Hibernate hbm2ddl.auto, possible values, and what they do

For hbm2ddl.auto property the list of possible options is:

  • validate: validate that the schema matches, make no changes to the schema of the database, you probably want this for production.
  • update: update the schema to reflect the entities being persisted
  • create: creates the schema necessary for your entities, destroying any previous data.
  • create-drop: create the schema as in create above, but also drop the schema at the end of the session. This is great in early development or for testing.

The link you provided is already the official documentation. So, there's nothing more official and comprehensive as-of today.

So I guess the answer to your question is two-fold:

  • either file an enhancement request in the Hibernate issue tracker (better with a proposal)
  • or read the corresponding code

I know this isn't the perfect answer you dreamt about, but this is actually all you have today.

But the good news is that the project is open-source, so you have all you need to help improve it :-).