Index: trunk/ippTools/src/chiptool.c
===================================================================
--- trunk/ippTools/src/chiptool.c	(revision 16666)
+++ trunk/ippTools/src/chiptool.c	(revision 16667)
@@ -165,4 +165,5 @@
     // default
     PXOPT_COPY_STR(config->args, where, "-exp_type", "exp_type", "==");
+    PXOPT_LOOKUP_BOOL(pretend, config->args, "-pretend", false);
 
     // find the exp_id of all the exposures that we want to queue up.
@@ -178,4 +179,11 @@
         psStringAppend(&query, " AND %s", whereClause);
         psFree(whereClause);
+    }
+
+    if (pretend) {
+        // then stop before running the query
+        fprintf(stderr, "%s\n", query);
+        psFree(query);
+        return true;
     }
 
Index: trunk/ippTools/src/chiptoolConfig.c
===================================================================
--- trunk/ippTools/src/chiptoolConfig.c	(revision 16666)
+++ trunk/ippTools/src/chiptoolConfig.c	(revision 16667)
@@ -137,4 +137,6 @@
     psMetadataAddStr(queueArgs, PS_LIST_TAIL, "-set_end_stage",  0,
             "define end stage", NULL);
+    psMetadataAddBool(queueArgs, PS_LIST_TAIL, "-pretend",  0,
+            "do not actually modify the database", false);