| <h1 align="center">SQLite Source Repository</h1> | |
| This repository contains the complete source code for the | |
| [SQLite database engine](https://sqlite.org/), including | |
| many test scripts. However, other test scripts | |
| and most of the documentation are managed separately. | |
| See the [on-line documentation](https://sqlite.org/) for more information | |
| about what SQLite is and how it works from a user's perspective. This | |
| README file is about the source code that goes into building SQLite, | |
| not about how SQLite is used. | |
| ## Version Control | |
| SQLite sources are managed using | |
| [Fossil](https://fossil-scm.org/), a distributed version control system | |
| that was specifically designed and written to support SQLite development. | |
| The [Fossil repository](https://sqlite.org/src/timeline) contains the urtext. | |
| If you are reading this on GitHub or some other Git repository or service, | |
| then you are looking at a mirror. The names of check-ins and | |
| other artifacts in a Git mirror are different from the official | |
| names for those objects. The official names for check-ins are | |
| found in a footer on the check-in comment for authorized mirrors. | |
| The official check-in name can also be seen in the `manifest.uuid` file | |
| in the root of the tree. Always use the official name, not the | |
| Git-name, when communicating about an SQLite check-in. | |
| If you pulled your SQLite source code from a secondary source and want to | |
| verify its integrity, there are hints on how to do that in the | |
| [Verifying Code Authenticity](#vauth) section below. | |
| ## Contacting The SQLite Developers | |
| The preferred way to ask questions or make comments about SQLite or to | |
| report bugs against SQLite is to visit the | |
| [SQLite Forum](https://sqlite.org/forum) at <https://sqlite.org/forum/>. | |
| Anonymous postings are permitted. | |
| If you think you have found a bug that has security implications and | |
| you do not want to report it on the public forum, you can send a private | |
| email to drh at sqlite dot org. | |
| ## Public Domain | |
| The SQLite source code is in the public domain. See | |
| <https://sqlite.org/copyright.html> for details. | |
| Because SQLite is in the public domain, we do not normally accept pull | |
| requests, because if we did take a pull request, the changes in that | |
| pull request might carry a copyright and the SQLite source code would | |
| then no longer be fully in the public domain. | |
| ## Obtaining The SQLite Source Code | |
| If you do not want to use Fossil, you can download tarballs or ZIP | |
| archives or [SQLite archives](https://sqlite.org/cli.html#sqlar) as follows: | |
| * Latest trunk check-in as | |
| [Tarball](https://www.sqlite.org/src/tarball/sqlite.tar.gz), | |
| [ZIP-archive](https://www.sqlite.org/src/zip/sqlite.zip), or | |
| [SQLite-archive](https://www.sqlite.org/src/sqlar/sqlite.sqlar). | |
| * Latest release as | |
| [Tarball](https://www.sqlite.org/src/tarball/sqlite.tar.gz?r=release), | |
| [ZIP-archive](https://www.sqlite.org/src/zip/sqlite.zip?r=release), or | |
| [SQLite-archive](https://www.sqlite.org/src/sqlar/sqlite.sqlar?r=release). | |
| * For other check-ins, substitute an appropriate branch name or | |
| tag or hash prefix in place of "release" in the URLs of the previous | |
| bullet. Or browse the [timeline](https://www.sqlite.org/src/timeline) | |
| to locate the check-in desired, click on its information page link, | |
| then click on the "Tarball" or "ZIP Archive" links on the information | |
| page. | |
| To access sources directly using [Fossil](https://fossil-scm.org/home), | |
| first install Fossil version 2.0 or later. | |
| Source tarballs and precompiled binaries available at | |
| <https://fossil-scm.org/home/uv/download.html>. Fossil is | |
| a stand-alone program. To install, simply download or build the single | |
| executable file and put that file someplace on your $PATH. | |
| Then run commands like this: | |
| mkdir -p ~/sqlite | |
| cd ~/sqlite | |
| fossil open https://sqlite.org/src | |
| The "fossil open" command will take two or three minutes. Afterwards, | |
| you can do fast, bandwidth-efficient updates to the whatever versions | |
| of SQLite you like. Some examples: | |
| fossil update trunk ;# latest trunk check-in | |
| fossil update release ;# latest official release | |
| fossil update trunk:2024-01-01 ;# First trunk check-in after 2024-01-01 | |
