content/code-security/codeql-cli/codeql-cli-manual/execute-queries.md

---
title: execute queries
versions: # DO NOT MANUALLY EDIT. CHANGES WILL BE OVERWRITTEN BY A 🤖
  fpt: '*'
  ghec: '*'
  ghes: '*'
topics:
  - Code Security
  - Code scanning
  - CodeQL
type: reference
product: '{% data reusables.gated-features.codeql %}'
autogenerated: codeql-cli
intro: '[Plumbing] Run one or more queries against a dataset.'
redirect_from:
  - /code-security/codeql-cli/manual/execute-queries
---

<!-- markdownlint-disable GHD053 -->

<!-- markdownlint-disable GHD030 -->

<!-- Content after this section is automatically generated -->

{% data reusables.codeql-cli.man-pages-version-note %}

## Synopsis

```shell copy
codeql execute queries [--output=<dir|file.bqrs>] [--threads=<num>] <options>... -- <dataset> <query|dir|suite|pack>...
```

## Description

\[Plumbing] Run one or more queries against a dataset.

This command should not normally be invoked directly. Instead use either
[codeql database run-queries](/code-security/codeql-cli/codeql-cli-manual/database-run-queries) or [codeql query run](/code-security/codeql-cli/codeql-cli-manual/query-run), which will start codeql execute queries with specific JVM options to tune the performance of the QL evaluator.

## Options

### Primary Options

#### `<dataset>`

\[Mandatory] Path to the raw QL dataset to query.

#### `<query|dir|suite|pack>...`

\[Mandatory] Queries to execute. Each argument is in the form
`scope/name@range:path` where:

* `scope/name` is the qualified name of a CodeQL pack.
* `range` is a semver range.
* `path` is a file system path.

If a `scope/name` is specified, the `range` and `path` are optional. A
missing `range` implies the latest version of the specified pack. A
missing `path` implies the default query suite of the specified pack.

The `path` can be one of a `*.ql` query file, a directory containing one
or more queries, or a `.qls` query suite file. If there is no pack name
specified, then a `path` must be provided, and will be interpreted
relative to the current working directory of the current process.

To specify a `path` that contains a literal `@` or `:`, use `path:` as a
prefix to the argument, like this: `path:directory/with:and@/chars`.

If a `scope/name` and `path` are specified, then the `path` cannot be
absolute. It is considered relative to the root of the CodeQL pack.

#### `-o, --output=<dir|file.bqrs>`

Usually this is an existing directory into which the BQRS output from
the queries will be written. Filenames _within_ this directory will be
derived from the QL file names.

Alternatively, if there is exactly one query to run, it may be the name
of the actual BQRS file to write, or may be omitted to write a
human-readable representation of the results to standard output.

#### `--no-rerun`

Omit evaluation of queries that already seem to have a BQRS result
stored in the output location.

### Options to control the model packs to be used

#### `--model-packs=<`<name@range>>...

A list of CodeQL pack names, each with an optional version range, to be
used as model packs to customize the queries that are about to be
evaluated.

### Options to control the threat models to be used

#### `--threat-model=<name>...`

A list of threat models to enable or disable.

The argument is the name of a threat model, optionally preceded by a
'!'. If no '!' is present, the named threat model and all of its
descendants are enabled. If a '!' is present, the named threat model
and all of its descendants are disabled.

The 'default' threat model is enabled by default, but can be disabled
by specifying '--threat-model !default'.

The 'all' threat model can be used to enable or disable all threat
models.

The --threat-model options are processed in order. For example,
'--threat-model local --threat-model !environment' enables all of
the threat models in the 'local' group except for the 'environment'
threat model.

This option only has an effect for languages that support threat models.

Available since `v2.15.3`.

### Options to control the query evaluator

#### `--[no-]tuple-counting`

\[Advanced] Display tuple counts for each evaluation step in the query
evaluator logs. If the `--evaluator-log` option is provided, tuple
counts will be included in both the text-based and structured JSON logs
produced by the command. (This can be useful for performance
optimization of complex QL code).

#### `--timeout=<seconds>`

\[Advanced] Set the timeout length for query evaluation, in seconds.

The timeout feature is intended to catch cases where a complex query
would take "forever" to evaluate. It is not an effective way to limit
the total amount of time the query evaluation can take. The evaluation
will be allowed to continue as long as each separately timed part of the
computation completes within the timeout. Currently these separately
timed parts are "RA layers" of the optimized query, but that might
change in the future.

If no timeout is specified, or is given as 0, no timeout will be set
(except for [codeql test run](/code-security/codeql-cli/codeql-cli-manual/test-run), where the default timeout is 5 minutes).

