rainfrog Documentation

🐸 rainfrog

a database tool for the terminal

features Copy Chapter

the goal for rainfrog is to provide a lightweight, terminal-based tool for
interacting with databases.

• efficient navigation via vim-like keybindings and mouse controls
• query editor with keyword highlighting, session history, and favorites
• quickly copy data, filter tables, and switch between schemas
• shortcuts to view table metadata and properties
• cross-platform (macOS, linux, windows, android via termux)

why "rainfrog"? Copy Section

frogs find refuge in elephant tracks

supported databases Copy Section

the levels of support for different databases can be split into 4 tiers:

• tier 1: most frequently tested, bugs will be addressed as soon as possible.
• tier 2: often tested, fixed when necessary.
• tier 3: community supported; contributions are welcome, but otherwise development is minimal.
• tier 4: new or experimental; should be treated as unstable, and behavior is subject to change.

*the postgres driver can also be used to connect to other databases that support
the postgres wire protocol, such as AWS Redshift. however, this functionality is not
well tested. in theory, the mysql driver should be able to do the same for databases
that support the mysql protocol. check each database's documentation for compatibility.

disclaimer Copy Chapter

this software is currently under active development; expect breaking changes,
and use at your own risk. it is not recommended to use this tool with write
access on a production database.

table of contents Copy Chapter

• installation
  • cargo
  • homebrew
  • arch linux
  • termux
  • nix
  • conda
  • pixi
  • install script
  • release page binaries
  • icons
• dependencies
  • oracle
• usage
  • with connection options
  • with connection url
  • with environment variables
  • docker run
• customization
  • settings
  • database connections
  • keybindings
    • n.b. for mac users
    • general
    • menu (list of schemas and tables)
    • query editor
    • query history
    • query favorites
    • results
• exports
• favorites
• known issues and limitations
• Contributing
• acknowledgements

installation Copy Chapter

cargo Copy Section

after installing rust (recommended to do so via
rustup):

cargo install rainfrog --locked

by default, all features are included. some features may not be compatible with your platform;
check Cargo.toml to see what feature combinations are available.

if you have cargo-binstall, you can run:

cargo binstall rainfrog

homebrew Copy Section

brew install rainfrog

arch linux Copy Section

arch linux users can install from the
official repositories
using pacman:

pacman -S rainfrog

termux Copy Section

if you are using termux, you'll need to install rust via
their package manager:

pkg install rust

and then make sure to install with termux features (and disable default
features):

cargo install rainfrog --no-default-features

nix Copy Section

nix-env -iA nixos.rainfrog

conda Copy Section

conda install -c conda-forge rainfrog

pixi Copy Section

The command below installs rainfrog from conda-forge, the same repository as conda, but unlike conda it can be installed user-globally using pixi.

pixi global install rainfrog

install script Copy Section

there is a simple install script that assists in downloading and unpacking a
binary from the release page to ~/.local/bin/, which you might want to add to
your PATH variable if it isn't already there. you'll need to select which
binary is appropriate for your system (if you're not sure, you can find out by
installing rust and running rustc -vV to see the "host" target), and the
script also needs jq and
fzf installed to run.

curl -LSsf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/achristmascarl/rainfrog/main/install.sh | bash

release page binaries Copy Section

1. manually download and unpack the appropriate binary for your os from the
   latest release (if
   you're not sure which binary to pick, you can find out by installing rust and
   running rustc -vV to see the "host" target)
2. move the binary to a folder in your PATH environment variable

icons Copy Section

you will need to have a nerd font installed and used by your terminal for the icons to show up.

dependencies Copy Chapter

for some of the databases supported by rainfrog, the driver has additional runtime dependencies.
you can find instructions for installing those dependencies below.

oracle Copy Section

the oracle driver uses ODPI-C, which requires Oracle Client libraries to be installed. instructions
for installing the Oracle Instant Client can be found here: ODPI-C Installation.