| fossil update version-3.39.0 ;# Version 3.39.0 | |
| Or type "fossil ui" to get a web-based user interface. | |
| ## Compiling for Unix-like systems | |
| First create a directory in which to place | |
| the build products. It is recommended, but not required, that the | |
| build directory be separate from the source directory. Cd into the | |
| build directory and then from the build directory run the configure | |
| script found at the root of the source tree. Then run "make". | |
| For example: | |
| apt install gcc make tcl-dev ;# Make sure you have all the necessary build tools | |
| tar xzf sqlite.tar.gz ;# Unpack the source tree into "sqlite" | |
| mkdir bld ;# Build will occur in a sibling directory | |
| cd bld ;# Change to the build directory | |
| ../sqlite/configure ;# Run the configure script | |
| make sqlite3 ;# Builds the "sqlite3" command-line tool | |
| make sqlite3.c ;# Build the "amalgamation" source file | |
| make sqldiff ;# Builds the "sqldiff" command-line tool | |
| # Makefile targets below this point require tcl-dev | |
| make tclextension-install ;# Build and install the SQLite TCL extension | |
| make devtest ;# Run development tests | |
| make releasetest ;# Run full release tests | |
| make sqlite3_analyzer ;# Builds the "sqlite3_analyzer" tool | |
| See the makefile for additional targets. For debugging builds, the | |
| core developers typically run "configure" with options like this: | |
| ../sqlite/configure --enable-all --enable-debug CFLAGS='-O0 -g' | |
| For release builds, the core developers usually do: | |
| ../sqlite/configure --enable-all | |
| Almost all makefile targets require a "tclsh" TCL interpreter version 8.6 or | |
| later. The "tclextension-install" target and the test targets that follow | |
| all require TCL development libraries too. ("apt install tcl-dev"). It is | |
| helpful, but is not required, to install the SQLite TCL extension (the | |
| "tclextension-install" target) prior to running tests. The "releasetest" | |
| target has additional requiremenst, such as "valgrind". | |
| On "make" command-lines, one can add "OPTIONS=..." to specify additional | |
| compile-time options over and above those set by ./configure. For example, | |
| to compile with the SQLITE_OMIT_DEPRECATED compile-time option, one could say: | |
| ./configure --enable-all | |
| make OPTIONS=-DSQLITE_OMIT_DEPRECATED sqlite3 | |
| The configure script uses autoconf 2.61 and libtool. If the configure | |
| script does not work out for you, there is a generic makefile named | |
| "Makefile.linux-gcc" in the top directory of the source tree that you | |
| can copy and edit to suit your needs. Comments on the generic makefile | |
| show what changes are needed. | |
| ## Compiling for Windows Using MSVC | |
| On Windows, everything can be compiled with MSVC. | |
| You will also need a working installation of TCL. | |
| See the [compile-for-windows.md](doc/compile-for-windows.md) document for | |
| additional information about how to install MSVC and TCL and configure your | |
| build environment. | |
| If you want to run tests, you need to let SQLite know the location of your | |
| TCL library, using a command like this: | |
| set TCLDIR=c:\Tcl | |
| SQLite uses "tclsh.exe" as part of the build process, and so that | |
| program will need to be somewhere on your %PATH%. SQLite itself | |
| does not contain any TCL code, but it does use TCL to help with the | |
| build process and to run tests. You may need to install TCL development | |
| libraries in order to successfully complete some makefile targets. | |
| It is helpful, but is not required, to install the SQLite TCL extension | |
| (the "tclextension-install" target) prior to running tests. | |
| Build using Makefile.msc. Example: | |
| nmake /f Makefile.msc sqlite3.exe | |
| nmake /f Makefile.msc sqlite3.c | |
| nmake /f Makefile.msc sqldiff.exe | |
| # Makefile targets below this point require TCL development libraries | |
| nmake /f Makefile.msc tclextension-install | |
| nmake /f Makefile.msc devtest | |
| nmake /f Makefile.msc releasetest | |
| nmake /f Makefile.msc sqlite3_analyzer.exe | |
| There are many other makefile targets. See comments in Makefile.msc for | |
| details. | |
| As with the unix Makefile, the OPTIONS=... argument can be passed on the nmake | |
| command-line to enable new compile-time options. For example: | |
| nmake /f Makefile.msc OPTIONS=-DSQLITE_OMIT_DEPRECATED sqlite3.exe | |
| ## Source Tree Map | |