#### `-j, --threads=<num>`

Use this many threads to evaluate queries.

Defaults to 1. You can pass 0 to use one thread per core on the machine,
or -_N_ to leave _N_ cores unused (except still use at least one
thread).

#### `--[no-]save-cache`

\[Advanced] Aggressively write intermediate results to the disk cache.
This takes more time and uses (much) more disk space, but may speed up
the subsequent execution of similar queries.

#### `--[no-]expect-discarded-cache`

\[Advanced] Make decisions about which predicates to evaluate, and what
to write to the disk cache, based on the assumption that the cache will
be discarded after the queries have been executed.

#### `--[no-]keep-full-cache`

\[Advanced] Don't clean up the disk cache after evaluation completes.
This may save time if you're going to do [codeql dataset cleanup](/code-security/codeql-cli/codeql-cli-manual/dataset-cleanup) or [codeql database cleanup](/code-security/codeql-cli/codeql-cli-manual/database-cleanup) afterwards anyway.

#### `--max-disk-cache=<MB>`

Set the maximum amount of space that the disk cache for intermediate
query results can use.

If this size is not configured explicitly, the evaluator will try to use
a "reasonable" amount of cache space, based on the size of the dataset
and the complexity of the queries. Explicitly setting a higher limit
than this default usage will enable additional caching which can speed
up later queries.

#### `--min-disk-free=<MB>`

\[Advanced] Set target amount of free space on file system.

If `--max-disk-cache` is not given, the evaluator will try hard to
curtail disk cache usage if the free space on the file system drops
below this value.

#### `--min-disk-free-pct=<pct>`

\[Advanced] Set target fraction of free space on file system.

If `--max-disk-cache` is not given, the evaluator will try hard to
curtail disk cache usage if the free space on the file system drops
below this percentage.

#### `--external=<pred>=<file.csv>`

A CSV file that contains rows for external predicate _\<pred>_.
Multiple `--external` options can be supplied.

#### `--xterm-progress=<mode>`

\[Advanced] Controls whether to show progress tracking during QL
evaluation using xterm control sequences. Possible values are:

`no`: Never produce fancy progress; assume a dumb terminal.

`auto` _(default)_: Autodetect whether the command is running in an
appropriate terminal.

`yes`: Assume the terminal can understand xterm control sequences. The
feature still depends on being able to autodetect the _size_ of the
terminal (which is not implemented on Windows, sorry), and will also be
disabled if `-q` is given.

`25x80` (or similar): Like `yes`, and also explicitly give the size of
the terminal. (Unlike `yes`, this should work on Windows.)

`25x80:/dev/pts/17` (or similar): show fancy progress on a _different_
terminal than stderr. Mostly useful for internal testing.

### Options for controlling outputting of structured evaluator logs

#### `--evaluator-log=<file>`

\[Advanced] Output structured logs about evaluator performance to the
given file. The format of this log file is subject to change with no
notice, but will be a stream of JSON objects separated by either two
newline characters (by default) or one if the `--evaluator-log-minify`
option is passed. Please use `codeql generate log-summary <file>` to
produce a more stable summary of this file, and avoid parsing the file
directly. The file will be overwritten if it already exists.

#### `--evaluator-log-minify`

\[Advanced] If the `--evaluator-log` option is passed, also passing
this option will minimize the size of the JSON log produced, at the
expense of making it much less human readable.

### Options to control QL compilation

#### `--warnings=<mode>`

How to handle warnings from the QL compiler. One of:

`hide`: Suppress warnings.

`show` _(default)_: Print warnings but continue with compilation.

`error`: Treat warnings as errors.

#### `--no-debug-info`

Don't emit source location info in RA for debugging.

#### `--[no-]fast-compilation`

\[Deprecated] \[Advanced] Omit particularly slow optimization steps.

#### `--no-release-compatibility`

\[Advanced] Use the newest compiler features, at the cost of
portability.

From time to time, new QL language features and evaluator optimizations
will be supported by the QL evaluator a few releases before they are
enabled by default in the QL compiler. This helps ensure that the
performance you experience when developing queries in the newest CodeQL
release can be matched by slightly older releases that may still be in
use for Code Scanning or CI integrations.

If you do not care about your queries being compatible with other
(earlier or later) CodeQL releases, you can sometimes achieve a small
amount of extra performance by using this flag to enable recent
improvements in the compiler early.

In releases where there are no recent improvements to enable, this
option silently does nothing. Thus it is safe to set it once and for all
in your global CodeQL config file.

Available since `v2.11.1`.

