mssql-launcher

README

MSSQL Launcher

By Aashish Koirala

MSSQL Launcher is a cross-platform CLI based interactive tool that lets you define SQL Server connections in a file and pick them from a menu to connect using either the MSSQL-CLI tool or the SQLCMD tool. Tested on Linux (Ubuntu) and Windows. Written in Go. For those who like to live in the CLI and find it a hassle to launch SSMS any time you need to run a quick query or check some data quickly.

Usage

mssql-launcher [--config config-file] [--log log-file]

• config-file is a YAML file that defines the SQL Server connections. If not provided, the default path is used which is mssql-launcher-config.yaml in the same directory as the binary.
• log-file is the path where logs are written. If not provided, the default path is mssql-launcher-log.log in the same directory as the binary.

Constraints

• You need to have the respective tool, mssql-cli and/or sqlcmd, installed on your system and available on PATH.
• Note that SQL Server Integrated Windows Authentication mode, as the name suggests, only works on Windows.

Installation

Option 1

• Download this Zip file.
• Extract it to get a folder for each supported platform, within which you will find the executable and a sample config file.

Option 2

• If you have the Go SDK installed, run go get github.com/aashishkoirala/mssql-launcher.
• Note that this will only bring in the binary and you will need to supply your own config file when running.

Option 3

• Clone the source code and build as outlined next.

Build From Source

• The build script is set up to run on Linux (Ubuntu), but generates a build for Windows as well.
• To run the build script on Linux:
  • Simply run make in the repository directory.
  • The script will create binaries and sample config files in bin/linux and bin/windows. It will also run tests and generate docs.
  • You need to have make installed as well as the Go SDK. The application was written using Go 1.16.
• Alternatively, or in Windows, provided you have Go SDK installed, just run go build on the repository directory. This will, of course, not run tests or generate docs.

Configuration

You can define your connections in the configuration YAML file. Here is an example:

- name: My Database 1
  server: myfirstserverhost
  database: MyDatabase1
  integrated: true
- name: My Database 2
  server: mysecondserverhost,1434
  database: MyDatabase2
  username: testuser
  password: testpassword
- name: My Database 3
  server: mysecondserverhost,1434
  database: MyDatabase3
  username: securetestuser
  password: <encrypted password string>
  passworddecryptor: decrypt ${_PWD_}

Note the last entry stores the password in an encrypted form. The encryption/decryption is not managed by this application. If you have a command line tool that can be used to encrypt or decrypt a string, you can use that to encrypt the string and store it in the YAML file. In that case, you should then specify the command to decrypt it in the passworddecryptor field. In the above example, decrypt is the command line tool. ${PWD} is a special placeholder that is used to signify the encrypted password as stored in the YAML file.

You can specify which tool to use in the YAML file as well. If nothing is specified, mssql-cli is the default:

- name: My Database 1 (use SQLCMD)
  server: myfirstserverhost
  username: testuser
  password: testpassword
  tool: sqlcmd
- name: My Database 2 (use mssql-cli)
  server: myfirstserverhost
  username: testuser
  password: testpassword
  tool: mssql-cli

License

See LICENSE.

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome. However, please note that this is a hobby project and set your expectations accordingly.

Documentation

Overview

mssql-launcher is an interactive tool that lets you define SQL Server connections in a file and pick them from a menu to connect using either the MSSQL-CLI tool or the SQLCMD tool.