How do you enable readline/editline support for sqlite3shell?

[vsajip]

I have libreadline-dev and libncurses-dev installed, but can't see any straightforward way of enabling command history in sqlite3shell. Anyone have suggestions on how to achieve this?

[utelle]

I have libreadline-dev and libncurses-dev installed, but can't see any straightforward way of enabling command history in sqlite3shell.

Admittedly, the autoconf files currently coming with SQLite3 Multiple Ciphers do not include support for building a SQLite shell with readline support. (I plan to change that, but there is no time schedule yet.)

Anyone have suggestions on how to achieve this?

The simplest approach would be as follows:

1. Download the "autoconf amalgamation" from the SQLite download page - like sqlite-autoconf-3500100.tar.gz for SQLite version 3.50.1
2. Extract the archive downloaded in step 1 to a location of your choice on your system
3. Download the SQLite3 Multiple Ciphers source code amalgamation coming with each release - like sqlite3mc-2.1.3-sqlite-3.50.1-amalgamation.zip
4. Extract the files sqlite3mc_amalgamation.c, sqlite3mc_amalgmation.h, and shell.c from the archive downloaded in step 3
5. Replace the following 3 files from the archive downloaded in step 1 with the corresponding files from the archive downloaded in step 3:
   • Replace sqlite3.c by sqlite3mc_amalgamation.c
   • Replace sqlite3.hby sqlite3mc_amalgamation.h
   • Overwrite shell.c with shell.c
6. Build the SQLite library and the SQLite shell according to the documentation in file README.txt (from step 1/2)

Edit: I made a quick test myself. Unfortunately, the recipe given above doesn't work right out of the box. At the moment, it requires at least one additional source file from the SQLite3 Multiple Ciphers repository (namely zlibwrap.h). And the line extern char* sqlite3mc_version();, which occurs twice in shell.c needs to be modified to extern const char* sqlite3mc_version();.

[vsajip]

Thank you for the prompt response. I will try this approach and report back when I get a chance. And thank you for this project!

[vsajip]

Your suggestion worked - thank you very much. I was able to build the shell with readline support. To help anyone else who may run into this problem, I've created a Python script to automate the process - just download it into any scratch directory and run it. Here is a Gist with the script.

[utelle]

Your suggestion worked - thank you very much. I was able to build the shell with readline support.

Good to hear.

To help anyone else who may run into this problem, I've created a Python script to automate the process - just download it into any scratch directory and run it. Here is a Gist with the script.

Thanks for providing your script.

I intend to provide a pre-processed solution with the next release of SQLite3 Multiple Ciphers, based on the original SQLite "autoconf amalgamation". First steps (like adjusting the amalgamation script to build also the SQLite shell amalgamation) were already done in commit 05088d5.