H2 Database Tool

TL;DR A command line app to work with the H2 database in local and server mode. Includes a configuration for server operation via standard UNIX style environment variables as well as command line options. Can be run both as JVM based app and native executable.

Usage (Examples)

• Quickly create & and initialize a database.

  h2db init shoppingbasket -i scripts/sql/h2/localdev.sql

• Start a TCP server to access your databases.

  h2db serve & disown

• Stop a running TCP server.

  h2db shutdown

• Display local host and server configuration:

  h2db env

• See a list of available commands:

  h2db --help

For more details, run the help option per command: h2bd serve --help

Build the h2db tool

IMPORTANT: To build the tool ensure you have at least Java version 21 available/installed.

1. Checkout this project.
2. Run the Gradle script:

   ./gradlew installDist

After this you will find the installation under <project-dir>/app/build/install/h2db/bin/

Building

Executable JAR

To build and generate a local installation, run the following shell command:

./gradlew build 

You will find the executable(s), (one for windows, and one for unix/linux) under app/build/install/h2 folder.

Installation

I find the easiest installation method is too just to add the app/build/install/h2/bin on your path. Most commands have defaults optional values which can be changed via environment variables.

Native Executable (via GraalVM)

NB: You should have a GraalVM toolchain installed

Build:

./gradlew nativeCompile

Installation

Copy the native executable to any folder which is on your command line tool path.

The native executable can be found here: app/build/native/nativeCompile/h2db

Configuration

By default, all newly created databases will be created under <your-home-folder>/.h2/data. Several environment variables can be used to change such default behaviours.

Here are some notable environment variables related to server configuration:

Variable	Default	Description
H2TOOL_DATA_DIR	~/.h2/data	The directory in which H2 databases reside.
H2TOOL_SERVER_ALLOW_REMOTE_CONNECTIONS	false	Allow remote connections to the server.
H2TOOL_SERVER_ENABLE_VIRTUAL_THREADS	false	Enable experimental virtual threads on the JVM.
H2TOOL_SERVER_HOST	localhost	Bind address of the server connection of the clients.
H2TOOL_SERVER_PERMIT_CREATE_DB	false	Allowing remote client to automatically create a database via an URL.
H2TOOL_SERVER_PORT	2029	Port for clients connecting to the server.
H2TOOL_DATABASE_USER	sa	Default database user name when the tool creates, and/or connects to database.
H2TOOL_DATABASE_PASSWORD	secret	(Please change this). Default database user password when the tool creates, and/or connects to database.

NOTE: These variables may be overridden via command line. Please run h2db --help for more information.