psql — + PostgreSQL interactive terminal +
psql [option...] [dbname
+ [username]]
+ psql is a terminal-based front-end to + PostgreSQL. It enables you to type in + queries interactively, issue them to + PostgreSQL, and see the query results. + Alternatively, input can be from a file or from command line + arguments. In addition, psql provides a + number of meta-commands and various shell-like features to + facilitate writing scripts and automating a wide variety of tasks. +
-a--echo-all #
+ Print all nonempty input lines to standard output as they are read.
+ (This does not apply to lines read interactively.) This is
+ equivalent to setting the variable ECHO to
+ all.
+
-A--no-align #
+ Switches to unaligned output mode. (The default output mode is
+ aligned.) This is equivalent to
+ \pset format unaligned.
+
-b--echo-errors #
+ Print failed SQL commands to standard error output. This is
+ equivalent to setting the variable ECHO to
+ errors.
+
-c command--command=command #
+ Specifies that psql is to execute the given
+ command string, command.
+ This option can be repeated and combined in any order with
+ the -f option. When either -c
+ or -f is specified, psql
+ does not read commands from standard input; instead it terminates
+ after processing all the -c and -f
+ options in sequence.
+
+ command must be either
+ a command string that is completely parsable by the server (i.e.,
+ it contains no psql-specific features),
+ or a single backslash command. Thus you cannot mix
+ SQL and psql
+ meta-commands within a -c option. To achieve that,
+ you could use repeated -c options or pipe the string
+ into psql, for example:
+
+psql -c '\x' -c 'SELECT * FROM foo;' +
+ or +
+echo '\x \\ SELECT * FROM foo;' | psql +
+ (\\ is the separator meta-command.)
+
+ Each SQL command string passed
+ to -c is sent to the server as a single request.
+ Because of this, the server executes it as a single transaction even
+ if the string contains multiple SQL commands,
+ unless there are explicit BEGIN/COMMIT
+ commands included in the string to divide it into multiple
+ transactions. (See Section 55.2.2.1
+ for more details about how the server handles multi-query strings.)
+
+ If having several commands executed in one transaction is not desired,
+ use repeated -c commands or feed multiple commands to
+ psql's standard input,
+ either using echo as illustrated above, or
+ via a shell here-document, for example:
+
+psql <<EOF +\x +SELECT * FROM foo; +EOF +
--csv #
+ Switches to CSV (Comma-Separated Values) output
+ mode. This is equivalent to \pset format csv.
+
-d dbname--dbname=dbname #
+ Specifies the name of the database to connect to. This is
+ equivalent to specifying dbname as the first non-option
+ argument on the command line. The dbname
+ can be a connection string.
+ If so, connection string parameters will override any conflicting
+ command line options.
+
-e--echo-queries #
+ Copy all SQL commands sent to the server to standard output as well.
+ This is equivalent
+ to setting the variable ECHO to
+ queries.
+
-E--echo-hidden #
+ Echo the actual queries generated by \d and other backslash
+ commands. You can use this to study psql's
+ internal operations. This is equivalent to
+ setting the variable ECHO_HIDDEN to on.
+
-f filename--file=filename #
+ Read commands from the
+ file filename,
+ rather than standard input.
+ This option can be repeated and combined in any order with
+ the -c option. When either -c
+ or -f is specified, psql
+ does not read commands from standard input; instead it terminates
+ after processing all the -c and -f
+ options in sequence.
+ Except for that, this option is largely equivalent to the
+ meta-command \i.
+
+ If filename is -
+ (hyphen), then standard input is read until an EOF indication
+ or \q meta-command. This can be used to intersperse
+ interactive input with input from files. Note however that Readline
+ is not used in this case (much as if -n had been
+ specified).
+
+ Using this option is subtly different from writing psql
+ < . In general,
+ both will do what you expect, but using filename-f
+ enables some nice features such as error messages with line
+ numbers. There is also a slight chance that using this option will
+ reduce the start-up overhead. On the other hand, the variant using
+ the shell's input redirection is (in theory) guaranteed to yield
+ exactly the same output you would have received had you entered
+ everything by hand.
+
-F separator--field-separator=separator #
+ Use separator as the
+ field separator for unaligned output. This is equivalent to
+ \pset fieldsep or \f.
+
-h hostname--host=hostname #+ Specifies the host name of the machine on which the + server is running. If the value begins + with a slash, it is used as the directory for the Unix-domain + socket. +
-H--html #
+ Switches to HTML output mode. This is
+ equivalent to \pset format html or the
+ \H command.
+
-l--list #
+ List all available databases, then exit. Other non-connection
+ options are ignored. This is similar to the meta-command
+ \list.
+
+ When this option is used, psql will connect
+ to the database postgres, unless a different database
+ is named on the command line (option -d or non-option
+ argument, possibly via a service entry, but not via an environment
+ variable).
+
-L filename--log-file=filename #
+ Write all query output into file filename, in addition to the
+ normal output destination.
+
-n--no-readline #+ Do not use Readline for line editing and + do not use the command history (see + the section called “Command-Line Editing” below). +
-o filename--output=filename #
+ Put all query output into file filename. This is equivalent to
+ the command \o.
+
-p port--port=port #
+ Specifies the TCP port or the local Unix-domain
+ socket file extension on which the server is listening for
+ connections. Defaults to the value of the PGPORT
+ environment variable or, if not set, to the port specified at
+ compile time, usually 5432.
+
-P assignment--pset=assignment #
+ Specifies printing options, in the style of
+ \pset. Note that here you
+ have to separate name and value with an equal sign instead of a
+ space. For example, to set the output format to LaTeX, you could write
+ -P format=latex.
+
-q--quiet #
+ Specifies that psql should do its work
+ quietly. By default, it prints welcome messages and various
+ informational output. If this option is used, none of this
+ happens. This is useful with the -c option.
+ This is equivalent to setting the variable QUIET
+ to on.
+
-R separator--record-separator=separator #
+ Use separator as the
+ record separator for unaligned output. This is equivalent to
+ \pset recordsep.
+
-s--single-step #+ Run in single-step mode. That means the user is prompted before + each command is sent to the server, with the option to cancel + execution as well. Use this to debug scripts. +
-S--single-line #+ Runs in single-line mode where a newline terminates an SQL command, as a + semicolon does. +
+ This mode is provided for those who insist on it, but you are not + necessarily encouraged to use it. In particular, if you mix + SQL and meta-commands on a line the order of + execution might not always be clear to the inexperienced user. +
-t--tuples-only #
+ Turn off printing of column names and result row count footers,
+ etc. This is equivalent to \t or
+ \pset tuples_only.
+
-T table_options--table-attr=table_options #
+ Specifies options to be placed within the
+ HTML table tag. See
+ \pset tableattr for details.
+
-U username--username=username #
+ Connect to the database as the user username instead of the default.
+ (You must have permission to do so, of course.)
+
-v assignment--set=assignment--variable=assignment #
+ Perform a variable assignment, like the \set
+ meta-command. Note that you must separate name and value, if
+ any, by an equal sign on the command line. To unset a variable,
+ leave off the equal sign. To set a variable with an empty value,
+ use the equal sign but leave off the value. These assignments are
+ done during command line processing, so variables that reflect
+ connection state will get overwritten later.
+
-V--version #+ Print the psql version and exit. +
-w--no-password #
+ Never issue a password prompt. If the server requires password
+ authentication and a password is not available from other sources
+ such as a .pgpass file, the connection
+ attempt will fail. This option can be useful in batch jobs and
+ scripts where no user is present to enter a password.
+
+ Note that this option will remain set for the entire session,
+ and so it affects uses of the meta-command
+ \connect as well as the initial connection attempt.
+
-W--password #+ Force psql to prompt for a + password before connecting to a database, even if the password will + not be used. +
+ If the server requires password authentication and a password is not
+ available from other sources such as a .pgpass
+ file, psql will prompt for a
+ password in any case. However, psql
+ will waste a connection attempt finding out that the server wants a
+ password. In some cases it is worth typing -W to avoid
+ the extra connection attempt.
+
+ Note that this option will remain set for the entire session,
+ and so it affects uses of the meta-command
+ \connect as well as the initial connection attempt.
+
-x--expanded #
+ Turn on the expanded table formatting mode. This is equivalent to
+ \x or \pset expanded.
+
-X--no-psqlrc #
+ Do not read the start-up file (neither the system-wide
+ psqlrc file nor the user's
+ ~/.psqlrc file).
+
-z--field-separator-zero #
+ Set the field separator for unaligned output to a zero byte. This is
+ equivalent to \pset fieldsep_zero.
+
-0--record-separator-zero #
+ Set the record separator for unaligned output to a zero byte. This is
+ useful for interfacing, for example, with xargs -0.
+ This is equivalent to \pset recordsep_zero.
+
-1--single-transaction #
+ This option can only be used in combination with one or more
+ -c and/or -f options. It causes
+ psql to issue a BEGIN command
+ before the first such option and a COMMIT command after
+ the last one, thereby wrapping all the commands into a single
+ transaction. If any of the commands fails and the variable
+ ON_ERROR_STOP was set, a
+ ROLLBACK command is sent instead. This ensures that
+ either all the commands complete successfully, or no changes are
+ applied.
+
+ If the commands themselves
+ contain BEGIN, COMMIT,
+ or ROLLBACK, this option will not have the desired
+ effects. Also, if an individual command cannot be executed inside a
+ transaction block, specifying this option will cause the whole
+ transaction to fail.
+
-?--help[=topic] #
+ Show help about psql and exit. The optional
+ topic parameter (defaulting
+ to options) selects which part of psql is
+ explained: commands describes psql's
+ backslash commands; options describes the command-line
+ options that can be passed to psql;
+ and variables shows help about psql configuration
+ variables.
+
+ psql returns 0 to the shell if it
+ finished normally, 1 if a fatal error of its own occurs (e.g., out of memory,
+ file not found), 2 if the connection to the server went bad
+ and the session was not interactive, and 3 if an error occurred in a
+ script and the variable ON_ERROR_STOP was set.
+
+ psql is a regular
+ PostgreSQL client application. In order
+ to connect to a database you need to know the name of your target
+ database, the host name and port number of the server, and what
+ database user name you want to connect as. psql
+ can be told about those parameters via command line options, namely
+ -d, -h, -p, and
+ -U respectively. If an argument is found that does
+ not belong to any option it will be interpreted as the database name
+ (or the database user name, if the database name is already given). Not all
+ of these options are required; there are useful defaults. If you omit the host
+ name, psql will connect via a Unix-domain socket
+ to a server on the local host, or via TCP/IP to localhost on
+ Windows. The default port number is
+ determined at compile time.
+ Since the database server uses the same default, you will not have
+ to specify the port in most cases. The default database user name is your
+ operating-system user name. Once the database user name is determined, it
+ is used as the default database name.
+ Note that you cannot
+ just connect to any database under any database user name. Your database
+ administrator should have informed you about your access rights.
+
+ When the defaults aren't quite right, you can save yourself
+ some typing by setting the environment variables
+ PGDATABASE, PGHOST,
+ PGPORT and/or PGUSER to appropriate
+ values. (For additional environment variables, see Section 34.15.) It is also convenient to have a
+ ~/.pgpass file to avoid regularly having to type in
+ passwords. See Section 34.16 for more information.
+
+ An alternative way to specify connection parameters is in a
+ conninfo string or
+ a URI, which is used instead of a database
+ name. This mechanism give you very wide control over the
+ connection. For example:
+
+$psql "service=myservice sslmode=require"+$psql postgresql://dbmaster:5433/mydb?sslmode=require+
+ This way you can also use LDAP for connection + parameter lookup as described in Section 34.18. + See Section 34.1.2 for more information on all the + available connection options. +
+ If the connection could not be made for any reason (e.g., insufficient + privileges, server is not running on the targeted host, etc.), + psql will return an error and terminate. +
+ If both standard input and standard output are a
+ terminal, then psql sets the client
+ encoding to “auto”, which will detect the
+ appropriate client encoding from the locale settings
+ (LC_CTYPE environment variable on Unix systems).
+ If this doesn't work out as expected, the client encoding can be
+ overridden using the environment
+ variable PGCLIENTENCODING.
+
+ In normal operation, psql provides a
+ prompt with the name of the database to which
+ psql is currently connected, followed by
+ the string =>. For example:
+
+$ psql testdb
+psql (16.3)
+Type "help" for help.
+
+testdb=>
++
+ At the prompt, the user can type in SQL commands. + Ordinarily, input lines are sent to the server when a + command-terminating semicolon is reached. An end of line does not + terminate a command. Thus commands can be spread over several lines for + clarity. If the command was sent and executed without error, the results + of the command are displayed on the screen. +
+ If untrusted users have access to a database that has not adopted a
+ secure schema usage pattern,
+ begin your session by removing publicly-writable schemas
+ from search_path. One can
+ add options=-csearch_path= to the connection string or
+ issue SELECT pg_catalog.set_config('search_path', '',
+ false) before other SQL commands. This consideration is not
+ specific to psql; it applies to every interface
+ for executing arbitrary SQL commands.
+
+ Whenever a command is executed, psql also polls
+ for asynchronous notification events generated by
+ LISTEN and
+ NOTIFY.
+
+ While C-style block comments are passed to the server for + processing and removal, SQL-standard comments are removed by + psql. +
+ Anything you enter in psql that begins + with an unquoted backslash is a psql + meta-command that is processed by psql + itself. These commands make + psql more useful for administration or + scripting. Meta-commands are often called slash or backslash commands. +
+ The format of a psql command is the backslash, + followed immediately by a command verb, then any arguments. The arguments + are separated from the command verb and each other by any number of + whitespace characters. +
+ To include whitespace in an argument you can quote it with
+ single quotes. To include a single quote in an argument,
+ write two single quotes within single-quoted text.
+ Anything contained in single quotes is
+ furthermore subject to C-like substitutions for
+ \n (new line), \t (tab),
+ \b (backspace), \r (carriage return),
+ \f (form feed),
+ \digits (octal), and
+ \xdigits (hexadecimal).
+ A backslash preceding any other character within single-quoted text
+ quotes that single character, whatever it is.
+
+ If an unquoted colon (:) followed by a
+ psql variable name appears within an argument, it is
+ replaced by the variable's value, as described in SQL Interpolation below.
+ The forms :' and
+ variable_name':" described there
+ work as well.
+ The variable_name":{? syntax allows
+ testing whether a variable is defined. It is substituted by
+ TRUE or FALSE.
+ Escaping the colon with a backslash protects it from substitution.
+ variable_name}
+ Within an argument, text that is enclosed in backquotes
+ (`) is taken as a command line that is passed to the
+ shell. The output of the command (with any trailing newline removed)
+ replaces the backquoted text. Within the text enclosed in backquotes,
+ no special quoting or other processing occurs, except that appearances
+ of : where
+ variable_namevariable_name is a psql variable name
+ are replaced by the variable's value. Also, appearances of
+ :' are replaced by the
+ variable's value suitably quoted to become a single shell command
+ argument. (The latter form is almost always preferable, unless you are
+ very sure of what is in the variable.) Because carriage return and line
+ feed characters cannot be safely quoted on all platforms, the
+ variable_name':' form prints an
+ error message and does not substitute the variable value when such
+ characters appear in the value.
+ variable_name'
+ Some commands take an SQL identifier (such as a
+ table name) as argument. These arguments follow the syntax rules
+ of SQL: Unquoted letters are forced to
+ lowercase, while double quotes (") protect letters
+ from case conversion and allow incorporation of whitespace into
+ the identifier. Within double quotes, paired double quotes reduce
+ to a single double quote in the resulting name. For example,
+ FOO"BAR"BAZ is interpreted as fooBARbaz,
+ and "A weird"" name" becomes A weird"
+ name.
+
+ Parsing for arguments stops at the end of the line, or when another
+ unquoted backslash is found. An unquoted backslash
+ is taken as the beginning of a new meta-command. The special
+ sequence \\ (two backslashes) marks the end of
+ arguments and continues parsing SQL commands, if
+ any. That way SQL and
+ psql commands can be freely mixed on a
+ line. But in any case, the arguments of a meta-command cannot
+ continue beyond the end of the line.
+
+ Many of the meta-commands act on the current query buffer. + This is simply a buffer holding whatever SQL command text has been typed + but not yet sent to the server for execution. This will include previous + input lines as well as any text appearing before the meta-command on the + same line. +
+ The following meta-commands are defined: + +
\a #
+ If the current table output format is unaligned, it is switched to aligned.
+ If it is not unaligned, it is set to unaligned. This command is
+ kept for backwards compatibility. See \pset for a
+ more general solution.
+
\bind [ parameter ] ... #
+ Sets query parameters for the next query execution, with the
+ specified parameters passed for any parameter placeholders
+ ($1 etc.).
+
+ Example: +
+INSERT INTO tbl1 VALUES ($1, $2) \bind 'first value' 'second value' \g +
+
+ This also works for query-execution commands besides
+ \g, such as \gx and
+ \gset.
+
+ This command causes the extended query protocol (see Section 55.1.2) to be used, unlike normal + psql operation, which uses the simple + query protocol. So this command can be useful to test the extended + query protocol from psql. (The extended query protocol is used even + if the query has no parameters and this command specifies zero + parameters.) This command affects only the next query executed; all + subsequent queries will use the simple query protocol by default. +
\c or \connect [ -reuse-previous=on|off ] [ dbname [ username ] [ host ] [ port ] | conninfo ] #
+ Establishes a new connection to a PostgreSQL
+ server. The connection parameters to use can be specified either
+ using a positional syntax (one or more of database name, user,
+ host, and port), or using a conninfo
+ connection string as detailed in
+ Section 34.1.1. If no arguments are given, a
+ new connection is made using the same parameters as before.
+
+ Specifying any
+ of dbname,
+ username,
+ host or
+ port
+ as - is equivalent to omitting that parameter.
+
+ The new connection can re-use connection parameters from the previous
+ connection; not only database name, user, host, and port, but other
+ settings such as sslmode. By default,
+ parameters are re-used in the positional syntax, but not when
+ a conninfo string is given. Passing a
+ first argument of -reuse-previous=on
+ or -reuse-previous=off overrides that default. If
+ parameters are re-used, then any parameter not explicitly specified as
+ a positional parameter or in the conninfo
+ string is taken from the existing connection's parameters. An
+ exception is that if the host setting
+ is changed from its previous value using the positional syntax,
+ any hostaddr setting present in the
+ existing connection's parameters is dropped.
+ Also, any password used for the existing connection will be re-used
+ only if the user, host, and port settings are not changed.
+ When the command neither specifies nor reuses a particular parameter,
+ the libpq default is used.
+
+ If the new connection is successfully made, the previous
+ connection is closed.
+ If the connection attempt fails (wrong user name, access
+ denied, etc.), the previous connection will be kept if
+ psql is in interactive mode. But when
+ executing a non-interactive script, the old connection is closed
+ and an error is reported. That may or may not terminate the
+ script; if it does not, all database-accessing commands will fail
+ until another \connect command is successfully
+ executed. This distinction was chosen as
+ a user convenience against typos on the one hand, and a safety
+ mechanism that scripts are not accidentally acting on the
+ wrong database on the other hand.
+ Note that whenever a \connect command attempts
+ to re-use parameters, the values re-used are those of the last
+ successful connection, not of any failed attempts made subsequently.
+ However, in the case of a
+ non-interactive \connect failure, no parameters
+ are allowed to be re-used later, since the script would likely be
+ expecting the values from the failed \connect
+ to be re-used.
+
+ Examples: +
+=> \c mydb myuser host.dom 6432 +=> \c service=foo +=> \c "host=localhost port=5432 dbname=mydb connect_timeout=10 sslmode=disable" +=> \c -reuse-previous=on sslmode=require -- changes only sslmode +=> \c postgresql://tom@localhost/mydb?application_name=myapp +
\C [ title ] #
+ Sets the title of any tables being printed as the result of a
+ query or unset any such title. This command is equivalent to
+ \pset title . (The name of
+ this command derives from “caption”, as it was
+ previously only used to set the caption in an
+ HTML table.)
+ title
\cd [ directory ] #
+ Changes the current working directory to
+ directory. Without argument, changes
+ to the current user's home directory.
+
+ To print your current working directory, use \! pwd.
+
\conninfo #+ Outputs information about the current database connection. +
\copy { table [ ( column_list ) ] }
+ from
+ { 'filename' | program 'command' | stdin | pstdin }
+ [ [ with ] ( option [, ...] ) ]
+ [ where condition ]\copy { table [ ( column_list ) ] | ( query ) }
+ to
+ { 'filename' | program 'command' | stdout | pstdout }
+ [ [ with ] ( option [, ...] ) ] #
+ Performs a frontend (client) copy. This is an operation that
+ runs an SQL COPY
+ command, but instead of the server
+ reading or writing the specified file,
+ psql reads or writes the file and
+ routes the data between the server and the local file system.
+ This means that file accessibility and privileges are those of
+ the local user, not the server, and no SQL superuser
+ privileges are required.
+
+ When program is specified,
+ command is
+ executed by psql and the data passed from
+ or to command is
+ routed between the server and the client.
+ Again, the execution privileges are those of
+ the local user, not the server, and no SQL superuser
+ privileges are required.
+
+ For \copy ... from stdin, data rows are read from the same
+ source that issued the command, continuing until \.
+ is read or the stream reaches EOF. This option is useful
+ for populating tables in-line within an SQL script file.
+ For \copy ... to stdout, output is sent to the same place
+ as psql command output, and
+ the COPY command status is
+ not printed (since it might be confused with a data row).
+ To read/write psql's standard input or
+ output regardless of the current command source or count\o
+ option, write from pstdin or to pstdout.
+
+ The syntax of this command is similar to that of the
+ SQL COPY
+ command. All options other than the data source/destination are
+ as specified for COPY.
+ Because of this, special parsing rules apply to the \copy
+ meta-command. Unlike most other meta-commands, the entire remainder
+ of the line is always taken to be the arguments of \copy,
+ and neither variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are
+ performed in the arguments.
+
+ Another way to obtain the same result as \copy
+ ... to is to use the SQL COPY
+ ... TO STDOUT command and terminate it
+ with \g
+ or filename\g |.
+ Unlike program\copy, this method allows the command to
+ span multiple lines; also, variable interpolation and backquote
+ expansion can be used.
+
+ These operations are not as efficient as the SQL
+ COPY command with a file or program data source or
+ destination, because all data must pass through the client/server
+ connection. For large amounts of data the SQL
+ command might be preferable.
+ Also, because of this pass-through method, \copy
+ ... from in CSV mode will erroneously
+ treat a \. data value alone on a line as an
+ end-of-input marker.
+
\copyright #+ Shows the copyright and distribution terms of + PostgreSQL. +
\crosstabview [
+ colV
+ [ colH
+ [ colD
+ [ sortcolH
+ ] ] ] ] #
+ Executes the current query buffer (like \g) and
+ shows the results in a crosstab grid.
+ The query must return at least three columns.
+ The output column identified by colV
+ becomes a vertical header and the output column identified by
+ colH
+ becomes a horizontal header.
+ colD identifies
+ the output column to display within the grid.
+ sortcolH identifies
+ an optional sort column for the horizontal header.
+
+ Each column specification can be a column number (starting at 1) or
+ a column name. The usual SQL case folding and quoting rules apply to
+ column names. If omitted,
+ colV is taken as column 1
+ and colH as column 2.
+ colH must differ from
+ colV.
+ If colD is not
+ specified, then there must be exactly three columns in the query
+ result, and the column that is neither
+ colV nor
+ colH
+ is taken to be colD.
+
+ The vertical header, displayed as the leftmost column, contains the
+ values found in column colV, in the
+ same order as in the query results, but with duplicates removed.
+
+ The horizontal header, displayed as the first row, contains the values
+ found in column colH,
+ with duplicates removed. By default, these appear in the same order
+ as in the query results. But if the
+ optional sortcolH argument is given,
+ it identifies a column whose values must be integer numbers, and the
+ values from colH will
+ appear in the horizontal header sorted according to the
+ corresponding sortcolH values.
+
+ Inside the crosstab grid, for each distinct value x
+ of colH and each distinct
+ value y
+ of colV, the cell located
+ at the intersection (x,y) contains the value of
+ the colD column in the query result row for which
+ the value of colH
+ is x and the value
+ of colV
+ is y. If there is no such row, the cell is empty. If
+ there are multiple such rows, an error is reported.
+
\d[S+] [ pattern ] #
+ For each relation (table, view, materialized view, index, sequence,
+ or foreign table)
+ or composite type matching the
+ pattern, show all
+ columns, their types, the tablespace (if not the default) and any
+ special attributes such as NOT NULL or defaults.
+ Associated indexes, constraints, rules, and triggers are
+ also shown. For foreign tables, the associated foreign
+ server is shown as well.
+ (“Matching the pattern” is defined in
+ Patterns below.)
+
+ For some types of relation, \d shows additional information
+ for each column: column values for sequences, indexed expressions for
+ indexes, and foreign data wrapper options for foreign tables.
+
+ The command form \d+ is identical, except that
+ more information is displayed: any comments associated with the
+ columns of the table are shown, as is the presence of OIDs in the
+ table, the view definition if the relation is a view, a non-default
+ replica
+ identity setting and the
+ access method name
+ if the relation has an access method.
+
+ By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
+ pattern or the S modifier to include system
+ objects.
+
+ If \d is used without a
+ pattern argument, it is
+ equivalent to \dtvmsE which will show a list of
+ all visible tables, views, materialized views, sequences and
+ foreign tables.
+ This is purely a convenience measure.
+
\da[S] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists aggregate functions, together with their
+ return type and the data types they operate on. If pattern
+ is specified, only aggregates whose names match the pattern are shown.
+ By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
+ pattern or the S modifier to include system
+ objects.
+
\dA[+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists access methods. If pattern is specified, only access
+ methods whose names match the pattern are shown. If
+ + is appended to the command name, each access
+ method is listed with its associated handler function and description.
+
\dAc[+]
+ [access-method-pattern
+ [input-type-pattern]]
+
+ #
+ Lists operator classes
+ (see Section 38.16.1).
+ If access-method-pattern
+ is specified, only operator classes associated with access methods whose
+ names match that pattern are listed.
+ If input-type-pattern
+ is specified, only operator classes associated with input types whose
+ names match that pattern are listed.
+ If + is appended to the command name, each operator
+ class is listed with its associated operator family and owner.
+
\dAf[+]
+ [access-method-pattern
+ [input-type-pattern]]
+
+ #
+ Lists operator families
+ (see Section 38.16.5).
+ If access-method-pattern
+ is specified, only operator families associated with access methods whose
+ names match that pattern are listed.
+ If input-type-pattern
+ is specified, only operator families associated with input types whose
+ names match that pattern are listed.
+ If + is appended to the command name, each operator
+ family is listed with its owner.
+
\dAo[+]
+ [access-method-pattern
+ [operator-family-pattern]]
+
+ #
+ Lists operators associated with operator families
+ (see Section 38.16.2).
+ If access-method-pattern
+ is specified, only members of operator families associated with access
+ methods whose names match that pattern are listed.
+ If operator-family-pattern
+ is specified, only members of operator families whose names match that
+ pattern are listed.
+ If + is appended to the command name, each operator
+ is listed with its sort operator family (if it is an ordering operator).
+
\dAp[+]
+ [access-method-pattern
+ [operator-family-pattern]]
+
+ #
+ Lists support functions associated with operator families
+ (see Section 38.16.3).
+ If access-method-pattern
+ is specified, only functions of operator families associated with
+ access methods whose names match that pattern are listed.
+ If operator-family-pattern
+ is specified, only functions of operator families whose names match
+ that pattern are listed.
+ If + is appended to the command name, functions are
+ displayed verbosely, with their actual parameter lists.
+
\db[+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists tablespaces. If pattern
+ is specified, only tablespaces whose names match the pattern are shown.
+ If + is appended to the command name, each tablespace
+ is listed with its associated options, on-disk size, permissions and
+ description.
+
\dc[S+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists conversions between character-set encodings.
+ If pattern
+ is specified, only conversions whose names match the pattern are
+ listed.
+ By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
+ pattern or the S modifier to include system
+ objects.
+ If + is appended to the command name, each object
+ is listed with its associated description.
+
\dconfig[+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists server configuration parameters and their values.
+ If pattern is specified,
+ only parameters whose names match the pattern are listed. Without
+ a pattern, only
+ parameters that are set to non-default values are listed.
+ (Use \dconfig * to see all parameters.)
+ If + is appended to the command name, each
+ parameter is listed with its data type, context in which the
+ parameter can be set, and access privileges (if non-default access
+ privileges have been granted).
+
\dC[+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists type casts.
+ If pattern
+ is specified, only casts whose source or target types match the
+ pattern are listed.
+ If + is appended to the command name, each object
+ is listed with its associated description.
+
\dd[S] [ pattern ] #
+ Shows the descriptions of objects of type constraint,
+ operator class, operator family,
+ rule, and trigger. All
+ other comments may be viewed by the respective backslash commands for
+ those object types.
+
\dd displays descriptions for objects matching the
+ pattern, or of visible
+ objects of the appropriate type if no argument is given. But in either
+ case, only objects that have a description are listed.
+ By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
+ pattern or the S modifier to include system
+ objects.
+
+ Descriptions for objects can be created with the COMMENT
+ SQL command.
+
\dD[S+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists domains. If pattern
+ is specified, only domains whose names match the pattern are shown.
+ By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
+ pattern or the S modifier to include system
+ objects.
+ If + is appended to the command name, each object
+ is listed with its associated permissions and description.
+
\ddp [ pattern ] #
+ Lists default access privilege settings. An entry is shown for
+ each role (and schema, if applicable) for which the default
+ privilege settings have been changed from the built-in defaults.
+ If pattern is
+ specified, only entries whose role name or schema name matches
+ the pattern are listed.
+
+ The ALTER DEFAULT
+ PRIVILEGES command is used to set default access
+ privileges. The meaning of the privilege display is explained in
+ Section 5.7.
+
\dE[S+] [ pattern ]\di[S+] [ pattern ]\dm[S+] [ pattern ]\ds[S+] [ pattern ]\dt[S+] [ pattern ]\dv[S+] [ pattern ] #
+ In this group of commands, the letters E,
+ i, m, s,
+ t, and v
+ stand for foreign table, index, materialized view,
+ sequence, table, and view,
+ respectively.
+ You can specify any or all of
+ these letters, in any order, to obtain a listing of objects
+ of these types. For example, \dti lists
+ tables and indexes. If + is
+ appended to the command name, each object is listed with its
+ persistence status (permanent, temporary, or unlogged),
+ physical size on disk, and associated description if any.
+ If pattern is
+ specified, only objects whose names match the pattern are listed.
+ By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
+ pattern or the S modifier to include system
+ objects.
+
\des[+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists foreign servers (mnemonic: “external
+ servers”).
+ If pattern is
+ specified, only those servers whose name matches the pattern
+ are listed. If the form \des+ is used, a
+ full description of each server is shown, including the
+ server's access privileges, type, version, options, and description.
+
\det[+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists foreign tables (mnemonic: “external tables”).
+ If pattern is
+ specified, only entries whose table name or schema name matches
+ the pattern are listed. If the form \det+
+ is used, generic options and the foreign table description
+ are also displayed.
+
\deu[+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists user mappings (mnemonic: “external
+ users”).
+ If pattern is
+ specified, only those mappings whose user names match the
+ pattern are listed. If the form \deu+ is
+ used, additional information about each mapping is shown.
+
+ \deu+ might also display the user name and
+ password of the remote user, so care should be taken not to
+ disclose them.
+
\dew[+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists foreign-data wrappers (mnemonic: “external
+ wrappers”).
+ If pattern is
+ specified, only those foreign-data wrappers whose name matches
+ the pattern are listed. If the form \dew+
+ is used, the access privileges, options, and description of the
+ foreign-data wrapper are also shown.
+
\df[anptwS+] [ pattern [ arg_pattern ... ] ] #
+ Lists functions, together with their result data types, argument data
+ types, and function types, which are classified as “agg”
+ (aggregate), “normal”, “procedure”, “trigger”, or “window”.
+ To display only functions
+ of specific type(s), add the corresponding letters a,
+ n, p, t, or w to the command.
+ If pattern is specified, only
+ functions whose names match the pattern are shown.
+ Any additional arguments are type-name patterns, which are matched
+ to the type names of the first, second, and so on arguments of the
+ function. (Matching functions can have more arguments than what
+ you specify. To prevent that, write a dash - as
+ the last arg_pattern.)
+ By default, only user-created
+ objects are shown; supply a pattern or the S
+ modifier to include system objects.
+ If the form \df+ is used, additional information
+ about each function is shown, including volatility,
+ parallel safety, owner, security classification, access privileges,
+ language, internal name (for C and internal functions only),
+ and description.
+ Source code for a specific function can be seen
+ using \sf.
+
\dF[+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists text search configurations.
+ If pattern is specified,
+ only configurations whose names match the pattern are shown.
+ If the form \dF+ is used, a full description of
+ each configuration is shown, including the underlying text search
+ parser and the dictionary list for each parser token type.
+
\dFd[+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists text search dictionaries.
+ If pattern is specified,
+ only dictionaries whose names match the pattern are shown.
+ If the form \dFd+ is used, additional information
+ is shown about each selected dictionary, including the underlying
+ text search template and the option values.
+
\dFp[+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists text search parsers.
+ If pattern is specified,
+ only parsers whose names match the pattern are shown.
+ If the form \dFp+ is used, a full description of
+ each parser is shown, including the underlying functions and the
+ list of recognized token types.
+
\dFt[+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists text search templates.
+ If pattern is specified,
+ only templates whose names match the pattern are shown.
+ If the form \dFt+ is used, additional information
+ is shown about each template, including the underlying function names.
+
\dg[S+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists database roles.
+ (Since the concepts of “users” and “groups” have been
+ unified into “roles”, this command is now equivalent to
+ \du.)
+ By default, only user-created roles are shown; supply the
+ S modifier to include system roles.
+ If pattern is specified,
+ only those roles whose names match the pattern are listed.
+ If the form \dg+ is used, additional information
+ is shown about each role; currently this adds the comment for each
+ role.
+
\dl[+] #
+ This is an alias for \lo_list, which shows a
+ list of large objects.
+ If + is appended to the command name,
+ each large object is listed with its associated permissions,
+ if any.
+
\dL[S+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists procedural languages. If pattern
+ is specified, only languages whose names match the pattern are listed.
+ By default, only user-created languages
+ are shown; supply the S modifier to include system
+ objects. If + is appended to the command name, each
+ language is listed with its call handler, validator, access privileges,
+ and whether it is a system object.
+
\dn[S+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists schemas (namespaces). If pattern
+ is specified, only schemas whose names match the pattern are listed.
+ By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
+ pattern or the S modifier to include system objects.
+ If + is appended to the command name, each object
+ is listed with its associated permissions and description, if any.
+
\do[S+] [ pattern [ arg_pattern [ arg_pattern ] ] ] #
+ Lists operators with their operand and result types.
+ If pattern is
+ specified, only operators whose names match the pattern are listed.
+ If one arg_pattern is
+ specified, only prefix operators whose right argument's type name
+ matches that pattern are listed.
+ If two arg_patterns
+ are specified, only binary operators whose argument type names match
+ those patterns are listed. (Alternatively, write -
+ for the unused argument of a unary operator.)
+ By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
+ pattern or the S modifier to include system
+ objects.
+ If + is appended to the command name,
+ additional information about each operator is shown, currently just
+ the name of the underlying function.
+
\dO[S+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists collations.
+ If pattern is
+ specified, only collations whose names match the pattern are
+ listed. By default, only user-created objects are shown;
+ supply a pattern or the S modifier to
+ include system objects. If + is appended
+ to the command name, each collation is listed with its associated
+ description, if any.
+ Note that only collations usable with the current database's encoding
+ are shown, so the results may vary in different databases of the
+ same installation.
+
\dp[S] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists tables, views and sequences with their
+ associated access privileges.
+ If pattern is
+ specified, only tables, views and sequences whose names match the
+ pattern are listed. By default only user-created objects are shown;
+ supply a pattern or the S modifier to include
+ system objects.
+
+ The GRANT and
+ REVOKE
+ commands are used to set access privileges. The meaning of the
+ privilege display is explained in
+ Section 5.7.
+
\dP[itn+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists partitioned relations.
+ If pattern
+ is specified, only entries whose name matches the pattern are listed.
+ The modifiers t (tables) and i
+ (indexes) can be appended to the command, filtering the kind of
+ relations to list. By default, partitioned tables and indexes are
+ listed.
+
+ If the modifier n (“nested”) is used,
+ or a pattern is specified, then non-root partitioned relations are
+ included, and a column is shown displaying the parent of each
+ partitioned relation.
+
+ If + is appended to the command name, the sum of the
+ sizes of each relation's partitions is also displayed, along with the
+ relation's description.
+ If n is combined with +, two
+ sizes are shown: one including the total size of directly-attached
+ leaf partitions, and another showing the total size of all partitions,
+ including indirectly attached sub-partitions.
+
\drds [ role-pattern [ database-pattern ] ] #
+ Lists defined configuration settings. These settings can be
+ role-specific, database-specific, or both.
+ role-pattern and
+ database-pattern are used to select
+ specific roles and databases to list, respectively. If omitted, or if
+ * is specified, all settings are listed, including those
+ not role-specific or database-specific, respectively.
+
+ The ALTER ROLE and
+ ALTER DATABASE
+ commands are used to define per-role and per-database configuration
+ settings.
+
\drg[S] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists information about each granted role membership, including
+ assigned options (ADMIN,
+ INHERIT and/or SET) and grantor.
+ See the GRANT
+ command for information about role memberships.
+
+ By default, only grants to user-created roles are shown; supply the
+ S modifier to include system roles.
+ If pattern is specified,
+ only grants to those roles whose names match the pattern are listed.
+
\dRp[+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists replication publications.
