Where Is Microsoft Command Line Utilities 16?

Question

Problem Statement

It seems the latest version of Microsoft's Command Line Utilities aren't at the same version that is distributed with SQL Server 2022.

• SQL Server 2022 delivers bcp and sqlcmd version 16.
• The command line utility installer delivers version 15.

Finding the documentation

SQL Server 2022's installer will direct you to this link to install the command line utilities which get you bcp and sqlcmd.

Which provides the SQL Server Tools link

Which gives you a link for bcp and sqlcmd. They both give you the same Download Microsoft Command Line Utilities 15 for SQL Server (x64) (2.6 MB) download link.

The Problem

When you install this you will get version 15 of bcp and sqlcmd.

When you install SQL Server 2022 directly, you will get version 16 of the same tools.

Just as a side note: if you install the latest command line utils over bcp and sqlcmd version 16, the newest version is retained. The command line utils installer won't overwrite.

My Questions

1. Are version 15 of these tools compatible with SQL Server 2022? I didn't see documentation saying that it was.
2. Are version 16 of these tools downloadable? For example, I didn't see a download link for Microsoft Command Line Utilities 16 for SQL Server (x64) anywhere.
3. Is there a change log for version 16 of bcp and sqlcmd anywhere?

Answer 1

Microsoft are updating v15 as initially shipped with 2019 (SQL v15)

Initially, not all 2022 features were available, but all the old ones seem to work.

Microsoft released an update including 2022 features for SQLCMD and BCP as an update to the command line tools for SQL Command line Tools v15 (ie, the release associated with SQL2019) on April 23rd 2023.

The 2022 compatible version is 15.0.4298.1

Your link to download the command line utilities to install both sqlcmd and bcp. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/tools/sqlcmd/sqlcmd-utility?view=sql-server-ver16 will return the most current version.

The new 2022 features are described on the page, alongside everything else but it is not a change log as such.