SQLCMD Using Powershell Gives No Response

Question

I have SQL Server 2019 Standard installed on my Server 2019. I also have installed the SQL CMD Line tools V21.1.18246. When I open my PowerShell in Administrator mode and do a sqlcmd -? the command completes without a error but doesn't show anything. I have reinstalled the CMD LINE Tools and repaired the SQL Server install and I still can't get anything from sqlcmd. I have nothing in my logs saying there is a failure.

Access to the module location is specified in the Environment Variables on the server. I have also installed Microsoft Command Line Utilities 15 for SQL Server for the server. Also I have run the Get-Module -ListAvailable -Name sqlserver command and it shows the SQL CMD Line tools module installed in 4 locations. All of those locations are in the environments variables.

So why does sqlcmd -? return nothing?

Answer 1

sqlcmd -? via PowerShell should return version information and usage guidelines, as in:

Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Try the new cross-platform PowerShell https://aka.ms/pscore6

PS C:\Users\xxx> sqlcmd -?
Microsoft (R) SQL Server Command Line Tool
Version 15.0.4123.1 NT
Copyright (C) 2019 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

usage: Sqlcmd            [-U login id]          [-P password]
  [-S server]            [-H hostname]          [-E trusted connection]
  [-N Encrypt Connection][-C Trust Server Certificate]
  [-d use database name] [-l login timeout]     [-t query timeout]
  [-h headers]           [-s colseparator]      [-w screen width]
  [-a packetsize]        [-e echo input]        [-I Enable Quoted Identifiers]
  [-c cmdend]            [-L[c] list servers[clean output]]
  [-q "cmdline query"]   [-Q "cmdline query" and exit]
  [-m errorlevel]        [-V severitylevel]     [-W remove trailing spaces]
  [-u unicode output]    [-r[0|1] msgs to stderr]
  [-i inputfile]         [-o outputfile]        [-z new password]
  [-f  | i:[,o:]] [-Z new password and exit]
  [-k[1|2] remove[replace] control characters]
  [-y variable length type display width]
  [-Y fixed length type display width]
  [-p[1] print statistics[colon format]]
  [-R use client regional setting]
  [-K application intent]
  [-M multisubnet failover]
  [-b On error batch abort]
  [-v var = "value"...]  [-A dedicated admin connection]
  [-X[1] disable commands, startup script, environment variables [and exit]]
  [-x disable variable substitution]
  [-j Print raw error messages]
  [-g enable column encryption]
  [-G use Azure Active Directory for authentication]
  [-? show syntax summary]
PS C:\Users\xxx>

I have confirmed this using PowerShell on Windows Server 2019. I would suggest trying sqlcmd.exe -? via the regular command-line, cmd.exe.