after installation, you may need to manually copy the client files to a
location where ODPI-C can find them, which is either in the same folder as the rainfrog binary,
or in the library path of your os. more details can be found in the ODPI-C
installation instructions: ODPI-C Client Library Loading.

usage Copy Chapter

Usage: rainfrog [OPTIONS] [COMMAND]

Commands:
  edit  Edit the config file (create it first if missing)
  help  Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Options:
  -M, --mouse <MOUSE_MODE>       Whether to enable mouse event support. If enabled, your terminal's
                                 default mouse event handling will not work. [possible values: true,
                                 false]
  -u, --url                 Full connection URL for the database, e.g.
                                 postgres://username:password@localhost:5432/dbname
      --username       Username for database connection
      --password       Password for database connection
  -R, --reenter-password         Reenter the password for a saved database connection
      --host <HOST>              Host for database connection (ex. localhost)
      --port               Port for database connection (ex. 5432)
      --database <DATABASE>      Name of database for connection (ex. postgres)
      --driver <DRIVER>          Driver for database connection (ex. postgres)
      --enable-cleartext-plugin  Enable MySQL cleartext plugin
      --ssl-required             Require an SSL/TLS connection (supported by PostgreSQL, MySQL, and
                                 Oracle)
  -h, --help                     Print help
  -V, --version                  Print version

with connection options Copy Section

if any options are not provided, you will be prompted to input them.
if you do not provide an input, that option will
default to what is in your environment variables.

rainfrog \
  --driver <db_driver> \
  --username  \
  --host <hostname> \
  --port <db_port> \
  --database <db_name> \
  --ssl-required

with connection url Copy Section

the connection_url must include all the necessary options for connecting
to the database (ex. postgres://username:password@localhost:5432/postgres).
it will take precedence over all connection options.

rainfrog --url $(connection_url) --ssl-required

--ssl-required overrides the transport setting from a connection URL. It selects
PostgreSQL's require mode, MySQL's required mode, or Oracle's tcps protocol.
SQLite and DuckDB do not support SSL/TLS connections. Advanced certificate and
verification settings can still be supplied in PostgreSQL and MySQL URL parameters,
or through an Oracle Easy Connect string and Oracle client configuration.

with environment variables Copy Section

if connection_url is not present, rainfrog will first check your DATABASE_URL
environment variable, then it will check for DATABASE_URL in a .env file in
the current directory or a parent directory.

`docker run` Copy Section

for postgres and mysql, you can run it by specifying all
of the options as environment variables:

docker run --platform linux/amd64 -it --rm --name rainfrog \
  --add-host host.docker.internal:host-gateway \
  -e db_driver="db_driver" \
  -e username="" \
  -e password="" \
  -e hostname="host.docker.internal" \
  -e db_port="<db_port>" \
  -e db_name="<db_name>" achristmascarl/rainfrog:latest

if you want to provide a custom combination of
options and omit others, you can override the Dockerfile's
CMD like so:

docker run --platform linux/amd64 -it --rm --name rainfrog \
  achristmascarl/rainfrog:latest \
  rainfrog # overrides CMD, additional options would come after

since sqlite is file-based, you may need to mount a path to
the sqlite db as a volume in order to access it:

docker run --platform linux/amd64 -it --rm --name rainfrog \
  -v ~/code/rainfrog/dev/rainfrog.sqlite3:/rainfrog.sqlite3 \
  achristmascarl/rainfrog:latest \
  rainfrog --url sqlite:///rainfrog.sqlite3

running drivers which have runtime dependencies (like oracle) via docker
is not currently supported.

customization Copy Chapter

rainfrog can be customized by placing a rainfrog_config.toml file in
one of the following locations depending on your os, as determined by
the directories crate:

you can change the default config directory by exporting an environment variable.
to make the change permanent, add it to your .zshrc/.bashrc/.*rc file:

export RAINFROG_CONFIG=~/.config/rainfrog

[!WARNING]
this should be the path to the directory that the config file is in,
NOT the path to the actual file

settings Copy Section

database connections Copy Section

database connections can be configured in the configuration file as shown below:

