv" < 'path/to/data.csv'
Data Export
You can use the INTO OUTFILE
syntax after your query to save your results to a local file.
Bytehouse » SELECT * FROM bob_db.bob_number INTO OUTFILE 'out.csv' format csv
Version Check
You can check the version of the ByteHouse CLI using the -v
or --version
flag. When flag is specified, ByteHouse CLI does not start
$ bytehouse-cli -v
v1.5.2
Help
You can show all the flags supported by using -h
flag or --help
#To display all options and their alias
bytehouse-cli -h
Updated 11 months ago