---
title: Sqlite in Sqlx, Automatic File Creation, and Error 14
date: 2024-08-30T20:44:13-04:00
---
Sometimes the defaults get in your way.
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Recently, when working with [Sqlite] in a Rust program, I encountered this frustrating behaviour:

[Sqlite]: https://www.sqlite.org

```
% cargo run --
   Compiling hi v0.1.0 (/Users/owen/Projects/grimoire.ca/hi)
	Finished `dev` profile [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 0.61s
	 Running `target/debug/hi`
Error: Database(SqliteError { code: 14, message: "unable to open database file" })
```

The program created its connection using the following:

```rust
async fn pool(&self) -> sqlx::Result<SqlitePool> {
	let pool = SqlitePoolOptions::new().connect(&self.database_url).await?;
	Ok(pool)
}
```

This code is drawn, with minimal modification, from [sqlx's README](https://github.com/launchbadge/sqlx?tab=readme-ov-file#connecting).

No amount of tinkering with the database URL (here `.hi`, but variously also `sqlite:.hi`, `sqlite://.hi`, and numerous others) changed the output.

The root cause, after about an hour of digging, is [this default]:

[this default]: https://docs.rs/sqlx/latest/sqlx/sqlite/struct.SqliteConnectOptions.html#method.create_if_missing

> By default, a new file **will not be created** if one is not found.

**Emphasis** thus.

I replaced my connection pool factory with the following:

```rust
async fn pool(&self) -> sqlx::Result<SqlitePool> {
	let options = SqliteConnectOptions::from_str(&self.database_url)?
		.create_if_missing(true);

	let pool = SqlitePoolOptions::new().connect_with(options).await?;
	Ok(pool)
}
```

And now it works the way I intended: the database is created automatically on startup if it doesn't exist, or reused if it does.