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Admin manage drivers

You can customize drivers configuration in the workspace/.metadata/.config/drivers.xml file.

File structure

The file has a <drivers> root element. Each driver lives inside a <provider> element. The <driver> element holds the connection details, and one or more <library> elements list the files the driver needs.

Example

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<drivers>

  <provider id="postgresql">
      <driver id="postgres-jdbc" categories="sql" name="PostgreSQL" class="org.postgresql.Driver" url="jdbc:postgresql://{host}[:{port}]/[{database}]" port="5432" description="PostgreSQL standard driver" custom="false">
          <library type="jar" path="maven:/org.postgresql:postgresql:RELEASE" custom="false" version="42.7.11">
              <file id="org.postgresql:postgresql:RELEASE" version="42.7.11" path="${drivers_home}/maven/maven-central/org.postgresql/postgresql-42.7.11.jar"/>
          </library>
          <library type="jar" path="maven:/net.postgis:postgis-jdbc:RELEASE" custom="false" version="2.5.0" ignore-dependencies="true">
              <file id="net.postgis:postgis-jdbc:RELEASE" version="2.5.0" path="${drivers_home}/maven/maven-central/net.postgis/postgis-jdbc-2.5.0.jar"/>
          </library>
          <library type="license" path="licenses/external/pg.txt" custom="false"/>
      </driver>
  </provider>

</drivers>

Driver attributes

The <driver> element maps to the fields on the Driver Manager Main parameters screen.

Attribute Description
id Unique identifier for the driver
name Name shown in the Driver Manager
class Fully qualified JDBC driver class
url URL template used to build the connection string
port Default port
categories Comma-separated groups used to sort the driver in the list
description Short description of the driver
custom true for a driver you added yourself, false for a preconfigured one
embedded true if the database runs embedded inside the application

Library attributes

Each <library> element points to one file the driver depends on.

Attribute Description
type File type - jar or zip for driver files, license for a license text file
path Local path to the file, or a Maven coordinate like maven:/group:artifact:RELEASE
custom true for a library you added yourself, false for one shipped with DBeaver
version Version currently downloaded and in use
ignore-dependencies true to skip resolving the library's transitive Maven dependencies

Note

For Maven libraries, DBeaver caches each resolved file in a nested <file> element with its exact version, path, and checksum. You don't need to edit these entries.

You can also set driver-specific options with <parameter> elements inside a <driver>. Each one takes a name and a value, for example <parameter name="read-only-data" value="false"/>.

Configure drivers with pre-installed jars

If you have some pre-installed jar files you can reference them in drivers.xml.

Example

<library type="jar" path="absolute-jar-folder-path\driver-jar.jar" custom="true"/>

You can use the following variables to specify relative paths:

Variable Meaning
${drivers_home} Standard DBeaver drivers location - ($workspace/drivers by default)
${dbeaver_home} DBeaver installation folder
${home} User home folder
${workspace} DBeaver workspace path. For instance: <library type="jar" path="${workspace}\drivers\my-driver.jar" custom="true"/>

Provide predefined drivers configuration

In some cases you may need to provide a driver's configuration or driver jar files for a number of DBeaver installations automatically.

This can be done by adding a special parameter in the dbeaver.ini file: -Ddbeaver.drivers.configuration-file=c:\some-path\dbeaver-drivers-config.xml

Tip

Detailed instructions on finding dbeaver.ini are available in our article.

This file has the same structure as drivers.xml file (see above) and it will be loaded before drivers.xml.

Example

If you need to configure only the jar path then it may look like this: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<drivers>
  <provider id="generic">
    <driver id="netezza">
      <library type="lib" path="X:\jdbc-drivers\netezza-jdbc.jar"/>
    </driver>
  </provider>
</drivers>

Note

Add custom drivers under an existing provider such as generic. A driver under a new, unregistered provider id is ignored.