0 byte output on equal compare result

jeljeljel2

Hi, when using sqlcompare.exe from the command line, in the past if there were no changes, the output would be a 0 byte file.  Using this as a marker, it was easy to tell if there was a script needed to be run or not.

It seems this has changed.  If the result of a compare is 'no changes', it now writes a 2Kb file that does nothing.  I have attached a sample of what this looks like below.

Is there a way to prevent this from happening and go back to the 0 byte file when there are no changes?  What is the reasoning for writing a change file that does nothing?

Here are the file contents I am referring to...

/*

Run this script on:

        ..BigWave.Master    -  This database will be modified

to synchronize it with:

        ..BigWave.Master

You are recommended to back up your database before running this script

Script created by SQL Compare version 14.4.4.16824 from Red Gate Software Ltd at 1/6/2021 6:21:44 PM

*/

SET NUMERIC_ROUNDABORT OFF

GO

SET ANSI_WARNINGS, CONCAT_NULL_YIELDS_NULL, ARITHABORT ON

GO

SET XACT_ABORT ON

GO

SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SERIALIZABLE

GO

BEGIN TRANSACTION

GO

SET ANSI_NULLS ON

GO

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON

GO

@ERROR <> 0 SET NOEXEC ON

GO

COMMIT TRANSACTION

GO

@ERROR <> 0 SET NOEXEC ON

GO

-- This statement writes to the SQL Server Log so SQL Monitor can show this deployment.

IF HAS_PERMS_BY_NAME(N'sys.xp_logevent', N'OBJECT', N'EXECUTE') = 1

BEGIN

    DECLARE @databaseName AS nvarchar(2048), @eventMessage AS nvarchar(2048)

    SET @databaseName = REPLACE(REPLACE(DB_NAME(), N'\', N'\\'), N'"', N'\"')

    SET @eventMessage = N'Redgate SQL Compare: { "deployment": { "description": "Redgate SQL Compare deployed to ' + @databaseName + N'", "database": "' + @databaseName + N'" }}'

    EXECUTE sys.xp_logevent 55000, @eventMessage

END

GO

DECLARE @Success AS BIT

SET @Success = 1

SET NOEXEC OFF

IF (@Success = 1) PRINT 'The database update succeeded'

ELSE BEGIN

@TRANCOUNT > 0 ROLLBACK TRANSACTION

PRINT 'The database update failed'

END

GO

David Atkinson

It might be more reliable to use exit codes as the indicator. If there are no changes, sqlcompare.exe should return 63.