--connection <CONNECTION> option of database update is not supported

[Peter-B-]

It seems like the --connection option of dotnet ef database update is not supported any more in version 3.1.5.

Is there an alternative?

> dotnet ef database update --help
                                                                                                                        
Usage: dotnet ef database update [arguments] [options]

Arguments:
  <MIGRATION>  The target migration. If '0', all migrations will be reverted. Defaults to the last migration.

Options:
  -c|--context <DBCONTEXT>               The DbContext to use.
  -p|--project <PROJECT>                 The project to use.
  -s|--startup-project <PROJECT>         The startup project to use.
  --framework <FRAMEWORK>                The target framework.
  --configuration <CONFIGURATION>        The configuration to use.
  --runtime <RUNTIME_IDENTIFIER>         The runtime to use.
  --msbuildprojectextensionspath <PATH>  The MSBuild project extensions path. Defaults to "obj".
  --no-build                             Don't build the project. Only use this when the build is up-to-date.
  -h|--help                              Show help information
  -v|--verbose                           Show verbose output.
  --no-color                             Don't colorize output.
  --prefix-output                        Prefix output with level.

> dotnet ef database update --version
Entity Framework Core .NET Command-line Tools
3.1.5

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Document Details

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• ID: 263f21d6-6edc-7582-e0e2-fa1c9670bcc0
• Version Independent ID: b3dd8c84-18b1-f98d-64f1-7897d1482692
• Content: EF Core tools reference (.NET CLI) - EF Core
• Content Source: entity-framework/core/miscellaneous/cli/dotnet.md
• Product: entity-framework
• Technology: entity-framework-core
• GitHub Login: @bricelam
• Microsoft Alias: bricelam

[smitpatel]

It is available in 5.0 release dotnet/efcore#10750

[Peter-B-]

Ah. Thanks. I didn't realize that.
Another reason to upgrade.

[mark-patton]

Hi everyone, I came across this issue with 3.1.5 where i too got the --connection <CONNECTION> option of database update is not supported

If you go to the section Known issue with --connection... in this article i pulled together to explain my experience of this, you'll see how I updated my appsettings.json connection string on the fly, in the pipeline, and then running dotnet ef database update. Here's the link: entity-framework-core-migrations-in-azure-devops

Hope you find it useful.