#### `--[no-]local-checking`

Only perform initial checks on the part of the QL source that is used.

#### `--no-metadata-verification`

Don't check embedded query metadata in QLDoc comments for validity.

#### `--compilation-cache-size=<MB>`

\[Advanced] Override the default maximum size for a compilation cache
directory.

#### `--fail-on-ambiguous-relation-name`

\[Advanced] Fail compilation if an ambiguous relation name is generated
during compilation.

### Options to set up compilation environment

#### `--search-path=<dir>[:<dir>...]`

A list of directories under which QL packs may be found. Each directory
can either be a QL pack (or bundle of packs containing a
`.codeqlmanifest.json` file at the root) or the immediate parent of one
or more such directories.

If the path contains more than one directory, their order defines
precedence between them: when a pack name that must be resolved is
matched in more than one of the directory trees, the one given first
wins.

Pointing this at a checkout of the open-source CodeQL repository ought
to work when querying one of the languages that live there.

If you have checked out the CodeQL repository as a sibling of the
unpacked CodeQL toolchain, you don't need to give this option; such
sibling directories will always be searched for QL packs that cannot be
found otherwise. (If this default does not work, it is strongly
recommended to set up `--search-path` once and for all in a per-user
configuration file).

(Note: On Windows the path separator is `;`).

#### `--additional-packs=<dir>[:<dir>...]`

If this list of directories is given, they will be searched for packs
before the ones in `--search-path`. The order between these doesn't
matter; it is an error if a pack name is found in two different places
through this list.

This is useful if you're temporarily developing a new version of a pack
that also appears in the default path. On the other hand, it is _not
recommended_ to override this option in a config file; some internal
actions will add this option on the fly, overriding any configured
value.

(Note: On Windows the path separator is `;`).

#### `--library-path=<dir>[:<dir>...]`

\[Advanced] An optional list of directories that will be added to the
raw import search path for QL libraries. This should only be used if
you're using QL libraries that have not been packaged as QL packs.

(Note: On Windows the path separator is `;`).

#### `--dbscheme=<file>`

\[Advanced] Explicitly define which dbscheme queries should be compiled
against. This should only be given by callers that are extremely sure
what they're doing.

#### `--compilation-cache=<dir>`

\[Advanced] Specify an additional directory to use as a compilation
cache.

#### `--no-default-compilation-cache`

\[Advanced] Don't use compilation caches in standard locations such as
in the QL pack containing the query or in the CodeQL toolchain
directory.

### Options for configuring the CodeQL package manager

#### `--registries-auth-stdin`

Authenticate to GitHub Enterprise Server Container registries by passing
a comma-separated list of \<registry\_url>=\<token> pairs.

For example, you can pass
`https://containers.GHEHOSTNAME1/v2/=TOKEN1,https://containers.GHEHOSTNAME2/v2/=TOKEN2`
to authenticate to two GitHub Enterprise Server instances.

This overrides the CODEQL\_REGISTRIES\_AUTH and GITHUB\_TOKEN environment
variables. If you only need to authenticate to the github.com Container
registry, you can instead authenticate using the simpler
`--github-auth-stdin` option.

#### `--github-auth-stdin`

Authenticate to the github.com Container registry by passing a
github.com GitHub Apps token or personal access token via standard
input.

To authenticate to GitHub Enterprise Server Container registries, pass
`--registries-auth-stdin` or use the CODEQL\_REGISTRIES\_AUTH environment
variable.

This overrides the GITHUB\_TOKEN environment variable.

### Common options

#### `-h, --help`

Show this help text.

#### `-J=<opt>`

\[Advanced] Give option to the JVM running the command.

(Beware that options containing spaces will not be handled correctly.)

#### `-v, --verbose`

Incrementally increase the number of progress messages printed.

#### `-q, --quiet`

Incrementally decrease the number of progress messages printed.

#### `--verbosity=<level>`

\[Advanced] Explicitly set the verbosity level to one of errors,
warnings, progress, progress+, progress++, progress+++. Overrides `-v`
and `-q`.

#### `--logdir=<dir>`

\[Advanced] Write detailed logs to one or more files in the given
directory, with generated names that include timestamps and the name of
the running subcommand.

(To write a log file with a name you have full control over, instead
give `--log-to-stderr` and redirect stderr as desired.)

#### `--common-caches=<dir>`

\[Advanced] Controls the location of cached data on disk that will
persist between several runs of the CLI, such as downloaded QL packs and
compiled query plans. If not set explicitly, this defaults to a
directory named `.codeql` in the user's home directory; it will be
created if it doesn't already exist.

Available since `v2.15.2`.