Transfer SQLcl connections from one PC to another
With around 20 years on the job, Matt is one of the most experienced software developers at Pretius. He likes meeting new people, traveling to conferences, and working on different projects.
He’s also a big sports fan (regularly watches Leeds United, Formula 1, and boxing), and not just as a spectator – he often starts his days on a mountain bike, to tune his mind.
I got a new PC - yeah! But I need to move my SQLcl Connections over to my new PC
Here is how I did it. First fire up SQLcl on your old PC:
>sql /nolog
SQLcl: Release 24.3 Production on Thu Aug 07 11:11:52 2025
Copyright (c) 1982, 2025, Oracle. All rights reserved.
SQL>
Now view your connections
cm list
You can see I have quite a few
Now locate the dedicated folder where SQLcl keeps the connections folder
Windows:
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\DBTools\connections\Linux/macOS:
~/.dbtools/connections/
Some of the connections will look a bit garbled - thats ok
Zip up this folder and transfer it to the new PC
If the connections folder does not exist on the target PC then run SQLcl and type
cm list
This will force the dbtools/connections folder to be created
Then unzip the into the connections folder of the target PC and run the same command again
cm list
And this time..
Success!
The same connections are now avaiable in VSCode SQL Developer Extension
ENJOY!
Whats the picture? A Dragonfly (possibly a Southern Hawker) came landed on the Union flags outside the Cenotaph in Harrogate whilst I was seated eating a Greggs Vegan Sausage roll.
Visit Yorkshire!
