Thank you. It hadn't occurred to me that '.help' could be used for individual commands. That tells me what I needed, and there is a '--readonly' option which I've just tried and it works. Unfortunately what I'm trying to do is open the Chrome browser History file while simultaneously running a Chrome browser: I know I can find the History from within Chrome - I do have reasons for wanting the History simultaneously from outside Chrome! I had hoped using the SQLite command line interface opening History as read only would work, but it seems '--readonly' is insufficient to overcome a Chrome lock on History because when I then try '.tables' I get a message 'Error: database is locked'. There must be a way to do what I want because https://www.nirsoft.net/web_browser_tools.html can read the History file while a Chrome browser is running. I've just noticed that that tool also has a command line interface option, and I've tried it, and it does what I want. So, again thank you for your help, and this query is now most satisfactorily answered, so is now closed!