| * **src/** - This directory contains the primary source code for the | |
| SQLite core. For historical reasons, C-code used for testing is | |
| also found here. Source files intended for testing begin with "`test`". | |
| The `tclsqlite3.c` and `tclsqlite3.h` files are the TCL interface | |
| for SQLite and are also not part of the core. | |
| * **test/** - This directory and its subdirectories contains code used | |
| for testing. Files that end in "`.test`" are TCL scripts that run | |
| tests using an augmented TCL interpreter named "testfixture". Use | |
| a command like "`make testfixture`" (unix) or | |
| "`nmake /f Makefile.msc testfixture.exe`" (windows) to build that | |
| augmented TCL interpreter, then run individual tests using commands like | |
| "`testfixture test/main.test`". This test/ subdirectory also contains | |
| additional C code modules and scripts for other kinds of testing. | |
| * **tool/** - This directory contains programs and scripts used to | |
| build some of the machine-generated code that goes into the SQLite | |
| core, as well as to build and run tests and perform diagnostics. | |
| The source code to [the Lemon parser generator](./doc/lemon.html) is | |
| found here. There are also TCL scripts used to build and/or transform | |
| source code files. For example, the tool/mksqlite3h.tcl script reads | |
| the src/sqlite.h.in file and uses it as a template to construct | |
| the deliverable "sqlite3.h" file that defines the SQLite interface. | |
| * **ext/** - Various extensions to SQLite are found under this | |
| directory. For example, the FTS5 subsystem is in "ext/fts5/". | |
| Some of these extensions (ex: FTS3/4, FTS5, RTREE) might get built | |
| into the SQLite amalgamation, but not all of them. The | |
| "ext/misc/" subdirectory contains an assortment of one-file extensions, | |
| many of which are omitted from the SQLite core, but which are included | |
| in the [SQLite CLI](https://sqlite.org/cli.html). | |
| * **doc/** - Some documentation files about SQLite internals are found | |
| here. Note, however, that the primary documentation designed for | |
| application developers and users of SQLite is in a completely separate | |
| repository. Note also that the primary API documentation is derived | |
| from specially constructed comments in the src/sqlite.h.in file. | |
| ### Generated Source Code Files | |
| Several of the C-language source files used by SQLite are generated from | |
| other sources rather than being typed in manually by a programmer. This | |
| section will summarize those automatically-generated files. To create all | |
| of the automatically-generated files, simply run "make target_source". | |
| The "target_source" make target will create a subdirectory "tsrc/" and | |
| fill it with all the source files needed to build SQLite, both | |
| manually-edited files and automatically-generated files. | |
| The SQLite interface is defined by the **sqlite3.h** header file, which is | |
| generated from src/sqlite.h.in, ./manifest.uuid, and ./VERSION. The | |
| [Tcl script](https://www.tcl.tk) at tool/mksqlite3h.tcl does the conversion. | |
| The manifest.uuid file contains the SHA3 hash of the particular check-in | |
| and is used to generate the SQLITE\_SOURCE\_ID macro. The VERSION file | |
| contains the current SQLite version number. The sqlite3.h header is really | |
| just a copy of src/sqlite.h.in with the source-id and version number inserted | |
| at just the right spots. Note that comment text in the sqlite3.h file is | |
| used to generate much of the SQLite API documentation. The Tcl scripts | |
| used to generate that documentation are in a separate source repository. | |
| The SQL language parser is **parse.c** which is generated from a grammar in | |
| the src/parse.y file. The conversion of "parse.y" into "parse.c" is done | |
| by the [lemon](./doc/lemon.html) LALR(1) parser generator. The source code | |
| for lemon is at tool/lemon.c. Lemon uses the tool/lempar.c file as a | |
| template for generating its parser. | |
| Lemon also generates the **parse.h** header file, at the same time it | |
| generates parse.c. | |
| The **opcodes.h** header file contains macros that define the numbers | |
| corresponding to opcodes in the "VDBE" virtual machine. The opcodes.h | |
| file is generated by scanning the src/vdbe.c source file. The | |
| Tcl script at ./mkopcodeh.tcl does this scan and generates opcodes.h. | |
