Sqliteman

A developer's and administrator's tool for SQLite databases, built with Qt6.

Sqliteman opens SQLite files, runs SQL against them, shows and edits their rows, and does what SQLite itself makes awkward — altering a table, for one. It talks to SQLite through its C API, on a thread of its own, so a long query never freezes the window.

Version 2

Sqliteman started in 2007 as a Qt 4 program, from Igor Khanin's LiteMan, and then stood still for years. Version 2 is a rewrite on Qt 6 and the SQLite C API, built the way Slonisko, a PostgreSQL client by the same author, is built: headless libraries with tests, a GUI on top, nothing blocking the window.

What it does:

• A database browser that follows the schema as it changes: tables, views, indexes, triggers, attached databases, by mouse or keyboard
• A page for every table, view and database: its rows, columns, keys, triggers and SQL, a database's file and settings, and an entity relationship diagram, exported as SVG, PNG, PDF, Mermaid or Graphviz
• An SQL editor with SQLite's highlighting, context-aware completion, templates, error marks where SQLite says the error is, and query plans
• Results to sort, copy, export (CSV, JSON, SQL, Excel XML, HTML and more) and edit in place, with a viewer for long text, JSON, images and blobs
• Alter Table for every change, done by ALTER TABLE or SQLite's documented table rebuild, in one savepoint
• Create table, index, view and trigger dialogs, a query builder, a populator for test data, CSV import, dumps, pragmas, and maintenance (ANALYZE, VACUUM INTO, integrity and foreign key checks)

LLM/AI Note

The original Sqliteman was written by hand. Version 2 was rewritten with the help of an LLM, following Slonisko's architecture. CLAUDE.md holds the instructions for further patches.

Requirements

• CMake 3.25+
• A C++20 compiler
• Qt 6.5+ (Core, Gui, Widgets, Concurrent; Test for the tests; optionally Help)
• QScintilla 2.13+ for Qt 6
• SQLite 3.38+ with column metadata
• Sphinx with the MyST parser, for the manual, which is on by default: configure with -DSQLITEMAN_WITH_DOCS=OFF to build without it

When no suitable system QScintilla or SQLite is found (or with -DSQLITEMAN_BUNDLED_QSCINTILLA=ON / -DSQLITEMAN_BUNDLED_SQLITE=ON), CMake downloads and builds a pinned, checksummed copy.

On openSUSE Tumbleweed:

sudo zypper install cmake gcc-c++ qt6-base-devel qt6-help-devel qscintilla-qt6-devel sqlite3-devel

Building

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja
cmake --build build
ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure
./build/src/app/sqliteman

The tests need neither a server nor a display: they make their databases in temporary directories, and the widget tests run on Qt's offscreen platform.

Layout

Directory	Target	Purpose
src/sqlite	Sqliteman::Sqlite	The SQLite C API: async connection, queries, cancel, row store, quoting
src/config	Sqliteman::Config	Preferences, recent files
src/sql	Sqliteman::Sql	SQLite lexer, keywords, statement splitting
src/catalog	Sqliteman::Catalog	Schema snapshot, alter table, row editing, export, import, populator, query builder, dumps, pragmas, completion, query plans
src/app	sqliteman	The GUI

Each library keeps its Qt Test unit tests in its own tests/ subdirectory. Only src/app may depend on Qt Widgets. logo_design/ holds the original logo artwork; tools/screenshots takes the manual's pictures, and tools/macos, tools/windows and tools/flatpak build the release packages.

Documentation

The manual lives in docs/: using the program, and how it is put together, and it is online at https://pvanek.github.io/sqliteman/. From the same sources it builds into that website and into a Qt help file, which the program shows itself — Help → Manual, or F1 on the page you are looking at.

cmake --build build --target docs           # build/docs/html and sqliteman.qch

See building for the details, architecture for how it is put together.

Credits

Petr Vanek, with Igor Khanin's LiteMan to start from, Kamil Les's testing, the translators of version 1, and everyone who sent a patch. The logo and the icon are by Anouk Voogt.

License

Sqliteman is free software, licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 3 or (at your option) any later version. See LICENSE.