EF Migrations Command Reference

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EF Migrations series

Entity Framework Migrations are handled from the package manager console in Visual Studio. The usage is shown in various tutorials, but I haven’t found a complete list of the commands available and their usage, so I created my own. There are four available commands.

  • Enable-Migrations: Enables Code First Migrations in a project.
  • Add-Migration: Scaffolds a migration script for any pending model changes.
  • Update-Database: Applies any pending migrations to the database.
  • Get-Migrations: Displays the migrations that have been applied to the target database.

The information here is the output of running get-help command-name -detailed for each of the commands in the package manager console (running EF 4.3.1). I’ve also added some own comments where I think some information is missing. My own comments are placed under the Additional Information heading.

Please note that all commands should be entered on the same line. I’ve added line breaks to avoid horizontal scrollbars.

Enable-Migrations

Enables Code First Migrations in a project.

Syntax

Enable-Migrations [-EnableAutomaticMigrations] [[-ProjectName] <String>]
  [-Force] [<CommonParameters>]

Description

Enables Migrations by scaffolding a migrations configuration class in the project. If the  target database was created by an initializer, an initial migration will be created (unless automatic migrations are enabled via the EnableAutomaticMigrations parameter).

Parameters

-EnableAutomaticMigrations

Specifies whether automatic migrations will be enabled in the scaffolded migrations configuration. If ommitted, automatic migrations will be disabled.

-ProjectName <String>

Specifies the project that the scaffolded migrations configuration class will be added to. If omitted, the default project selected in package manager console is used.

-Force

Specifies that the migrations configuration be overwritten when running more than once for given project.

<CommonParameters>

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug, ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, WarningAction, WarningVariable, OutBuffer and OutVariable. For more information, type: get-help about_commonparameters.

Remarks

To see the examples, type: get-help Enable-Migrations -examples.
For more information, type: get-help Enable-Migrations -detailed.
For technical information, type: get-help Enable-Migrations -full.

Additional Information

The flag for enabling automatic migrations is saved in the Migrations\Configuration.cs file, in the constructor. To later change the option, just change the assignment in the file.

public Configuration()
{
    AutomaticMigrationsEnabled = false;
}

Add-Migration

Scaffolds a migration script for any pending model changes.

Syntax

Add-Migration [-Name] <String> [-Force]
  [-ProjectName <String>] [-StartUpProjectName <String>]
  [-ConfigurationTypeName <String>] [-ConnectionStringName <String>]
  [-IgnoreChanges] [<CommonParameters>]
 
Add-Migration [-Name] <String> [-Force]
  [-ProjectName <String>] [-StartUpProjectName <String>]
  [-ConfigurationTypeName <String>] -ConnectionString <String>
  -ConnectionProviderName <String> [-IgnoreChanges] [<Common Parameters>]

Description

Scaffolds a new migration script and adds it to the project.

Parameters

-Name <String>

Specifies the name of the custom script.

-Force

Specifies that the migration user code be overwritten when re-scaffolding an existing migration.

-ProjectName <String>

Specifies the project that contains the migration configuration type to be used. If ommitted, the default project selected in package manager console is used.

-StartUpProjectName <String>

Specifies the configuration file to use for named connection strings. If omitted, the specified project’s configuration file is used.

-ConfigurationTypeName <String>

Specifies the migrations configuration to use. If omitted, migrations will attempt to locate a single migrations configuration type in the target project.

-ConnectionStringName <String>

Specifies the name of a connection string to use from the application’s configuration file.

-ConnectionString <String>

Specifies the the connection string to use. If omitted, the context’s default connection will be used.

-ConnectionProviderName <String>

Specifies the provider invariant name of the connection string.

-IgnoreChanges

Scaffolds an empty migration ignoring any pending changes detected in the current model. This can be used to create an initial, empty migration to enable Migrations for an existing database. N.B. Doing this assumes that the target database schema is compatible with the current model.

<CommonParameters>

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug, ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, WarningAction, WarningVariable, OutBuffer and OutVariable. For more information, type: get-help about_commonparameters.

Remarks

To see the examples, type: get-help Add-Migration -examples.
For more information, type: get-help Add-Migration -detailed.
For technical information, type: get-help Add-Migration -full.

Update-Database

Applies any pending migrations to the database.

Syntax

Update-Database [-SourceMigration <String>]
  [-TargetMigration <String>] [-Script] [-Force] [-ProjectName <String>]
  [-StartUpProjectName <String>] [-ConfigurationTypeName <String>]
  [-ConnectionStringName <String>] [<CommonParameters>]
 
Update-Database [-SourceMigration <String>] [-TargetMigration <String>]
  [-Script] [-Force] [-ProjectName <String>] [-StartUpProjectName <String>]
  [-ConfigurationTypeName <String>] -ConnectionString <String>
  -ConnectionProviderName <String> [<CommonParameters>]

Description

Updates the database to the current model by applying pending migrations.

