Skip to main content

Change the prompt in clickhouse-client

· 2 min read

Background​

If you don't like how clickhouse client displays the prompt in your terminal window, it's possible to change it by creating a single XML file. This article explains how to change the prompt to whatever you want.

The default prompt is your local computer name followed by :) :

However, you can edit the prompt to be whatever you want:

Steps​

To edit the prompt, follow these steps:

  1. Find where you clickhouse executable is stored, and create a file call custom-config.xml in the same directory:

    ./
    ├── clickhouse
    ├── custom-config.xml
    ...
    ├── user_scripts
    └── uuid

  2. Inside custom-config.xml paste the following code:

    <?xml version="1.0" ?>
    <clickhouse>
            <prompt_by_server_display_name>
                <default>CUSTOM_PROMPT_HERE</default>
            </prompt_by_server_display_name>
    </clickhouse>

  3. Replace CUSTOM_PROMPT_HERE with whatever you want your prompt to say. You must keep the prompt to a single line between the opening and closing <default> tags:

    <?xml version="1.0" ?>
    <clickhouse>
            <prompt_by_server_display_name>
                <default>local_clickhouse_client $> </default>
            </prompt_by_server_display_name>
    </clickhouse>

  4. Save the custom-config.xml file.

  5. Start the Clickhouse server if it isn't already running:

    ./clickhouse server

  6. In a new terminal window, start the Clickhouse client with the --config-file=custom-config.xml argument:

    ./clickhouse client --config-file="custom-config.xml"

  7. The Clickhouse client should open and display your custom prompt: