Make a directory, like ~/.h2, and put the following files in it.
~/.h2/lib/h2-*.jar: Get the latest h2-*.jar file from http://www.h2database.com/.~/.h2/bin/h2-server: org.h2.tools.Server~/.h2/bin/h2-shell: org.h2.tools.Shell~/.h2/db/: H2 data files*.mv.db
You may add the path ~/.h2/bin to your env $PATH.
$ vi ~/.bash_profile
...
PATH=$HOME/.h2/bin:$PATH
export PATH
...
To start or stop H2 Database server, run h2-server (start|stop).
# Start TCP server in background
$ h2-server start
TCP server running at tcp://x.x.x.x:9092 (only local connections)
...
# Stop TCP server "tcp://localhost"
$ h2-server stop
h2-shell is just a wrapper script for org.h2.tools.Shell. You can use the same command-line options.
$ h2-shell -help
...
$ h2-shell -url "jdbc:h2:tcp://localhost/~/.h2/db/test" -user "sa"
...