I agree that your test should have either succeeded, without the complaint you posted, or should have done something else. (I would think it would have "failed" often with a flurry of "busy" messages. This I expect because, by default, there is no busy handler set by the shell.) With sqlite3 v3.36.0 on Ubuntu, instead of the error you report I get <code> Error: near line \#\#\#: disk I/O error </code>, repeatedly, where the line number progresses. I think this also should not happen. This will be investigated.