diff --git a/dash-docs.el b/dash-docs.el
index 10f11ae..55750fe 100644
--- a/dash-docs.el
+++ b/dash-docs.el
@@ -104,7 +104,6 @@ the default except when using Emacs 27.
 For more information see https://github.com/magit/ghub/issues/81
 and https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=34341.")
 
-
 (defun dash-docs-docset-path (docset)
   "Return the full path of the directory for DOCSET."
   (let* ((base (dash-docs-docsets-path))
@@ -145,9 +144,10 @@ If there are errors, print them in `dash-docs-debugging-buffer'"
    (with-output-to-string
      (let ((error-file (when dash-docs-enable-debugging
                          (make-temp-file "dash-docs-errors-file"))))
-       (call-process "sqlite3" nil (list standard-output error-file) nil
-                     ;; args for sqlite3:
-                     "-list" "-init" "''" db-path sql)
+       (apply
+        'call-process "sqlite3" nil (list standard-output error-file) nil
+                      ;; args for sqlite3:
+                      (dash-docs-get-sqlite-args db-path sql))
 
        ;; display errors, stolen from emacs' `shell-command` function
        (when (and error-file (file-exists-p error-file))
@@ -165,6 +165,43 @@ If there are errors, print them in `dash-docs-debugging-buffer'"
                (display-buffer (current-buffer))))
          (delete-file error-file))))))
 
+(defun dash-docs-get-sqlite-args (db-path sql)
+  "Return SQLite args to run the SQL command in the db at DB-PATH.
+
+These args depend on the SQLite version.
+"
+  ;; To avoid any initialization when SQLite runs the command, use the init
+  ;; option. For SQLite versions older than 3.34.0, you would use arguments
+  ;; "-init ''" to do so. As of that version, SQLite reports the error that file
+  ;; '' doesn't exist and you need to pass the null device instead. For those
+  ;; versions, you also have to provide argument "-batch" to avoid the output of
+  ;; status information.
+  (if (version< dash-docs-sqlite-version "3.34.0")
+      `("-list" "-init" "''" ,db-path ,sql)
+    `("-list" "-init" ,null-device "-batch" ,db-path ,sql)))
+
+(defun dash-docs-extract-sqlite-version (sqlite-version-output)
+  "Extract the SQLite version from SQLITE-VERSION-OUTPUT.
+SQLITE-VERSION-OUTPUT is the output of a call to \"sqlite3
+--version\" as a list of strings. If this function cannot parse
+that output, it returns \"0.0.0\", which serves as the (fake)
+oldest version of SQLite."
+  (let ((oldest-sqlite-version "0.0.0"))
+    (if (>= (length sqlite-version-output) 1)
+        (let ((sqlite-version-string (car sqlite-version-output)))
+          (if (string-match
+               "^\\([[:digit:]]+[.][[:digit:]]+[.][[:digit:]]+\\) [[:digit:]]\\{4\\}-"
+               sqlite-version-string)
+              (match-string 1 sqlite-version-string)
+            oldest-sqlite-version))
+      oldest-sqlite-version)))
+
+(defvar dash-docs-sqlite-version
+  (dash-docs-extract-sqlite-version (process-lines "sqlite3" "--version"))
+  "Version of available sqlite3 binary.
+This version string is retrieved by executing \"sqlite3
+--version\" and parsing its output.")
+
 (defun dash-docs-parse-sql-results (sql-result-string)
   "Parse SQL-RESULT-STRING splitting it by newline and '|' chars."
   (mapcar (lambda (x) (split-string x "|" t))
diff --git a/test/dash-docs-test.el b/test/dash-docs-test.el
index f921b2f..c510d5d 100644
--- a/test/dash-docs-test.el
+++ b/test/dash-docs-test.el
@@ -166,4 +166,31 @@
 
 (provide 'dash-docs-test)
 
+;;;; dash-docs-get-sqlite-args
+
+(ert-deftest dash-docs-sqlite-args-with-old-version-is-backward-compatible()
+  (let ((dash-docs-sqlite-version "3.33.0"))
+    (let ((actual-result (dash-docs-get-sqlite-args "/path/to/db" "SELECT ...")))
+      (should (equal '("-list" "-init" "''" "/path/to/db" "SELECT ...") actual-result)))))
+
+(ert-deftest dash-docs-sqlite-args-with-newer-version-uses-different-init()
+  (let ((dash-docs-sqlite-version "3.34.0") (null-device "/dev/null"))
+    (let ((actual-result (dash-docs-get-sqlite-args "/path/to/db" "SELECT ...")))
+      (should (equal '("-list" "-init" "/dev/null" "-batch" "/path/to/db" "SELECT ...") actual-result)))))
+
+(ert-deftest dash-docs-sqlite-args-with-newer-version-uses-different-init-and-null-device()
+  ;; null-device "NUL" is used by Windows
+  (let ((dash-docs-sqlite-version "3.34.0") (null-device "NUL"))
+    (let ((actual-result (dash-docs-get-sqlite-args "/path/to/db" "SELECT ...")))
+      (should (equal '("-list" "-init" "NUL" "-batch" "/path/to/db" "SELECT ...") actual-result)))))
+
+(ert-deftest dash-docs-extract-sqlite-version-using-valid-output()
+  (let ((dash-docs-sqlite-version "3.34.0"))
+    (let ((sqlite-version-output '("3.34.0 2020-12-01 16:14:00 a26b6597e3ae272231b96f9982c3bcc17ddec2f2b6eb4df06a224b91089fed5b")))
+      (should (equal "3.34.0" (dash-docs-extract-sqlite-version sqlite-version-output))))))
+
+(ert-deftest dash-docs-extract-sqlite-version-using-empty-output()
+  (let ((sqlite-version-output ()))
+    (should (equal "0.0.0" (dash-docs-extract-sqlite-version sqlite-version-output)))))
+
 ;;; dash-docs-test ends here