+ If pattern is
+ specified, only those publications whose names match the pattern are
+ listed.
+ If + is appended to the command name, the tables and
+ schemas associated with each publication are shown as well.
+
\dRs[+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists replication subscriptions.
+ If pattern is
+ specified, only those subscriptions whose names match the pattern are
+ listed.
+ If + is appended to the command name, additional
+ properties of the subscriptions are shown.
+
\dT[S+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists data types.
+ If pattern is
+ specified, only types whose names match the pattern are listed.
+ If + is appended to the command name, each type is
+ listed with its internal name and size, its allowed values
+ if it is an enum type, and its associated permissions.
+ By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
+ pattern or the S modifier to include system
+ objects.
+
\du[S+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists database roles.
+ (Since the concepts of “users” and “groups” have been
+ unified into “roles”, this command is now equivalent to
+ \dg.)
+ By default, only user-created roles are shown; supply the
+ S modifier to include system roles.
+ If pattern is specified,
+ only those roles whose names match the pattern are listed.
+ If the form \du+ is used, additional information
+ is shown about each role; currently this adds the comment for each
+ role.
+
\dx[+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists installed extensions.
+ If pattern
+ is specified, only those extensions whose names match the pattern
+ are listed.
+ If the form \dx+ is used, all the objects belonging
+ to each matching extension are listed.
+
\dX [ pattern ] #
+ Lists extended statistics.
+ If pattern
+ is specified, only those extended statistics whose names match the
+ pattern are listed.
+
+ The status of each kind of extended statistics is shown in a column
+ named after its statistic kind (e.g. Ndistinct).
+ defined means that it was requested when creating
+ the statistics, and NULL means it wasn't requested.
+ You can use pg_stats_ext if you'd like to
+ know whether ANALYZE
+ was run and statistics are available to the planner.
+
\dy[+] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists event triggers.
+ If pattern
+ is specified, only those event triggers whose names match the pattern
+ are listed.
+ If + is appended to the command name, each object
+ is listed with its associated description.
+
\e or \edit [ filename ] [ line_number ] #
+ If filename is
+ specified, the file is edited; after the editor exits, the file's
+ content is copied into the current query buffer. If no filename is given, the current query
+ buffer is copied to a temporary file which is then edited in the same
+ fashion. Or, if the current query buffer is empty, the most recently
+ executed query is copied to a temporary file and edited in the same
+ fashion.
+
+ If you edit a file or the previous query, and you quit the editor without
+ modifying the file, the query buffer is cleared.
+ Otherwise, the new contents of the query buffer are re-parsed according to
+ the normal rules of psql, treating the
+ whole buffer as a single line. Any complete queries are immediately
+ executed; that is, if the query buffer contains or ends with a
+ semicolon, everything up to that point is executed and removed from
+ the query buffer. Whatever remains in the query buffer is
+ redisplayed. Type semicolon or \g to send it,
+ or \r to cancel it by clearing the query buffer.
+
+ Treating the buffer as a single line primarily affects meta-commands:
+ whatever is in the buffer after a meta-command will be taken as
+ argument(s) to the meta-command, even if it spans multiple lines.
+ (Thus you cannot make meta-command-using scripts this way.
+ Use \i for that.)
+
+ If a line number is specified, psql will + position the cursor on the specified line of the file or query buffer. + Note that if a single all-digits argument is given, + psql assumes it is a line number, + not a file name. +
+ See Environment, below, for how to + configure and customize your editor. +
\echo text [ ... ] #+ Prints the evaluated arguments to standard output, separated by + spaces and followed by a newline. This can be useful to + intersperse information in the output of scripts. For example: +
+=> \echo `date`
+Tue Oct 26 21:40:57 CEST 1999
+
+ If the first argument is an unquoted -n the trailing
+ newline is not written (nor is the first argument).
+
+ If you use the \o command to redirect your
+ query output you might wish to use \qecho
+ instead of this command. See also \warn.
+
\ef [ function_description [ line_number ] ] #
+ This command fetches and edits the definition of the named function or procedure,
+ in the form of a CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION or
+ CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE command.
+ Editing is done in the same way as for \edit.
+ If you quit the editor without saving, the statement is discarded.
+ If you save and exit the editor, the updated command is executed immediately
+ if you added a semicolon to it. Otherwise it is redisplayed;
+ type semicolon or \g to send it, or \r
+ to cancel.
+
+ The target function can be specified by name alone, or by name
+ and arguments, for example foo(integer, text).
+ The argument types must be given if there is more
+ than one function of the same name.
+
+ If no function is specified, a blank CREATE FUNCTION
+ template is presented for editing.
+
+ If a line number is specified, psql will + position the cursor on the specified line of the function body. + (Note that the function body typically does not begin on the first + line of the file.) +
+ Unlike most other meta-commands, the entire remainder of the line is
+ always taken to be the argument(s) of \ef, and neither
+ variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in the
+ arguments.
+
+ See Environment, below, for how to + configure and customize your editor. +
\encoding [ encoding ] #+ Sets the client character set encoding. Without an argument, this command + shows the current encoding. +
\errverbose #
+ Repeats the most recent server error message at maximum
+ verbosity, as though VERBOSITY were set
+ to verbose and SHOW_CONTEXT were
+ set to always.
+
\ev [ view_name [ line_number ] ] #
+ This command fetches and edits the definition of the named view,
+ in the form of a CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW command.
+ Editing is done in the same way as for \edit.
+ If you quit the editor without saving, the statement is discarded.
+ If you save and exit the editor, the updated command is executed immediately
+ if you added a semicolon to it. Otherwise it is redisplayed;
+ type semicolon or \g to send it, or \r
+ to cancel.
+
+ If no view is specified, a blank CREATE VIEW
+ template is presented for editing.
+
+ If a line number is specified, psql will + position the cursor on the specified line of the view definition. +
+ Unlike most other meta-commands, the entire remainder of the line is
+ always taken to be the argument(s) of \ev, and neither
+ variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in the
+ arguments.
+
\f [ string ] #
+ Sets the field separator for unaligned query output. The default
+ is the vertical bar (|). It is equivalent to
+ \pset fieldsep.
+
\g [ (option=value [...]) ] [ filename ]\g [ (option=value [...]) ] [ |command ] #+ Sends the current query buffer to the server for execution. +
+ If parentheses appear after \g, they surround a
+ space-separated list
+ of option=value
+ formatting-option clauses, which are interpreted in the same way
+ as \pset
+ option
+ value commands, but take
+ effect only for the duration of this query. In this list, spaces are
+ not allowed around = signs, but are required
+ between option clauses.
+ If =value
+ is omitted, the
+ named option is changed
+ in the same way as for
+ \pset option
+ with no explicit value.
+
+ If a filename
+ or |command
+ argument is given, the query's output is written to the named
+ file or piped to the given shell command, instead of displaying it as
+ usual. The file or command is written to only if the query
+ successfully returns zero or more tuples, not if the query fails or
+ is a non-data-returning SQL command.
+
+ If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently sent query is
+ re-executed instead. Except for that behavior, \g
+ without any arguments is essentially equivalent to a semicolon.
+ With arguments, \g provides
+ a “one-shot” alternative to the \o
+ command, and additionally allows one-shot adjustments of the
+ output formatting options normally set by \pset.
+
+ When the last argument begins with |, the entire
+ remainder of the line is taken to be
+ the command to execute,
+ and neither variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are
+ performed in it. The rest of the line is simply passed literally to
+ the shell.
+
\gdesc #+ Shows the description (that is, the column names and data types) + of the result of the current query buffer. The query is not + actually executed; however, if it contains some type of syntax + error, that error will be reported in the normal way. +
+ If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently sent query + is described instead. +
\getenv psql_var env_var #
+ Gets the value of the environment
+ variable env_var
+ and assigns it to the psql
+ variable psql_var.
+ If env_var is
+ not defined in the psql process's
+ environment, psql_var
+ is not changed. Example:
+
+=>\getenv home HOME+=>\echo :home+/home/postgres +
\gexec #
+ Sends the current query buffer to the server, then treats
+ each column of each row of the query's output (if any) as an SQL
+ statement to be executed. For example, to create an index on each
+ column of my_table:
+
+=>SELECT format('create index on my_table(%I)', attname)+->FROM pg_attribute+->WHERE attrelid = 'my_table'::regclass AND attnum > 0+->ORDER BY attnum+->\gexec+CREATE INDEX +CREATE INDEX +CREATE INDEX +CREATE INDEX +
+
+ The generated queries are executed in the order in which the rows
+ are returned, and left-to-right within each row if there is more
+ than one column. NULL fields are ignored. The generated queries
+ are sent literally to the server for processing, so they cannot be
+ psql meta-commands nor contain psql
+ variable references. If any individual query fails, execution of
+ the remaining queries continues
+ unless ON_ERROR_STOP is set. Execution of each
+ query is subject to ECHO processing.
+ (Setting ECHO to all
+ or queries is often advisable when
+ using \gexec.) Query logging, single-step mode,
+ timing, and other query execution features apply to each generated
+ query as well.
+
+ If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently sent query + is re-executed instead. +
\gset [ prefix ] #+ Sends the current query buffer to the server and stores the + query's output into psql variables + (see Variables below). + The query to be executed must return exactly one row. Each column of + the row is stored into a separate variable, named the same as the + column. For example: +
+=>SELECT 'hello' AS var1, 10 AS var2+->\gset+=>\echo :var1 :var2+hello 10 +
+
+ If you specify a prefix,
+ that string is prepended to the query's column names to create the
+ variable names to use:
+
+=>SELECT 'hello' AS var1, 10 AS var2+->\gset result_+=>\echo :result_var1 :result_var2+hello 10 +
+
+ If a column result is NULL, the corresponding variable is unset + rather than being set. +
+ If the query fails or does not return one row, + no variables are changed. +
+ If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently sent query + is re-executed instead. +
\gx [ (option=value [...]) ] [ filename ]\gx [ (option=value [...]) ] [ |command ] #
+ \gx is equivalent to \g, except
+ that it forces expanded output mode for this query, as
+ if expanded=on were included in the list of
+ \pset options. See also \x.
+
\h or \help [ command ] #
+ Gives syntax help on the specified SQL
+ command. If command
+ is not specified, then psql will list
+ all the commands for which syntax help is available. If
+ command is an
+ asterisk (*), then syntax help on all
+ SQL commands is shown.
+
+ Unlike most other meta-commands, the entire remainder of the line is
+ always taken to be the argument(s) of \help, and neither
+ variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in the
+ arguments.
+
+ To simplify typing, commands that consists of several words do
+ not have to be quoted. Thus it is fine to type \help
+ alter table.
+
\H or \html #
+ Turns on HTML query output format. If the
+ HTML format is already on, it is switched
+ back to the default aligned text format. This command is for
+ compatibility and convenience, but see \pset
+ about setting other output options.
+
\i or \include filename #
+ Reads input from the file filename and executes it as
+ though it had been typed on the keyboard.
+
+ If filename is -
+ (hyphen), then standard input is read until an EOF indication
+ or \q meta-command. This can be used to intersperse
+ interactive input with input from files. Note that Readline behavior
+ will be used only if it is active at the outermost level.
+
+ If you want to see the lines on the screen as they are read you
+ must set the variable ECHO to
+ all.
+
\if expression\elif expression\else\endif #
+ This group of commands implements nestable conditional blocks.
+ A conditional block must begin with an \if and end
+ with an \endif. In between there may be any number
+ of \elif clauses, which may optionally be followed
+ by a single \else clause. Ordinary queries and
+ other types of backslash commands may (and usually do) appear between
+ the commands forming a conditional block.
+
+ The \if and \elif commands read
+ their argument(s) and evaluate them as a Boolean expression. If the
+ expression yields true then processing continues
+ normally; otherwise, lines are skipped until a
+ matching \elif, \else,
+ or \endif is reached. Once
+ an \if or \elif test has
+ succeeded, the arguments of later \elif commands in
+ the same block are not evaluated but are treated as false. Lines
+ following an \else are processed only if no earlier
+ matching \if or \elif succeeded.
+
+ The expression argument
+ of an \if or \elif command
+ is subject to variable interpolation and backquote expansion, just
+ like any other backslash command argument. After that it is evaluated
+ like the value of an on/off option variable. So a valid value
+ is any unambiguous case-insensitive match for one of:
+ true, false, 1,
+ 0, on, off,
+ yes, no. For example,
+ t, T, and tR
+ will all be considered to be true.
+
+ Expressions that do not properly evaluate to true or false will + generate a warning and be treated as false. +
+ Lines being skipped are parsed normally to identify queries and
+ backslash commands, but queries are not sent to the server, and
+ backslash commands other than conditionals
+ (\if, \elif,
+ \else, \endif) are
+ ignored. Conditional commands are checked only for valid nesting.
+ Variable references in skipped lines are not expanded, and backquote
+ expansion is not performed either.
+
+ All the backslash commands of a given conditional block must appear in
+ the same source file. If EOF is reached on the main input file or an
+ \include-ed file before all local
+ \if-blocks have been closed,
+ then psql will raise an error.
+
+ Here is an example: +
+-- check for the existence of two separate records in the database and store +-- the results in separate psql variables +SELECT + EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM customer WHERE customer_id = 123) as is_customer, + EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM employee WHERE employee_id = 456) as is_employee +\gset +\if :is_customer + SELECT * FROM customer WHERE customer_id = 123; +\elif :is_employee + \echo 'is not a customer but is an employee' + SELECT * FROM employee WHERE employee_id = 456; +\else + \if yes + \echo 'not a customer or employee' + \else + \echo 'this will never print' + \endif +\endif +
\ir or \include_relative filename #
+ The \ir command is similar to \i, but resolves
+ relative file names differently. When executing in interactive mode,
+ the two commands behave identically. However, when invoked from a
+ script, \ir interprets file names relative to the
+ directory in which the script is located, rather than the current
+ working directory.
+
\l[+] or \list[+] [ pattern ] #
+ List the databases in the server and show their names, owners,
+ character set encodings, and access privileges.
+ If pattern is specified,
+ only databases whose names match the pattern are listed.
+ If + is appended to the command name, database
+ sizes, default tablespaces, and descriptions are also displayed.
+ (Size information is only available for databases that the current
+ user can connect to.)
+
\lo_export loid filename #
+ Reads the large object with OID loid from the database and
+ writes it to filename. Note that this is
+ subtly different from the server function
+ lo_export, which acts with the permissions
+ of the user that the database server runs as and on the server's
+ file system.
+
+ Use \lo_list to find out the large object's
+ OID.
+
\lo_import filename [ comment ] #+ Stores the file into a PostgreSQL + large object. Optionally, it associates the given + comment with the object. Example: +
+foo=> \lo_import '/home/peter/pictures/photo.xcf' 'a picture of me'
+lo_import 152801
+
+ The response indicates that the large object received object
+ ID 152801, which can be used to access the newly-created large
+ object in the future. For the sake of readability, it is
+ recommended to always associate a human-readable comment with
+ every object. Both OIDs and comments can be viewed with the
+ \lo_list command.
+
+ Note that this command is subtly different from the server-side
+ lo_import because it acts as the local user
+ on the local file system, rather than the server's user and file
+ system.
+
\lo_list[+] #
+ Shows a list of all PostgreSQL
+ large objects currently stored in the database,
+ along with any comments provided for them.
+ If + is appended to the command name,
+ each large object is listed with its associated permissions,
+ if any.
+
\lo_unlink loid #
+ Deletes the large object with OID
+ loid from the
+ database.
+
+ Use \lo_list to find out the large object's
+ OID.
+
\o or \out [ filename ]\o or \out [ |command ] #
+ Arranges to save future query results to the file filename or pipe future results
+ to the shell command command. If no argument is
+ specified, the query output is reset to the standard output.
+
+ If the argument begins with |, then the entire remainder
+ of the line is taken to be
+ the command to execute,
+ and neither variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are
+ performed in it. The rest of the line is simply passed literally to
+ the shell.
+
+ “Query results” includes all tables, command
+ responses, and notices obtained from the database server, as
+ well as output of various backslash commands that query the
+ database (such as \d); but not error
+ messages.
+
+ To intersperse text output in between query results, use
+ \qecho.
+
\p or \print #+ Print the current query buffer to the standard output. + If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently executed query + is printed instead. +
\password [ username ] #
+ Changes the password of the specified user (by default, the current
+ user). This command prompts for the new password, encrypts it, and
+ sends it to the server as an ALTER ROLE command. This
+ makes sure that the new password does not appear in cleartext in the
+ command history, the server log, or elsewhere.
+
\prompt [ text ] name #
+ Prompts the user to supply text, which is assigned to the variable
+ name.
+ An optional prompt string, text, can be specified. (For multiword
+ prompts, surround the text with single quotes.)
+
+ By default, \prompt uses the terminal for input and
+ output. However, if the -f command line switch was
+ used, \prompt uses standard input and standard output.
+
\pset [ option [ value ] ] #
+ This command sets options affecting the output of query result tables.
+ option
+ indicates which option is to be set. The semantics of
+ value vary depending
+ on the selected option. For some options, omitting value causes the option to be toggled
+ or unset, as described under the particular option. If no such
+ behavior is mentioned, then omitting
+ value just results in
+ the current setting being displayed.
+
+ \pset without any arguments displays the current status
+ of all printing options.
+
+ Adjustable printing options are: +
border #
+ The value must be a
+ number. In general, the higher
+ the number the more borders and lines the tables will have,
+ but details depend on the particular format.
+ In HTML format, this will translate directly
+ into the border=... attribute.
+ In most other formats only values 0 (no border), 1 (internal
+ dividing lines), and 2 (table frame) make sense, and values above 2
+ will be treated the same as border = 2.
+ The latex and latex-longtable
+ formats additionally allow a value of 3 to add dividing lines
+ between data rows.
+
columns #
+ Sets the target width for the wrapped format, and also
+ the width limit for determining whether output is wide enough to
+ require the pager or switch to the vertical display in expanded auto
+ mode.
+ Zero (the default) causes the target width to be controlled by the
+ environment variable COLUMNS, or the detected screen width
+ if COLUMNS is not set.
+ In addition, if columns is zero then the
+ wrapped format only affects screen output.
+ If columns is nonzero then file and pipe output is
+ wrapped to that width as well.
+
csv_fieldsep #+ Specifies the field separator to be used in + CSV output format. If the separator character + appears in a field's value, that field is output within double + quotes, following standard CSV rules. + The default is a comma. +
expanded (or x) #
+ If value is specified it
+ must be either on or off, which
+ will enable or disable expanded mode, or auto.
+ If value is omitted the
+ command toggles between the on and off settings. When expanded mode
+ is enabled, query results are displayed in two columns, with the
+ column name on the left and the data on the right. This mode is
+ useful if the data wouldn't fit on the screen in the
+ normal “horizontal” mode. In the auto setting, the
+ expanded mode is used whenever the query output has more than one
+ column and is wider than the screen; otherwise, the regular mode is
+ used. The auto setting is only
+ effective in the aligned and wrapped formats. In other formats, it
+ always behaves as if the expanded mode is off.
+
fieldsep #
+ Specifies the field separator to be used in unaligned output
+ format. That way one can create, for example, tab-separated
+ output, which other programs might prefer. To
+ set a tab as field separator, type \pset fieldsep
+ '\t'. The default field separator is
+ '|' (a vertical bar).
+
fieldsep_zero #+ Sets the field separator to use in unaligned output format to a zero + byte. +
footer #
+ If value is specified
+ it must be either on or off
+ which will enable or disable display of the table footer
+ (the ( count).
+ If n rows)value is omitted the
+ command toggles footer display on or off.
+
format #
+ Sets the output format to one of aligned,
+ asciidoc,
+ csv,
+ html,
+ latex,
+ latex-longtable, troff-ms,
+ unaligned, or wrapped.
+ Unique abbreviations are allowed.
+
aligned format is the standard,
+ human-readable, nicely formatted text output; this is the default.
+
unaligned format writes all columns of a row on one
+ line, separated by the currently active field separator. This
+ is useful for creating output that might be intended to be read
+ in by other programs, for example, tab-separated or comma-separated
+ format. However, the field separator character is not treated
+ specially if it appears in a column's value;
+ so CSV format may be better suited for such
+ purposes.
+
csv format
+
+ writes column values separated by commas, applying the quoting
+ rules described in
+ RFC 4180.
+ This output is compatible with the CSV format of the server's
+ COPY command.
+ A header line with column names is generated unless
+ the tuples_only parameter is
+ on. Titles and footers are not printed.
+ Each row is terminated by the system-dependent end-of-line character,
+ which is typically a single newline (\n) for
+ Unix-like systems or a carriage return and newline sequence
+ (\r\n) for Microsoft Windows.
+ Field separator characters other than comma can be selected with
+ \pset csv_fieldsep.
+
wrapped format is like aligned but wraps
+ wide data values across lines to make the output fit in the target
+ column width. The target width is determined as described under
+ the columns option. Note that psql will
+ not attempt to wrap column header titles; therefore,
+ wrapped format behaves the same as aligned
+ if the total width needed for column headers exceeds the target.
+
+ The asciidoc, html,
+ latex, latex-longtable, and
+ troff-ms formats put out tables that are intended
+ to be included in documents using the respective mark-up
+ language. They are not complete documents! This might not be
+ necessary in HTML, but in
+ LaTeX you must have a complete
+ document wrapper.
+ The latex format
+ uses LaTeX's tabular
+ environment.
+ The latex-longtable format
+ requires the LaTeX
+ longtable and booktabs packages.
+
linestyle #
+ Sets the border line drawing style to one
+ of ascii, old-ascii,
+ or unicode.
+ Unique abbreviations are allowed. (That would mean one
+ letter is enough.)
+ The default setting is ascii.
+ This option only affects the aligned and
+ wrapped output formats.
+
ascii style uses plain ASCII
+ characters. Newlines in data are shown using
+ a + symbol in the right-hand margin.
+ When the wrapped format wraps data from
+ one line to the next without a newline character, a dot
+ (.) is shown in the right-hand margin of the first line,
+ and again in the left-hand margin of the following line.
+
old-ascii style uses plain ASCII
+ characters, using the formatting style used
+ in PostgreSQL 8.4 and earlier.
+ Newlines in data are shown using a :
+ symbol in place of the left-hand column separator.
+ When the data is wrapped from one line
+ to the next without a newline character, a ;
+ symbol is used in place of the left-hand column separator.
+
unicode style uses Unicode box-drawing characters.
+ Newlines in data are shown using a carriage return symbol
+ in the right-hand margin. When the data is wrapped from one line
+ to the next without a newline character, an ellipsis symbol
+ is shown in the right-hand margin of the first line, and
+ again in the left-hand margin of the following line.
+
+ When the border setting is greater than zero,
+ the linestyle option also determines the
+ characters with which the border lines are drawn.
+ Plain ASCII characters work everywhere, but
+ Unicode characters look nicer on displays that recognize them.
+
null #
+ Sets the string to be printed in place of a null value.
+ The default is to print nothing, which can easily be mistaken for
+ an empty string. For example, one might prefer \pset null
+ '(null)'.
+
numericlocale #
+ If value is specified
+ it must be either on or off
+ which will enable or disable display of a locale-specific character
+ to separate groups of digits to the left of the decimal marker.
+ If value is omitted the
+ command toggles between regular and locale-specific numeric output.
+
pager #
+ Controls use of a pager program for query and psql
+ help output.
+ When the pager option is off, the pager
+ program is not used. When the pager option is
+ on, the pager is used when appropriate, i.e., when the
+ output is to a terminal and will not fit on the screen.
+ The pager option can also be set to always,
+ which causes the pager to be used for all terminal output regardless
+ of whether it fits on the screen. \pset pager
+ without a value
+ toggles pager use on and off.
+
+ If the environment variable PSQL_PAGER
+ or PAGER is set, output to be paged is piped to the
+ specified program. Otherwise a platform-dependent default program
+ (such as more) is used.
+
+ When using the \watch command to execute a query
+ repeatedly, the environment variable PSQL_WATCH_PAGER
+ is used to find the pager program instead, on Unix systems. This is
+ configured separately because it may confuse traditional pagers, but
+ can be used to send output to tools that understand
+ psql's output format (such as
+ pspg --stream).
+
pager_min_lines #
+ If pager_min_lines is set to a number greater than the
+ page height, the pager program will not be called unless there are
+ at least this many lines of output to show. The default setting
+ is 0.
+
recordsep #+ Specifies the record (line) separator to use in unaligned + output format. The default is a newline character. +
recordsep_zero #+ Sets the record separator to use in unaligned output format to a zero + byte. +
tableattr (or T) #
+ In HTML format, this specifies attributes
+ to be placed inside the table tag. This
+ could for example be cellpadding or
+ bgcolor. Note that you probably don't want
+ to specify border here, as that is already
+ taken care of by \pset border.
+ If no
+ value is given,
+ the table attributes are unset.
+
+ In latex-longtable format, this controls
+ the proportional width of each column containing a left-aligned
+ data type. It is specified as a whitespace-separated list of values,
+ e.g., '0.2 0.2 0.6'. Unspecified output columns
+ use the last specified value.
+
title (or C) #
+ Sets the table title for any subsequently printed tables. This
+ can be used to give your output descriptive tags. If no
+ value is given,
+ the title is unset.
+
tuples_only (or t) #
+ If value is specified
+ it must be either on or off
+ which will enable or disable tuples-only mode.