[db]
postgres-local = { host = "localhost", driver = "postgres", port = 5432, database = "postgres", username = "postgres",  default = true }
postgres-dev = { connection_string = "postgresql://postgres:[email protected]:5432", driver = "postgres" }
mysql-local = { host = "localhost", driver = "mysql", port = 32768, database = "rainfrog", username = "root" }
sqlite-memory = { connection_string = "sqlite://:memory:", driver = "sqlite"}
sqlite-disk = { connection_string = "sqlite://./my_database.db", driver = "sqlite"}
oracle-local = { host = "localhost", driver = "oracle", port = 1521, database = "rainfrog", username = "rainfrog" }

the connection details can be provided in two formats: a raw connection string or specifying individual fields.
connections input are prioritized in the following order:

• cli input
• DATABASE_URL env variable
• config file

if no database connection in the config is set as the default connection,
a prompt will appear to select the desired database. The user will also be
prompted for the password for the selected database and will have the option to
store it in a platform specific keychain for future reuse.
Pass --reenter-password (or -R) to revoke a saved keychain password before
being prompted to enter and optionally save its replacement.

future plans for database connections include switching database without having to restart rainfrog.

keybindings Copy Section

you can customize some of the default keybindings, but not all of
them. to see a list of the ones you can customize, see the default
config file at .config/rainfrog_config.toml. below
are the default keybindings.

n.b. for mac users

on mac, for VS Code, terminal, kitty, and others, a setting for
"use option as meta key" needs to be turned
on for Alt/Opt keybindings to work. (In VS Code, it's
"terminal.integrated.macOptionIsMeta": true in the settings; in
kitty, it's macos_option_as_alt yes in the config.)

general

menu (list of schemas and tables)

query editor

keybindings may not behave exactly like vim. the full list of active
Vim keybindings in rainfrog can be found at vim.rs.

*only works in normal mode

query history

query favorites

results

exports Copy Chapter

query results can be exported to csv. exporting is a blocking action,
so be careful about exporting too many rows at once, as it will freeze
the application.

the file will be saved in your downloads directory, which is one of the
following depending on your os, as determined by
the directories crate:

you can change the default export location by exporting an environment variable.
to make the change permanent, add it to your .zshrc/.bashrc/.*rc file:

export RAINFROG_EXPORT=~/Documents

favorites Copy Chapter

frequently used queries can be saved as favorites. by default,
favorites are written to the application's data directory (the
same place that logs are written to), which is one of the
following depending on your os, as determined by
the directories crate:

each favorite will be a separate .sql file.
you can change the default export location by exporting an environment variable.
to make the change permanent, add it to your .zshrc/.bashrc/.*rc file:

export RAINFROG_FAVORITES=~/.config/rainfrog/favorites

known issues and limitations Copy Chapter

• geometry types are not currently supported
• for x11 and wayland, yanking does not copy to the system clipboard, only
  to the query editor's buffer. see https://github.com/achristmascarl/rainfrog/issues/83
• in visual mode, when selecting an entire line, the behavior is not the same as
  vim's, as it simply starts the selection at the head of the line, so
  moving up or down in lines will break the selection.
• mouse events are only used for changing focus and scrolling; the editor does
  not currently support mouse events, and menu items cannot be selected using
  the mouse

you can find other reported issues in the
issues tab

Contributing Copy Chapter

for bug reports and feature requests, please create an issue.

please read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening issues
or creating PRs.

acknowledgements Copy Chapter

• tui-textarea (originally used in the query editor; now, the ratatui-textarea fork is used instead)
• gobang (a rust db tui i drew inspiration
  from)
• ricky rainfrog
• rainfroggg (my wife's tattoo studio)