| A second Tcl script, ./mkopcodec.tcl, then scans opcodes.h to generate | |
| the **opcodes.c** source file, which contains a reverse mapping from | |
| opcode-number to opcode-name that is used for EXPLAIN output. | |
| The **keywordhash.h** header file contains the definition of a hash table | |
| that maps SQL language keywords (ex: "CREATE", "SELECT", "INDEX", etc.) into | |
| the numeric codes used by the parse.c parser. The keywordhash.h file is | |
| generated by a C-language program at tool mkkeywordhash.c. | |
| The **pragma.h** header file contains various definitions used to parse | |
| and implement the PRAGMA statements. The header is generated by a | |
| script **tool/mkpragmatab.tcl**. If you want to add a new PRAGMA, edit | |
| the **tool/mkpragmatab.tcl** file to insert the information needed by the | |
| parser for your new PRAGMA, then run the script to regenerate the | |
| **pragma.h** header file. | |
| ### The Amalgamation | |
| All of the individual C source code and header files (both manually-edited | |
| and automatically-generated) can be combined into a single big source file | |
| **sqlite3.c** called "the amalgamation". The amalgamation is the recommended | |
| way of using SQLite in a larger application. Combining all individual | |
| source code files into a single big source code file allows the C compiler | |
| to perform more cross-procedure analysis and generate better code. SQLite | |
| runs about 5% faster when compiled from the amalgamation versus when compiled | |
| from individual source files. | |
| The amalgamation is generated from the tool/mksqlite3c.tcl Tcl script. | |
| First, all of the individual source files must be gathered into the tsrc/ | |
| subdirectory (using the equivalent of "make target_source") then the | |
| tool/mksqlite3c.tcl script is run to copy them all together in just the | |
| right order while resolving internal "#include" references. | |
| The amalgamation source file is more than 200K lines long. Some symbolic | |
| debuggers (most notably MSVC) are unable to deal with files longer than 64K | |
| lines. To work around this, a separate Tcl script, tool/split-sqlite3c.tcl, | |
| can be run on the amalgamation to break it up into a single small C file | |
| called **sqlite3-all.c** that does #include on about seven other files | |
| named **sqlite3-1.c**, **sqlite3-2.c**, ..., **sqlite3-7.c**. In this way, | |
| all of the source code is contained within a single translation unit so | |
| that the compiler can do extra cross-procedure optimization, but no | |
| individual source file exceeds 32K lines in length. | |
| ## How It All Fits Together | |
| SQLite is modular in design. | |
| See the [architectural description](https://www.sqlite.org/arch.html) | |
| for details. Other documents that are useful in | |
| helping to understand how SQLite works include the | |
| [file format](https://www.sqlite.org/fileformat2.html) description, | |
| the [virtual machine](https://www.sqlite.org/opcode.html) that runs | |
| prepared statements, the description of | |
| [how transactions work](https://www.sqlite.org/atomiccommit.html), and | |
| the [overview of the query planner](https://www.sqlite.org/optoverview.html). | |
| Decades of effort have gone into optimizing SQLite, both | |
| for small size and high performance. And optimizations tend to result in | |
| complex code. So there is a lot of complexity in the current SQLite | |
| implementation. It will not be the easiest library in the world to hack. | |
| ### Key source code files | |
| * **sqlite.h.in** - This file defines the public interface to the SQLite | |
| library. Readers will need to be familiar with this interface before | |
| trying to understand how the library works internally. This file is | |
| really a template that is transformed into the "sqlite3.h" deliverable | |
| using a script invoked by the makefile. | |
| * **sqliteInt.h** - this header file defines many of the data objects | |
| used internally by SQLite. In addition to "sqliteInt.h", some | |
| subsystems inside of sQLite have their own header files. These internal | |
| interfaces are not for use by applications. They can and do change | |
| from one release of SQLite to the next. | |
| * **parse.y** - This file describes the LALR(1) grammar that SQLite uses | |
| to parse SQL statements, and the actions that are taken at each step | |
| in the parsing process. The file is processed by the | |
| [Lemon Parser Generator](./doc/lemon.html) to produce the actual C code | |
