You can use an XML file to specify the arguments for the command line interface. You may want to do this because:

• An XML file is easier to read than a long and complex command line, particularly where complex rules for including and excluding objects are specified.
• You can easily transform an XML file into other formats using XSLT.
  For example, you could transform your argument file to HTML for presentation on a Web page.
• Using an XML file overcomes some limitations that can be a problem when you want to specify regular expressions as command line arguments.
  For example, you may want to use the pipe character ( | ) as part of a regular expression, but it causes problems when it is used at the command prompt; if you use an XML file you can use the pipe character with no problems.
• Most programming languages support XML, through built-in or freely available third-party libraries.
• This makes it easy to generate and process the XML file.

Create the XML file in the following format:

<?xml version="1.0"?>\\<commandline>
<switch_name1/>
<switch_name2>switch_value</switch_name2> ....
</commandline>

For example, for the /includeschema and /excludeschema switches, use the following format:

 <includeschema>objecttype:RegularExpression</includeschema>

To execute the command line tools using an XML argument file as input, at the command prompt enter:

 sqlpackager /argfile:XMLfilename.xml

When you use an XML file to supply the arguments, you cannot specify any other switches on the command line except /verbose or /quiet.