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Documentation / Release notes / 5.0.0

What's new with BroadSQL 5.0.0 (2026-08-27)

BroadSQL 5.0 is a major release: a full modernization of the underlying platform (Java, Spring, and every bundled driver/library), a more robust command loader and CTRL+C handling, a fully automated release/documentation pipeline, more reliable exports, and a new OpenDocument Spreadsheet (ODS) export format alongside Excel, CSV/text, and MS Access.

New features

  • Export to OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods): EXPORT report.ods; and DUMP now support ODS (LibreOffice Calc, OpenOffice Calc, and any other ODF-compatible spreadsheet) as a first-class format, alongside Excel, CSV, plain text, and MS Access. See Export & Dump.
  • New DefaultFileFormat setting: controls which format EXPORT uses when the file name has no extension, and which format DUMP uses for tables below its row-count threshold. Accepts XLSX, ODS, CSV, or TXT; defaults to ODS if not set. See Application settings.
  • CSV exports are now genuinely comma-separated: previously, .csv and .txt produced an identical file, differing only by name. .csv now always uses a comma (with proper quoting for values that contain one), independent of your configured column separator; .txt keeps using that separator.
  • CTRL+C now interrupts just the current command: pressing CTRL+C while a long DUMP, EXPORT, or SELECT is running now cancels that command and returns you to the prompt, without closing your database connection or exiting BroadSQL. Any partial output file is cleaned up automatically. (See "Known issues" below for one remaining limitation.)
  • Modernized CONFIG screen: the connections management window now uses a modern, cleaner look and feel.
  • Fully automated releases and documentation: the command reference, this document, and the downloadable ZIP are now generated automatically as part of publishing a release, keeping them in sync with the actual code going forward.
  • New Application settings and Export & Dump reference pages, covering every BroadSQL.ini setting and every export format in detail.

Problems solved

  • Excel export reliability: a NULL value used to export as 0, false, or a placeholder date instead of a blank cell; TIMESTAMP columns lost their time-of-day (truncated to midnight); very large BIGINT/DECIMAL values could silently lose precision; a query whose guessed sheet name contained a character Excel forbids (like / or *) could crash the export; temporary files from large exports could be left behind on disk.
  • The legacy binary Excel format (.xls) has been removed. EXPORT report.xls; now fails with a clear message pointing you to .xlsx instead of silently producing a more fragile file (a 65,536-row cap, no sheet-name safety checks) for a format that's rarely used today. Existing .xlsx and other formats are unaffected.
  • Text/CSV export reliability: a value containing your column separator, a quote character, or a line break used to corrupt the file (columns shifting, one logical row splitting into several); proper quoting is now applied automatically. A real empty value and the literal text "null" used to look identical in the output; they're now distinguishable. A disk write error (e.g. a full disk) used to fail silently, leaving a truncated file with no warning. Re-exporting to the same file in append mode used to duplicate the header row.
  • Accented characters in text/CSV exports ("réponse" showing up as "r‚ponse" when reopened) are fixed: text exports are now always written in UTF-8.
  • A single broken command extension used to prevent BroadSQL from starting at all for every user, not just those relying on that extension. A JAR that fails to load is now logged and skipped, and BroadSQL starts normally.
  • A connection could be left in a corrupted state if CONNECT was interrupted with CTRL+C mid-operation. Fixed as part of the CTRL+C rework above.

Installing BroadSQL 5.0.0

BroadSQL now requires Java 21 or later (previously Java 11). See Installation.

Upgrading from previous releases

  • Java 21 (or later) is required to run this release.
  • Existing H2 database files (including your Connections Definition File, the CDF) created with an older BroadSQL release may need to be migrated to the newer embedded H2 format before they can be opened: use H2's SCRIPT/RUNSCRIPT commands, or the H2 Migration Tool, if you see an error mentioning an unsupported file version when connecting.
  • The default export format has changed. If DefaultFileFormat is not set in your BroadSQL.ini, an EXPORT with no file extension now produces .ods instead of .xlsx. To keep the previous behavior, add DefaultFileFormat=XLSX under [General] in your BroadSQL.ini. See Application settings.
  • CSV exports are now always comma-separated. If you relied on your configured column separator applying to .csv files, switch that export to a .txt extension (or adjust FieldsSeparator) to keep using that separator.

Known issues

  • On some terminals, pressing CTRL+C while BroadSQL is idle at the prompt (no command currently running) can still exit the application. Only the EXIT command is guaranteed to close BroadSQL cleanly in every case.
  • BLOB/CLOB/NCLOB columns are not exported using a dedicated representation; they fall back to generic text.
  • Exporting a NULL value from a binary column to Excel currently shows placeholder text ("Binary content, not exported...") instead of a blank cell. This is handled correctly (blank) in ODS exports.
  • The CONFIG screen for managing connections is available on Windows only. On Linux, connections are managed with direct SQL against the CDF's CONNECTIONS table.
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