+ If value is omitted the
+ command toggles between regular and tuples-only output.
+ Regular output includes extra information such
+ as column headers, titles, and various footers. In tuples-only
+ mode, only actual table data is shown.
+
unicode_border_linestyle #
+ Sets the border drawing style for the unicode
+ line style to one of single
+ or double.
+
unicode_column_linestyle #
+ Sets the column drawing style for the unicode
+ line style to one of single
+ or double.
+
unicode_header_linestyle #
+ Sets the header drawing style for the unicode
+ line style to one of single
+ or double.
+
xheader_width #
+ Sets the maximum width of the header for expanded output to one of
+ full (the default value),
+ column, page, or an
+ integer value.
+
+ full: the expanded header is not truncated,
+ and will be as wide as the widest output line.
+
+ column: truncate the header line to the
+ width of the first column.
+
+ page: truncate the header line to the terminal
+ width.
+
+ integer value: specify
+ the exact maximum width of the header line.
+
+
+ Illustrations of how these different formats look can be seen in + Examples, below. +
+ There are various shortcut commands for \pset. See
+ \a, \C, \f,
+ \H, \t, \T,
+ and \x.
+
\q or \quit #+ Quits the psql program. + In a script file, only execution of that script is terminated. +
\qecho text [ ... ] #
+ This command is identical to \echo except
+ that the output will be written to the query output channel, as
+ set by \o.
+
\r or \reset #+ Resets (clears) the query buffer. +
\s [ filename ] #
+ Print psql's command line history
+ to filename.
+ If filename is omitted,
+ the history is written to the standard output (using the pager if
+ appropriate). This command is not available
+ if psql was built
+ without Readline support.
+
\set [ name [ value [ ... ] ] ] #
+ Sets the psql variable name to value, or if more than one value
+ is given, to the concatenation of all of them. If only one
+ argument is given, the variable is set to an empty-string value. To
+ unset a variable, use the \unset command.
+
\set without any arguments displays the names and values
+ of all currently-set psql variables.
+
+ Valid variable names can contain letters, digits, and + underscores. See Variables below for details. + Variable names are case-sensitive. +
+ Certain variables are special, in that they + control psql's behavior or are + automatically set to reflect connection state. These variables are + documented in Variables, below. +
+ This command is unrelated to the SQL
+ command SET.
+
\setenv name [ value ] #
+ Sets the environment variable name to value, or if the
+ value is
+ not supplied, unsets the environment variable. Example:
+
+testdb=>\setenv PAGER less+testdb=>\setenv LESS -imx4F+
\sf[+] function_description #
+ This command fetches and shows the definition of the named function or procedure,
+ in the form of a CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION or
+ CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE command.
+ The definition is printed to the current query output channel,
+ as set by \o.
+
+ The target function can be specified by name alone, or by name
+ and arguments, for example foo(integer, text).
+ The argument types must be given if there is more
+ than one function of the same name.
+
+ If + is appended to the command name, then the
+ output lines are numbered, with the first line of the function body
+ being line 1.
+
+ Unlike most other meta-commands, the entire remainder of the line is
+ always taken to be the argument(s) of \sf, and neither
+ variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in the
+ arguments.
+
\sv[+] view_name #
+ This command fetches and shows the definition of the named view,
+ in the form of a CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW command.
+ The definition is printed to the current query output channel,
+ as set by \o.
+
+ If + is appended to the command name, then the
+ output lines are numbered from 1.
+
+ Unlike most other meta-commands, the entire remainder of the line is
+ always taken to be the argument(s) of \sv, and neither
+ variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in the
+ arguments.
+
\t #
+ Toggles the display of output column name headings and row count
+ footer. This command is equivalent to \pset
+ tuples_only and is provided for convenience.
+
\T table_options #
+ Specifies attributes to be placed within the
+ table tag in HTML
+ output format. This command is equivalent to \pset
+ tableattr .
+ table_options
\timing [ on | off ] #+ With a parameter, turns displaying of how long each SQL statement + takes on or off. Without a parameter, toggles the display between + on and off. The display is in milliseconds; intervals longer than + 1 second are also shown in minutes:seconds format, with hours and + days fields added if needed. +
\unset name #
+ Unsets (deletes) the psql variable name.
+
+ Most variables that control psql's behavior
+ cannot be unset; instead, an \unset command is interpreted
+ as setting them to their default values.
+ See Variables below.
+
\w or \write filename\w or \write |command #
+ Writes the current query buffer to the file filename or pipes it to the shell
+ command command.
+ If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently executed query
+ is written instead.
+
+ If the argument begins with |, then the entire remainder
+ of the line is taken to be
+ the command to execute,
+ and neither variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are
+ performed in it. The rest of the line is simply passed literally to
+ the shell.
+
\warn text [ ... ] #
+ This command is identical to \echo except
+ that the output will be written to psql's
+ standard error channel, rather than standard output.
+
\watch [ i[nterval]=seconds ] [ c[ount]=times ] [ seconds ] #
+ Repeatedly execute the current query buffer (as \g does)
+ until interrupted, or the query fails, or the execution count limit
+ (if given) is reached. Wait the specified number of
+ seconds (default 2) between executions. For backwards compatibility,
+ seconds can be specified
+ with or without an interval= prefix.
+ Each query result is
+ displayed with a header that includes the \pset title
+ string (if any), the time as of query start, and the delay interval.
+
+ If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently sent query + is re-executed instead. +
\x [ on | off | auto ] #
+ Sets or toggles expanded table formatting mode. As such it is equivalent to
+ \pset expanded.
+
\z[S] [ pattern ] #
+ Lists tables, views and sequences with their
+ associated access privileges.
+ If a pattern is
+ specified, only tables, views and sequences whose names match the
+ pattern are listed. By default only user-created objects are shown;
+ supply a pattern or the S modifier to include
+ system objects.
+
+ This is an alias for \dp (“display
+ privileges”).
+
\! [ command ] #
+ With no argument, escapes to a sub-shell; psql
+ resumes when the sub-shell exits. With an argument, executes the
+ shell command command.
+
+ Unlike most other meta-commands, the entire remainder of the line is
+ always taken to be the argument(s) of \!, and neither
+ variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in the
+ arguments. The rest of the line is simply passed literally to the
+ shell.
+
\? [ topic ] #
+ Shows help information. The optional
+ topic parameter
+ (defaulting to commands) selects which part of psql is
+ explained: commands describes psql's
+ backslash commands; options describes the command-line
+ options that can be passed to psql;
+ and variables shows help about psql configuration
+ variables.
+
\; #+ Backslash-semicolon is not a meta-command in the same way as the + preceding commands; rather, it simply causes a semicolon to be + added to the query buffer without any further processing. +
+ Normally, psql will dispatch an SQL command to the + server as soon as it reaches the command-ending semicolon, even if + more input remains on the current line. Thus for example entering +
+select 1; select 2; select 3; +
+ will result in the three SQL commands being individually sent to
+ the server, with each one's results being displayed before
+ continuing to the next command. However, a semicolon entered
+ as \; will not trigger command processing, so that the
+ command before it and the one after are effectively combined and
+ sent to the server in one request. So for example
+
+select 1\; select 2\; select 3; +
+ results in sending the three SQL commands to the server in a single
+ request, when the non-backslashed semicolon is reached.
+ The server executes such a request as a single transaction,
+ unless there are explicit BEGIN/COMMIT
+ commands included in the string to divide it into multiple
+ transactions. (See Section 55.2.2.1
+ for more details about how the server handles multi-query strings.)
+
+
+ The various \d commands accept a pattern parameter to specify the
+ object name(s) to be displayed. In the simplest case, a pattern
+ is just the exact name of the object. The characters within a
+ pattern are normally folded to lower case, just as in SQL names;
+ for example, \dt FOO will display the table named
+ foo. As in SQL names, placing double quotes around
+ a pattern stops folding to lower case. Should you need to include
+ an actual double quote character in a pattern, write it as a pair
+ of double quotes within a double-quote sequence; again this is in
+ accord with the rules for SQL quoted identifiers. For example,
+ \dt "FOO""BAR" will display the table named
+ FOO"BAR (not foo"bar). Unlike the normal
+ rules for SQL names, you can put double quotes around just part
+ of a pattern, for instance \dt FOO"FOO"BAR will display
+ the table named fooFOObar.
+
+ Whenever the pattern parameter
+ is omitted completely, the \d commands display all objects
+ that are visible in the current schema search path — this is
+ equivalent to using * as the pattern.
+ (An object is said to be visible if its
+ containing schema is in the search path and no object of the same
+ kind and name appears earlier in the search path. This is equivalent to the
+ statement that the object can be referenced by name without explicit
+ schema qualification.)
+ To see all objects in the database regardless of visibility,
+ use *.* as the pattern.
+
+ Within a pattern, * matches any sequence of characters
+ (including no characters) and ? matches any single character.
+ (This notation is comparable to Unix shell file name patterns.)
+ For example, \dt int* displays tables whose names
+ begin with int. But within double quotes, *
+ and ? lose these special meanings and are just matched
+ literally.
+
+ A relation pattern that contains a dot (.) is interpreted as a schema
+ name pattern followed by an object name pattern. For example,
+ \dt foo*.*bar* displays all tables whose table name
+ includes bar that are in schemas whose schema name
+ starts with foo. When no dot appears, then the pattern
+ matches only objects that are visible in the current schema search path.
+ Again, a dot within double quotes loses its special meaning and is matched
+ literally. A relation pattern that contains two dots (.)
+ is interpreted as a database name followed by a schema name pattern followed
+ by an object name pattern. The database name portion will not be treated as
+ a pattern and must match the name of the currently connected database, else
+ an error will be raised.
+
+ A schema pattern that contains a dot (.) is interpreted
+ as a database name followed by a schema name pattern. For example,
+ \dn mydb.*foo* displays all schemas whose schema name
+ includes foo. The database name portion will not be
+ treated as a pattern and must match the name of the currently connected
+ database, else an error will be raised.
+
+ Advanced users can use regular-expression notations such as character
+ classes, for example [0-9] to match any digit. All regular
+ expression special characters work as specified in
+ Section 9.7.3, except for . which
+ is taken as a separator as mentioned above, * which is
+ translated to the regular-expression notation .*,
+ ? which is translated to ., and
+ $ which is matched literally. You can emulate
+ these pattern characters at need by writing
+ ? for .,
+ ( for
+ R+|)R*( for
+ R|)R?$ is not needed as a regular-expression character since
+ the pattern must match the whole name, unlike the usual
+ interpretation of regular expressions (in other words, $
+ is automatically appended to your pattern). Write * at the
+ beginning and/or end if you don't wish the pattern to be anchored.
+ Note that within double quotes, all regular expression special characters
+ lose their special meanings and are matched literally. Also, the regular
+ expression special characters are matched literally in operator name
+ patterns (i.e., the argument of \do).
+
+ psql provides variable substitution + features similar to common Unix command shells. + Variables are simply name/value pairs, where the value + can be any string of any length. The name must consist of letters + (including non-Latin letters), digits, and underscores. +
+ To set a variable, use the psql meta-command
+ \set. For example,
+
+testdb=> \set foo bar
+
+ sets the variable foo to the value
+ bar. To retrieve the content of the variable, precede
+ the name with a colon, for example:
+
+testdb=> \echo :foo
+bar
++ This works in both regular SQL commands and meta-commands; there is + more detail in SQL Interpolation, below. +
+ If you call \set without a second argument, the
+ variable is set to an empty-string value. To unset (i.e., delete)
+ a variable, use the command \unset. To show the
+ values of all variables, call \set without any argument.
+
+ The arguments of \set are subject to the same
+ substitution rules as with other commands. Thus you can construct
+ interesting references such as \set :foo
+ 'something' and get “soft links” or
+ “variable variables” of Perl
+ or PHP fame,
+ respectively. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), there is no way to do
+ anything useful with these constructs. On the other hand,
+ \set bar :foo is a perfectly valid way to copy a
+ variable.
+
+ A number of these variables are treated specially + by psql. They represent certain option + settings that can be changed at run time by altering the value of + the variable, or in some cases represent changeable state of + psql. + By convention, all specially treated variables' names + consist of all upper-case ASCII letters (and possibly digits and + underscores). To ensure maximum compatibility in the future, avoid + using such variable names for your own purposes. +
+ Variables that control psql's behavior
+ generally cannot be unset or set to invalid values. An \unset
+ command is allowed but is interpreted as setting the variable to its
+ default value. A \set command without a second argument is
+ interpreted as setting the variable to on, for control
+ variables that accept that value, and is rejected for others. Also,
+ control variables that accept the values on
+ and off will also accept other common spellings of Boolean
+ values, such as true and false.