Parameters

-SourceMigration <String>

Only valid with -Script. Specifies the name of a particular migration to use as the update’s starting point. If ommitted, the last applied migration in the database will be used.

-TargetMigration <String>

Specifies the name of a particular migration to update the database to. If ommitted, the current model will be used.

-Script

Generate a SQL script rather than executing the pending changes directly.

-Force

Specifies that data loss is acceptable during automatic migration of the
database.

-ProjectName <String>

Specifies the project that contains the migration configuration type to be used. If ommitted, the default project selected in package manager console is used.

-StartUpProjectName <String>

Specifies the configuration file to use for named connection strings. If omitted, the specified project’s configuration file is used.

-ConfigurationTypeName <String>

Specifies the migrations configuration to use. If omitted, migrations will attempt to locate a single migrations configuration type in the target project.

-ConnectionStringName <String>

Specifies the name of a connection string to use from the application’s configuration file.

-ConnectionString <String>

Specifies the the connection string to use. If omitted, the context’s default connection will be used.

-ConnectionProviderName <String>

Specifies the provider invariant name of the connection string.

<CommonParameters>

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug, ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, WarningAction, WarningVariable, OutBuffer and OutVariable. For more information, type: get-help about_commonparameters.

Remarks

To see the examples, type: get-help Update-Database -examples.
For more information, type: get-help Update-Database -detailed.
For technical information, type: get-help Update-Database -full.

Additional Information

The command always runs any pending code-based migrations first. If the database is still incompatible with the model the additional changes required are applied as an separate automatic migration step if automatic migrations are enabled. If automatic migrations are disabled an error message is shown.

Get-Migrations

Displays the migrations that have been applied to the target database.

Syntax

Get-Migrations [-ProjectName <String>] [-StartUpProjectName <String>]
  [-ConfigurationTypeName <String>] [-ConnectionStringName <String>]
  [<CommonParameters>]
 
Get-Migrations [-ProjectName <String>] [-StartUpProjectName <String>]
  [-ConfigurationTypeName <String>] -ConnectionString <String>
  -ConnectionProviderName <String> [<CommonParameters>]

Description

Displays the migrations that have been applied to the target database.

Parameters

-ProjectName <String>

Specifies the project that contains the migration configuration type to be used. If ommitted, the default project selected in package manager console is used.

-StartUpProjectName <String>

Specifies the configuration file to use for named connection strings. If omitted, the specified project’s configuration file is used.

-ConfigurationTypeName <String>

Specifies the migrations configuration to use. If omitted, migrations will attempt to locate a single migrations configuration type in the target project.

-ConnectionStringName <String>

Specifies the name of a connection string to use from the application’s configuration file.

-ConnectionString <String>

Specifies the the connection string to use. If omitted, the context’s default connection will be used.

-ConnectionProviderName <String>

Specifies the provider invariant name of the connection string.

<CommonParameters>

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug, ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, WarningAction, WarningVariable, OutBuffer and OutVariable. For more information, type: get-help about_commonparameters.

Remarks

To see the examples, type: get-help Get-Migrations -examples.
For more information, type: get-help Get-Migrations -detailed.
For technical information, type: get-help Get-Migrations -full.

Additional Information

The powershell commands are complex powershell functions, located in the tools\EntityFramework.psm1 file of the Entity Framework installation. The powershell code is mostly a wrapper around the System.Data.Entity.Migrations.MigrationsCommands found in the tools\EntityFramework\EntityFramework.PowerShell.dll file. First a MigrationsCommands object is instantiated with all configuration parameters. Then there is a public method on the MigrationsCommands object for each of the available commands.
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This post is part of the EF Migrations series.<< EF Code First Change TrackingEF Code First Navigation Properties and Foreign Keys >>

5 thoughts on “EF Migrations Command Reference”

  1. Note that there is a special migration-step, $InitialDatabase, available that denotes an empty database. Usage:

    PM> Update-Database -Script -SourceMigration $InitialDatabase

    Instead of $InitialDatabase you can also use the name 0.

    Reply ↓

  2. Is there a way to specify schema when creating a table using Update-Database?(in SQLServer2008)
    When I run on local SQLExpress it all looks fine, but when I connect to the SQLServer 2008 DEV server all the tables get created with "my schema"
    .MyTableName     – however I want to have dbo.MyTableName as the name of the table.

    Any ideas?

    Cheers,
    L

    Reply ↓

    • I’ve played around a bit with schemas and haven’t got it to work from EF Code First. I got as far as having the tables created in different schemas, but then the queries failed. The only option I can think of is to set the default schema for the user that connects to the database. You could try asking a question on Stack Overflow and tag it with ef-migrations. There are some people active there that knows EF migrations really well.

      Reply ↓

  3. Pingback: TicketDesk 3 Dev Diary – EF Migrations & TD2 Upgrades – Part 2 | The Scribbler

  4. Thank you! This documentation was very useful. I tried finding info on MSDN but wasn’t coming up with what I needed.

    If you had a “Like” button or similar I would have clicked!

    Continue your great work and thanks again.

    Reply ↓

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