You can use the SQLite .clone dot command to create a clone of the current database.

The way it works is quite simple. You simply use .clone newdb where newdb is the name of the new database you want created.

Example

Here’s an example to demonstrate.

First, I’ll connect to SQLite and specify a database to use:

sqlite3 Store.db

Once connected, I can run the following code to clone that database:

.clone Store2.db

In this case, I clone the Store.db database to a file called Store2.db.

When you run this, you’ll probably see messages written to the console as each table gets cloned.

Like this:

sqlite> .clone Store2.db
Customers... done
Products... done
Orders... done

Clone Another Database

If you use .open to open another database, you can clone that one too.

Here, I open the Chinook sample database, then immediately clone it.

.open Chinook.db
.clone Chinook2.db

Output to the console:

Album... done
Artist... done
Customer... done
Employee... done
Genre... done
Invoice... done
InvoiceLine... done
MediaType... done
Playlist... done
PlaylistTrack... done
Track... done
IFK_AlbumArtistId... done
sqlite_autoindex_PlaylistTrack_1... done
IFK_CustomerSupportRepId... done
IFK_EmployeeReportsTo... done
IFK_InvoiceCustomerId... done
IFK_InvoiceLineInvoiceId... done
IFK_InvoiceLineTrackId... done
IFK_PlaylistTrackTrackId... done
IFK_TrackAlbumId... done
IFK_TrackGenreId... done
IFK_TrackMediaTypeId... done