+
+ The specially treated variables are: +
AUTOCOMMIT
+
+ #
+ When on (the default), each SQL command is automatically
+ committed upon successful completion. To postpone commit in this
+ mode, you must enter a BEGIN or START
+ TRANSACTION SQL command. When off or unset, SQL
+ commands are not committed until you explicitly issue
+ COMMIT or END. The autocommit-off
+ mode works by issuing an implicit BEGIN for you, just
+ before any command that is not already in a transaction block and
+ is not itself a BEGIN or other transaction-control
+ command, nor a command that cannot be executed inside a transaction
+ block (such as VACUUM).
+
+ In autocommit-off mode, you must explicitly abandon any failed
+ transaction by entering ABORT or ROLLBACK.
+ Also keep in mind that if you exit the session
+ without committing, your work will be lost.
+
+ The autocommit-on mode is PostgreSQL's traditional
+ behavior, but autocommit-off is closer to the SQL spec. If you
+ prefer autocommit-off, you might wish to set it in the system-wide
+ psqlrc file or your
+ ~/.psqlrc file.
+
COMP_KEYWORD_CASE #
+ Determines which letter case to use when completing an SQL key word.
+ If set to lower or upper, the
+ completed word will be in lower or upper case, respectively. If set
+ to preserve-lower
+ or preserve-upper (the default), the completed word
+ will be in the case of the word already entered, but words being
+ completed without anything entered will be in lower or upper case,
+ respectively.
+
DBNAME #+ The name of the database you are currently connected to. This is + set every time you connect to a database (including program + start-up), but can be changed or unset. +
ECHO #
+ If set to all, all nonempty input lines are printed
+ to standard output as they are read. (This does not apply to lines
+ read interactively.) To select this behavior on program
+ start-up, use the switch -a. If set to
+ queries,
+ psql prints each query to standard output
+ as it is sent to the server. The switch to select this behavior is
+ -e. If set to errors, then only
+ failed queries are displayed on standard error output. The switch
+ for this behavior is -b. If set to
+ none (the default), then no queries are displayed.
+
ECHO_HIDDEN #
+ When this variable is set to on and a backslash command
+ queries the database, the query is first shown.
+ This feature helps you to study
+ PostgreSQL internals and provide
+ similar functionality in your own programs. (To select this behavior
+ on program start-up, use the switch -E.) If you set
+ this variable to the value noexec, the queries are
+ just shown but are not actually sent to the server and executed.
+ The default value is off.
+
ENCODING #
+ The current client character set encoding.
+ This is set every time you connect to a database (including
+ program start-up), and when you change the encoding
+ with \encoding, but it can be changed or unset.
+
ERROR #
+ true if the last SQL query failed, false if
+ it succeeded. See also SQLSTATE.
+
FETCH_COUNT #
+ If this variable is set to an integer value greater than zero,
+ the results of SELECT queries are fetched
+ and displayed in groups of that many rows, rather than the
+ default behavior of collecting the entire result set before
+ display. Therefore only a
+ limited amount of memory is used, regardless of the size of
+ the result set. Settings of 100 to 1000 are commonly used
+ when enabling this feature.
+ Keep in mind that when using this feature, a query might
+ fail after having already displayed some rows.
+
+ Although you can use any output format with this feature,
+ the default aligned format tends to look bad
+ because each group of FETCH_COUNT rows
+ will be formatted separately, leading to varying column
+ widths across the row groups. The other output formats work better.
+
HIDE_TABLEAM #
+ If this variable is set to true, a table's access
+ method details are not displayed. This is mainly useful for
+ regression tests.
+
HIDE_TOAST_COMPRESSION #
+ If this variable is set to true, column
+ compression method details are not displayed. This is mainly
+ useful for regression tests.
+
HISTCONTROL #
+ If this variable is set to ignorespace,
+ lines which begin with a space are not entered into the history
+ list. If set to a value of ignoredups, lines
+ matching the previous history line are not entered. A value of
+ ignoreboth combines the two options. If
+ set to none (the default), all lines
+ read in interactive mode are saved on the history list.
+
+ This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from + Bash. +
HISTFILE #
+ The file name that will be used to store the history list. If unset,
+ the file name is taken from the PSQL_HISTORY
+ environment variable. If that is not set either, the default
+ is ~/.psql_history,
+ or %APPDATA%\postgresql\psql_history on Windows.
+ For example, putting:
+
+\set HISTFILE ~/.psql_history-:DBNAME +
+ in ~/.psqlrc will cause
+ psql to maintain a separate history for
+ each database.
+
+ This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from + Bash. +
HISTSIZE #+ The maximum number of commands to store in the command history + (default 500). If set to a negative value, no limit is applied. +
+ This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from + Bash. +
HOST #+ The database server host you are currently connected to. This is + set every time you connect to a database (including program + start-up), but can be changed or unset. +
IGNOREEOF #+ If set to 1 or less, sending an EOF character (usually + Control+D) + to an interactive session of psql + will terminate the application. If set to a larger numeric value, + that many consecutive EOF characters must be typed to + make an interactive session terminate. If the variable is set to a + non-numeric value, it is interpreted as 10. The default is 0. +
+ This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from + Bash. +
LASTOID #
+ The value of the last affected OID, as returned from an
+ INSERT or \lo_import
+ command. This variable is only guaranteed to be valid until
+ after the result of the next SQL command has
+ been displayed.
+ PostgreSQL servers since version 12 do not
+ support OID system columns anymore, thus LASTOID will always be 0
+ following INSERT when targeting such servers.
+
LAST_ERROR_MESSAGELAST_ERROR_SQLSTATE #
+ The primary error message and associated SQLSTATE code for the most
+ recent failed query in the current psql session, or
+ an empty string and 00000 if no error has occurred in
+ the current session.
+
ON_ERROR_ROLLBACK
+
+ #
+ When set to on, if a statement in a transaction block
+ generates an error, the error is ignored and the transaction
+ continues. When set to interactive, such errors are only
+ ignored in interactive sessions, and not when reading script
+ files. When set to off (the default), a statement in a
+ transaction block that generates an error aborts the entire
+ transaction. The error rollback mode works by issuing an
+ implicit SAVEPOINT for you, just before each command
+ that is in a transaction block, and then rolling back to the
+ savepoint if the command fails.
+
ON_ERROR_STOP #
+ By default, command processing continues after an error. When this
+ variable is set to on, processing will instead stop
+ immediately. In interactive mode,
+ psql will return to the command prompt;
+ otherwise, psql will exit, returning
+ error code 3 to distinguish this case from fatal error
+ conditions, which are reported using error code 1. In either case,
+ any currently running scripts (the top-level script, if any, and any
+ other scripts which it may have in invoked) will be terminated
+ immediately. If the top-level command string contained multiple SQL
+ commands, processing will stop with the current command.
+
PORT #+ The database server port to which you are currently connected. + This is set every time you connect to a database (including + program start-up), but can be changed or unset. +
PROMPT1PROMPT2PROMPT3 #+ These specify what the prompts psql + issues should look like. See Prompting below. +
QUIET #
+ Setting this variable to on is equivalent to the command
+ line option -q. It is probably not too useful in
+ interactive mode.
+
ROW_COUNT #+ The number of rows returned or affected by the last SQL query, or 0 + if the query failed or did not report a row count. +
SERVER_VERSION_NAMESERVER_VERSION_NUM #
+ The server's version number as a string, for
+ example 9.6.2, 10.1 or 11beta1,
+ and in numeric form, for
+ example 90602 or 100001.
+ These are set every time you connect to a database
+ (including program start-up), but can be changed or unset.
+
SHELL_ERROR #
+ true if the last shell command
+ failed, false if it succeeded.
+ This applies to shell commands invoked via the \!,
+ \g, \o, \w,
+ and \copy meta-commands, as well as backquote
+ (`) expansion. Note that
+ for \o, this variable is updated when the output
+ pipe is closed by the next \o command.
+ See also SHELL_EXIT_CODE.
+
SHELL_EXIT_CODE #
+ The exit status returned by the last shell command.
+ 0–127 represent program exit codes, 128–255
+ indicate termination by a signal, and -1 indicates failure
+ to launch a program or to collect its exit status.
+ This applies to shell commands invoked via the \!,
+ \g, \o, \w,
+ and \copy meta-commands, as well as backquote
+ (`) expansion. Note that
+ for \o, this variable is updated when the output
+ pipe is closed by the next \o command.
+ See also SHELL_ERROR.
+
SHOW_ALL_RESULTS #
+ When this variable is set to off, only the last
+ result of a combined query (\;) is shown instead of
+ all of them. The default is on. The off behavior
+ is for compatibility with older versions of psql.
+
SHOW_CONTEXT #
+ This variable can be set to the
+ values never, errors, or always
+ to control whether CONTEXT fields are displayed in
+ messages from the server. The default is errors (meaning
+ that context will be shown in error messages, but not in notice or
+ warning messages). This setting has no effect
+ when VERBOSITY is set to terse
+ or sqlstate.
+ (See also \errverbose, for use when you want a verbose
+ version of the error you just got.)
+
SINGLELINE #
+ Setting this variable to on is equivalent to the command
+ line option -S.
+
SINGLESTEP #
+ Setting this variable to on is equivalent to the command
+ line option -s.
+
SQLSTATE #
+ The error code (see Appendix A) associated
+ with the last SQL query's failure, or 00000 if it
+ succeeded.
+
USER #+ The database user you are currently connected as. This is set + every time you connect to a database (including program + start-up), but can be changed or unset. +
VERBOSITY #
+ This variable can be set to the values default,
+ verbose, terse,
+ or sqlstate to control the verbosity of error
+ reports.
+ (See also \errverbose, for use when you want a verbose
+ version of the error you just got.)
+
VERSIONVERSION_NAMEVERSION_NUM #
+ These variables are set at program start-up to reflect
+ psql's version, respectively as a verbose string,
+ a short string (e.g., 9.6.2, 10.1,
+ or 11beta1), and a number (e.g., 90602
+ or 100001). They can be changed or unset.
+
+ A key feature of psql
+ variables is that you can substitute (“interpolate”)
+ them into regular SQL statements, as well as the
+ arguments of meta-commands. Furthermore,
+ psql provides facilities for
+ ensuring that variable values used as SQL literals and identifiers are
+ properly quoted. The syntax for interpolating a value without
+ any quoting is to prepend the variable name with a colon
+ (:). For example,
+
+testdb=>\set foo 'my_table'+testdb=>SELECT * FROM :foo;+
+ would query the table my_table. Note that this
+ may be unsafe: the value of the variable is copied literally, so it can
+ contain unbalanced quotes, or even backslash commands. You must make sure
+ that it makes sense where you put it.
+
+ When a value is to be used as an SQL literal or identifier, it is + safest to arrange for it to be quoted. To quote the value of + a variable as an SQL literal, write a colon followed by the variable + name in single quotes. To quote the value as an SQL identifier, write + a colon followed by the variable name in double quotes. + These constructs deal correctly with quotes and other special + characters embedded within the variable value. + The previous example would be more safely written this way: +
+testdb=>\set foo 'my_table'+testdb=>SELECT * FROM :"foo";+
+
+ Variable interpolation will not be performed within quoted
+ SQL literals and identifiers. Therefore, a
+ construction such as ':foo' doesn't work to produce a quoted
+ literal from a variable's value (and it would be unsafe if it did work,
+ since it wouldn't correctly handle quotes embedded in the value).
+
+ One example use of this mechanism is to + copy the contents of a file into a table column. + First load the file into a variable and then interpolate the variable's + value as a quoted string: +
+testdb=>\set content `cat my_file.txt`+testdb=>INSERT INTO my_table VALUES (:'content');+
+ (Note that this still won't work if my_file.txt contains NUL bytes.
+ psql does not support embedded NUL bytes in variable values.)
+
+ Since colons can legally appear in SQL commands, an apparent attempt
+ at interpolation (that is, :name,
+ :'name', or :"name") is not
+ replaced unless the named variable is currently set. In any case, you
+ can escape a colon with a backslash to protect it from substitution.
+
+ The :{? special syntax returns TRUE
+ or FALSE depending on whether the variable exists or not, and is thus
+ always substituted, unless the colon is backslash-escaped.
+ name}
+ The colon syntax for variables is standard SQL for + embedded query languages, such as ECPG. + The colon syntaxes for array slices and type casts are + PostgreSQL extensions, which can sometimes + conflict with the standard usage. The colon-quote syntax for escaping a + variable's value as an SQL literal or identifier is a + psql extension. +
+ The prompts psql issues can be customized
+ to your preference. The three variables PROMPT1,
+ PROMPT2, and PROMPT3 contain strings
+ and special escape sequences that describe the appearance of the
+ prompt. Prompt 1 is the normal prompt that is issued when
+ psql requests a new command. Prompt 2 is
+ issued when more input is expected during command entry, for example
+ because the command was not terminated with a semicolon or a quote
+ was not closed.