| used for parsing. | |
| * **vdbe.c** - This file implements the virtual machine that runs | |
| prepared statements. There are various helper files whose names | |
| begin with "vdbe". The VDBE has access to the vdbeInt.h header file | |
| which defines internal data objects. The rest of SQLite interacts | |
| with the VDBE through an interface defined by vdbe.h. | |
| * **where.c** - This file (together with its helper files named | |
| by "where*.c") analyzes the WHERE clause and generates | |
| virtual machine code to run queries efficiently. This file is | |
| sometimes called the "query optimizer". It has its own private | |
| header file, whereInt.h, that defines data objects used internally. | |
| * **btree.c** - This file contains the implementation of the B-Tree | |
| storage engine used by SQLite. The interface to the rest of the system | |
| is defined by "btree.h". The "btreeInt.h" header defines objects | |
| used internally by btree.c and not published to the rest of the system. | |
| * **pager.c** - This file contains the "pager" implementation, the | |
| module that implements transactions. The "pager.h" header file | |
| defines the interface between pager.c and the rest of the system. | |
| * **os_unix.c** and **os_win.c** - These two files implement the interface | |
| between SQLite and the underlying operating system using the run-time | |
| pluggable VFS interface. | |
| * **shell.c.in** - This file is not part of the core SQLite library. This | |
| is the file that, when linked against sqlite3.a, generates the | |
| "sqlite3.exe" command-line shell. The "shell.c.in" file is transformed | |
| into "shell.c" as part of the build process. | |
| * **tclsqlite.c** - This file implements the Tcl bindings for SQLite. It | |
| is not part of the core SQLite library. But as most of the tests in this | |
| repository are written in Tcl, the Tcl language bindings are important. | |
| * **test\*.c** - Files in the src/ folder that begin with "test" go into | |
| building the "testfixture.exe" program. The testfixture.exe program is | |
| an enhanced Tcl shell. The testfixture.exe program runs scripts in the | |
| test/ folder to validate the core SQLite code. The testfixture program | |
| (and some other test programs too) is built and run when you type | |
| "make test". | |
| * **VERSION**, **manifest**, and **manifest.uuid** - These files define | |
| the current SQLite version number. The "VERSION" file is human generated, | |
| but the "manifest" and "manifest.uuid" files are automatically generated | |
| by the [Fossil version control system](https://fossil-scm.org/). | |
| There are many other source files. Each has a succinct header comment that | |
| describes its purpose and role within the larger system. | |
| <a name="vauth"></a> | |
| ## Verifying Code Authenticity | |
| The `manifest` file at the root directory of the source tree | |
| contains either a SHA3-256 hash or a SHA1 hash | |
| for every source file in the repository. | |
| The name of the version of the entire source tree is just the | |
| SHA3-256 hash of the `manifest` file itself, possibly with the | |
| last line of that file omitted if the last line begins with | |
| "`# Remove this line`". | |
| The `manifest.uuid` file should contain the SHA3-256 hash of the | |
| `manifest` file. If all of the above hash comparisons are correct, then | |
| you can be confident that your source tree is authentic and unadulterated. | |
| Details on the format for the `manifest` files are available | |
| [on the Fossil website](https://fossil-scm.org/home/doc/trunk/www/fileformat.wiki#manifest). | |
| The process of checking source code authenticity is automated by the | |
| makefile: | |
| > make verify-source | |
| Or on windows: | |
| > nmake /f Makefile.msc verify-source | |
| Using the makefile to verify source integrity is good for detecting | |
| accidental changes to the source tree, but malicious changes could be | |
| hidden by also modifying the makefiles. | |
| ## Contacts | |
| The main SQLite website is [https://sqlite.org/](https://sqlite.org/) | |
| with geographically distributed backups at | |
| [https://www2.sqlite.org/](https://www2.sqlite.org) and | |
| [https://www3.sqlite.org/](https://www3.sqlite.org). | |
| Contact the SQLite developers through the | |
| [SQLite Forum](https://sqlite.org/forum/). In an emergency, you | |
| can send private email to the lead developer at drh at sqlite dot org. | |