sqlcmd is an open source Python-based SQL command line tool, similar in concept to tools like the PostgreSQL psql command, the Oracle's SQL*Plus, and MySQL's mysql tool.

In short, sqlcmd is a SQL command tool that attempts to provide the same interface for all supported databases and across all platforms.

sqlcmd has been tested on the following platforms:
· Mac OS X, version 10.4 (Tiger), using MacPython
· Linux (Ubuntu, Gutsy and Hardy)
· FreeBSD
· Windows XP, using the non-Cygwin Windows version of Python and pyreadline

Here are some key features of "sqlcmd":

· Connection parameters for individual databases are kept in a configuration file in your home directory.
· Databases can be assigned multiple logical names.
· Command history management, with GNU Readline support. Each database has its own history file.
· Supports retrieving database metadata (getting a list of tables, querying the table's columns and their data types, listing the indexes and foreign keys for a table, etc.).
· Supports Unix shell-style variables.
· Standard interface that works the same no matter what database you're using.
· Uses the enhanced database drivers in the Grizzled API's db module. (Those drivers are, in turn, built on top of standard Python DB API drivers like psycopg2 and MySQLdb.)
· Supports: MySQL (tested with MySQL 5 on Linux, Mac OS X, and FreeBSD), Oracle (tested with Oracle Database 10g Express Edition for Linux), PostgreSQL (tested with versions 8.1 through 8.3 on Linux and Mac OS X), SQL Server (tested with SQL Server Express 2005, using pymssql), SQLite (tested on Linux and Mac OS X). You will have to install Python DB API drivers for all but SQLite.
· Written entirely in Python, which makes it very portable (though the database drivers are often written in C and may not be available on all platforms).