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SchemaCrawler

Free database schema discovery and comprehension tool

Getting Started with SchemaCrawler

SchemaCrawler Installation

Pre-requisites for Installation

Cross-platform Installation

Installing SchemaCrawler is as simple as unzipping a file. First, download the [SchemaCrawler distribution with examples] zip file, and unzip it into a directory. You will have the SchemaCrawler distribution in a directory called _schemacrawler. There are detailed instructions with the download.

You can extend the SchemaCrawler distribution by downloading additional libraries that SchemaCrawler integrates with, such as the pure Java Graphviz library, Spring Framework, Groovy, Ruby, Python and so on. You can also download additional JDBC drivers, and have SchemaCrawler pick them up automatically. Once you are happy with the customization of your installation, you can copy the _schemacrawler folder to any location on your system, and use it from there.

Getting Started

FAQs

Before downloading SchemaCrawler, be sure to read the FAQs and take a look at the resources.

Watch the video on How to explore a new database to understand the power of SchemaCrawler, and to give you some ideas of how to use it. Also read Explore Your Database Schema with SchemaCrawler, How to Get Database Metadata as Java POJOs and Lint Your Database Schema With GitHub Actions Workflows.

SchemaCrawler can generate diagrams of your database schema, and export them to other tools. Take a look at How to Generate dbdiagram.io Diagrams for Your Database and How to Generate Mermaid Diagrams for Your Database to see how you can continue to evolve your database design. If you want continuous ingtegration, see how you can Generate Database Diagrams With GitHub Actions Workflows.

And finally, here are some other quick getting started articles:

Explore the Command-Line

Explore the SchemaCrawler command-line with a live online tutorial. The tutorial works from within any browser with no software or plugins needed.

SchemaCrawler provides detailed command-line help. Simply run schemacrawler.cmd (or schemacrawler.sh on Unix) with no command-line arguments for help.

Examples

The first thing to try is the SchemaCrawler examples.

Several examples on how to use SchemaCrawler on the command-line, with Apache ant or with Apache Maven, as an API, how to script your database using JavaScript, Groovy, Ruby or Python, how to create database diagrams with Graphviz and how to use the Apache Velocity templating integration are provided with the [SchemaCrawler distribution with the examples] download.

Connecting To Your Database

Read information about database support carefully to understand how to connect to your database.

How-tos

Once you start getting comfortable with SchemaCrawler, and need to know more about how to do things, read the how-tos section.

Advanced Topics

Advanced Installation Steps

After you have worked through the examples, you can make a copy of this _schemacrawler directory to any location on your hard-disk, and rename the directory to something appropriate. Then, put this directory on your PATH. Once you open a command shell, you can run SchemaCrawler using schemacrawler.cmd (or schemacrawler.sh on Unix).

Configuration

SchemaCrawler offers rich configuration options. Read about them on the SchemaCrawler Configuration page.

SchemaCrawler Docker Image

You can use the official SchemaCrawler Docker image from Docker Hub to reduce some of your installation steps. It comes with Graphviz pre-installed, so you can generate schema diagrams. For more information, see information on the Docker image.

Tweaking Your Installation

If you install SchemaCrawler to some other location, you can use David Guillot’s shell script to launch SchemaCrawler

Building From Source Code

To use SchemaCrawler in your development projects, or to build SchemaCrawler from the source code, read about building.

Additional Installation Options

Additional download and installation options are available.