dbv

⚠️ This software is currently under active development. Until version 1.0 is released, significant changes may occur, and features may be altered or removed without prior notice. Use in production environments with caution.

dbv is a fast and user-friendly terminal database viewer and editor that connects to SQL databases (with a focus on PostgreSQL). It provides a text-based interface for listing tables, browsing records, editing cells, generating SQL INSERT statements, creating Go struct definitions, exporting data to JSON, and more.

Features

• List Tables & Views: Displays tables, views, and materialized views along with primary keys and approximate sizes.
• Data Browsing: Scroll through table records with built-in pagination.
• Cell Editing: Edit cell values directly with automatic conversions for timestamps and numeric types.
• Insert Statement Generation: Create template SQL INSERT statements that include default values and respect primary key order.
• Go Struct Generation: Generate Go struct definitions based on table columns (mapping PostgreSQL types to Go types).
• JSON Export: Convert table rows into JSON structures.
• Filo Configuration: Configure database connections using Filo scripts (e.g., init.filo).
• Keyboard Shortcuts: Navigate, filter, and execute commands with quick key bindings.

Requirements

• Go 1.26 or later

Installation

1. Building from Source

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/crgimenes/dbv.git
   cd dbv
   

2. Build the binary:

   go build -o dbv
   

3. Move the binary to a directory in your PATH (for example, /usr/local/bin):

   mv dbv /usr/local/bin/
   

4. Run the application by simply typing:

   dbv
   

2. Installing via GitHub Releases

You can also download the pre-built binaries from the GitHub Releases page. After downloading the appropriate binary for your operating system, place it in a directory that's in your PATH.

Configuration

By default, dbv loads database connections from a Filo file named init.filo. Place this file in either ~/.config/dbv/init.filo or in the current directory. Each connection is declared with (database url [title] [views]): the URL is required, the title is optional (it defaults to the URL with the password masked), and an optional third argument points to a directory of custom views. For example:

(database "postgres://username:password@localhost:5432/mydb?sslmode=disable" "LocalDB")
(database "postgres://user:pass@server:5432/otherdb?sslmode=disable" "OtherDB")

Note: database is not a built-in Filo operator — it is an application-specific function that dbv registers (via RegisterBuiltin) before evaluating the config file. Each (database ...) call appends one connection, so the file is simply a sequence of these calls, one per line.

Usage

Launching dbv

After installing, simply run:

dbv

Functionality

• Table Listing & Filtering: Easily navigate and filter available tables.
• Data Viewing & Editing: Scroll through records, edit cells, and generate SQL/struct/JSON using quick commands.
• Commands: Use :where, :insert, :struct, and :json to interact with data.

Keyboard Shortcuts

• h, j, k, l: Navigation
• e, v, p: Edit/view the current cell
• :: Open the command prompt
• q or Esc: Exit

Examples

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/crgimenes/dbv.git
cd dbv
go build -o dbv
mv dbv /usr/local/bin/
mkdir -p ~/.config/dbv
cat <<EOF > ~/.config/dbv/init.filo
(database "postgres://postgres:mysecret@localhost:5432/mytestdb?sslmode=disable" "LocalTest")
EOF
dbv

Using GitHub Releases

1. Download the appropriate binary from the GitHub Releases page.
2. Place the binary in a directory that is in your PATH.
3. Run the application by typing:

   dbv