+ Prompt 3 is issued when you are running an SQL
+ COPY FROM STDIN command and you need to type in
+ a row value on the terminal.
+
+ The value of the selected prompt variable is printed literally,
+ except where a percent sign (%) is encountered.
+ Depending on the next character, certain other text is substituted
+ instead. Defined substitutions are:
+
+
%M #
+ The full host name (with domain name) of the database server,
+ or [local] if the connection is over a Unix
+ domain socket, or
+ [local:,
+ if the Unix domain socket is not at the compiled in default
+ location.
+ /dir/name]
%m #
+ The host name of the database server, truncated at the
+ first dot, or [local] if the connection is
+ over a Unix domain socket.
+
%> #The port number at which the database server is listening.
%n #
+ The database session user name. (The expansion of this
+ value might change during a database session as the result
+ of the command SET SESSION
+ AUTHORIZATION.)
+
%/ #The name of the current database.
%~ #Like %/, but the output is ~
+ (tilde) if the database is your default database.
%# #
+ If the session user is a database superuser, then a
+ #, otherwise a >.
+ (The expansion of this value might change during a database
+ session as the result of the command SET SESSION
+ AUTHORIZATION.)
+
%p #The process ID of the backend currently connected to.
%R #
+ In prompt 1 normally =,
+ but @ if the session is in an inactive branch of a
+ conditional block, or ^ if in single-line mode,
+ or ! if the session is disconnected from the
+ database (which can happen if \connect fails).
+ In prompt 2 %R is replaced by a character that
+ depends on why psql expects more input:
+ - if the command simply wasn't terminated yet,
+ but * if there is an unfinished
+ /* ... */ comment,
+ a single quote if there is an unfinished quoted string,
+ a double quote if there is an unfinished quoted identifier,
+ a dollar sign if there is an unfinished dollar-quoted string,
+ or ( if there is an unmatched left parenthesis.
+ In prompt 3 %R doesn't produce anything.
+
%x #
+ Transaction status: an empty string when not in a transaction
+ block, or * when in a transaction block, or
+ ! when in a failed transaction block, or ?
+ when the transaction state is indeterminate (for example, because
+ there is no connection).
+
%l #
+ The line number inside the current statement, starting from 1.
+
%digits #+ The character with the indicated octal code is substituted. +
%:name: #
+ The value of the psql variable
+ name. See
+ Variables, above, for details.
+
%`command` #
+ The output of command, similar to ordinary
+ “back-tick” substitution.
+
%[ ... %] #
+ Prompts can contain terminal control characters which, for
+ example, change the color, background, or style of the prompt
+ text, or change the title of the terminal window. In order for
+ the line editing features of Readline to work properly, these
+ non-printing control characters must be designated as invisible
+ by surrounding them with %[ and
+ %]. Multiple pairs of these can occur within
+ the prompt. For example:
+
+testdb=> \set PROMPT1 '%[%033[1;33;40m%]%n@%/%R%[%033[0m%]%# ' +
+ results in a boldfaced (1;) yellow-on-black
+ (33;40) prompt on VT100-compatible, color-capable
+ terminals.
+
%w #
+ Whitespace of the same width as the most recent output of
+ PROMPT1. This can be used as a
+ PROMPT2 setting, so that multi-line statements are
+ aligned with the first line, but there is no visible secondary prompt.
+
+
+ To insert a percent sign into your prompt, write
+ %%. The default prompts are
+ '%/%R%x%# ' for prompts 1 and 2, and
+ '>> ' for prompt 3.
+
+ This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from + tcsh. +
+ psql uses + the Readline + or libedit library, if available, for + convenient line editing and retrieval. The command history is + automatically saved when psql exits and is + reloaded when psql starts up. Type + up-arrow or control-P to retrieve previous lines. +
+ You can also use tab completion to fill in partially-typed keywords
+ and SQL object names in many (by no means all) contexts. For example,
+ at the start of a command, typing ins and pressing
+ TAB will fill in insert into . Then, typing a few
+ characters of a table or schema name and pressing TAB
+ will fill in the unfinished name, or offer a menu of possible completions
+ when there's more than one. (Depending on the library in use, you may need to
+ press TAB more than once to get a menu.)
+
+ Tab completion for SQL object names requires sending queries to the
+ server to find possible matches. In some contexts this can interfere
+ with other operations. For example, after BEGIN
+ it will be too late to issue SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION
+ LEVEL if a tab-completion query is issued in between.
+ If you do not want tab completion at all, you
+ can turn it off permanently by putting this in a file named
+ .inputrc in your home directory:
+
+$if psql +set disable-completion on +$endif +
+ (This is not a psql but a + Readline feature. Read its documentation + for further details.) +
+ The -n (--no-readline) command line
+ option can also be useful to disable use
+ of Readline for a single run
+ of psql. This prevents tab completion,
+ use or recording of command line history, and editing of multi-line
+ commands. It is particularly useful when you need to copy-and-paste
+ text that contains TAB characters.
+
COLUMNS #
+ If \pset columns is zero, controls the
+ width for the wrapped format and width for determining
+ if wide output requires the pager or should be switched to the
+ vertical format in expanded auto mode.
+
PGDATABASEPGHOSTPGPORTPGUSER #+ Default connection parameters (see Section 34.15). +
PG_COLOR #
+ Specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages. Possible values
+ are always, auto and
+ never.
+
PSQL_EDITOREDITORVISUAL #
+ Editor used by the \e, \ef,
+ and \ev commands.
+ These variables are examined in the order listed;
+ the first that is set is used.
+ If none of them is set, the default is to use vi
+ on Unix systems or notepad.exe on Windows systems.
+
PSQL_EDITOR_LINENUMBER_ARG #
+ When \e, \ef, or
+ \ev is used
+ with a line number argument, this variable specifies the
+ command-line argument used to pass the starting line number to
+ the user's editor. For editors such as Emacs or
+ vi, this is a plus sign. Include a trailing
+ space in the value of the variable if there needs to be space
+ between the option name and the line number. Examples:
+
+PSQL_EDITOR_LINENUMBER_ARG='+' +PSQL_EDITOR_LINENUMBER_ARG='--line ' +
+
+ The default is + on Unix systems
+ (corresponding to the default editor vi,
+ and useful for many other common editors); but there is no
+ default on Windows systems.
+
PSQL_HISTORY #
+ Alternative location for the command history file. Tilde (~) expansion is performed.
+
PSQL_PAGERPAGER #
+ If a query's results do not fit on the screen, they are piped
+ through this command. Typical values are more
+ or less.
+ Use of the pager can be disabled by setting PSQL_PAGER
+ or PAGER to an empty string, or by adjusting the
+ pager-related options of the \pset command.
+ These variables are examined in the order listed;
+ the first that is set is used.
+ If neither of them is set, the default is to use more on most
+ platforms, but less on Cygwin.
+
PSQL_WATCH_PAGER #
+ When a query is executed repeatedly with the \watch
+ command, a pager is not used by default. This behavior can be changed
+ by setting PSQL_WATCH_PAGER to a pager command, on Unix
+ systems. The pspg pager (not part of
+ PostgreSQL but available in many open source
+ software distributions) can display the output of
+ \watch if started with the option
+ --stream.
+
PSQLRC #
+ Alternative location of the user's .psqlrc file. Tilde (~) expansion is performed.
+
SHELL #
+ Command executed by the \! command.
+
TMPDIR #
+ Directory for storing temporary files. The default is
+ /tmp.
+
+ This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, + also uses the environment variables supported by libpq + (see Section 34.15). +
psqlrc and ~/.psqlrc #
+ Unless it is passed an -X option,
+ psql attempts to read and execute commands
+ from the system-wide startup file (psqlrc) and then
+ the user's personal startup file (~/.psqlrc), after
+ connecting to the database but before accepting normal commands.
+ These files can be used to set up the client and/or the server to taste,
+ typically with \set and SET
+ commands.
+
+ The system-wide startup file is named psqlrc.
+ By default it is
+ sought in the installation's “system configuration” directory,
+ which is most reliably identified by running pg_config
+ --sysconfdir.
+ Typically this directory will be ../etc/
+ relative to the directory containing
+ the PostgreSQL executables.
+ The directory to look in can be set explicitly via
+ the PGSYSCONFDIR environment variable.
+
+ The user's personal startup file is named .psqlrc
+ and is sought in the invoking user's home directory.
+ On Windows the personal startup file is instead named
+ %APPDATA%\postgresql\psqlrc.conf.
+ In either case, this default file path can be overridden by setting
+ the PSQLRC environment variable.
+
+ Both the system-wide startup file and the user's personal startup file
+ can be made psql-version-specific
+ by appending a dash and the PostgreSQL
+ major or minor release identifier to the file name,
+ for example ~/.psqlrc-16 or
+ ~/.psqlrc-16.3.
+ The most specific version-matching file will be read in preference
+ to a non-version-specific file.
+ These version suffixes are added after determining the file path
+ as explained above.
+
.psql_history #
+ The command-line history is stored in the file
+ ~/.psql_history, or
+ %APPDATA%\postgresql\psql_history on Windows.
+
+ The location of the history file can be set explicitly via
+ the HISTFILE psql variable or
+ the PSQL_HISTORY environment variable.
+
psql works best with servers of the same
+ or an older major version. Backslash commands are particularly likely
+ to fail if the server is of a newer version than psql
+ itself. However, backslash commands of the \d family should
+ work with servers of versions back to 9.2, though not necessarily with
+ servers newer than psql itself. The general
+ functionality of running SQL commands and displaying query results
+ should also work with servers of a newer major version, but this cannot
+ be guaranteed in all cases.
+
+ If you want to use psql to connect to several + servers of different major versions, it is recommended that you use the + newest version of psql. Alternatively, you + can keep around a copy of psql from each + major version and be sure to use the version that matches the + respective server. But in practice, this additional complication should + not be necessary. +
+ Before PostgreSQL 9.6,
+ the -c option implied -X
+ (--no-psqlrc); this is no longer the case.
+
+ Before PostgreSQL 8.4, + psql allowed the + first argument of a single-letter backslash command to start + directly after the command, without intervening whitespace. + Now, some whitespace is required. +
+ psql is built as a “console + application”. Since the Windows console windows use a different + encoding than the rest of the system, you must take special care + when using 8-bit characters within psql. + If psql detects a problematic + console code page, it will warn you at startup. To change the + console code page, two things are necessary: + +
+ Set the code page by entering cmd.exe /c chcp
+ 1252. (1252 is a code page that is appropriate for
+ German; replace it with your value.) If you are using Cygwin,
+ you can put this command in /etc/profile.
+
+ Set the console font to Lucida Console, because the
+ raster font does not work with the ANSI code page.
+
+ The first example shows how to spread a command over several lines of + input. Notice the changing prompt: +
+testdb=>CREATE TABLE my_table (+testdb(>first integer not null default 0,+testdb(>second text)+testdb->;+CREATE TABLE +
+ Now look at the table definition again: +
+testdb=> \d my_table
+ Table "public.my_table"
+ Column | Type | Collation | Nullable | Default
+--------+---------+-----------+----------+---------
+ first | integer | | not null | 0
+ second | text | | |
++ Now we change the prompt to something more interesting: +
+testdb=> \set PROMPT1 '%n@%m %~%R%# '
+peter@localhost testdb=>
++ Let's assume you have filled the table with data and want to take a + look at it: +
+peter@localhost testdb=> SELECT * FROM my_table; + first | second +-------+-------- + 1 | one + 2 | two + 3 | three + 4 | four +(4 rows) +
+ You can display tables in different ways by using the
+ \pset command:
+
+peter@localhost testdb=>\pset border 2+Border style is 2. +peter@localhost testdb=>SELECT * FROM my_table;++-------+--------+ +| first | second | ++-------+--------+ +| 1 | one | +| 2 | two | +| 3 | three | +| 4 | four | ++-------+--------+ +(4 rows) + +peter@localhost testdb=>\pset border 0+Border style is 0. +peter@localhost testdb=>SELECT * FROM my_table;+first second +----- ------ + 1 one + 2 two + 3 three + 4 four +(4 rows) + +peter@localhost testdb=>\pset border 1+Border style is 1. +peter@localhost testdb=>\pset format csv+Output format is csv. +peter@localhost testdb=>\pset tuples_only+Tuples only is on. +peter@localhost testdb=>SELECT second, first FROM my_table;+one,1 +two,2 +three,3 +four,4 +peter@localhost testdb=>\pset format unaligned+Output format is unaligned. +peter@localhost testdb=>\pset fieldsep '\t'+Field separator is " ". +peter@localhost testdb=>SELECT second, first FROM my_table;+one 1 +two 2 +three 3 +four 4 +
+ Alternatively, use the short commands: +
+peter@localhost testdb=>\a \t \x+Output format is aligned. +Tuples only is off. +Expanded display is on. +peter@localhost testdb=>SELECT * FROM my_table;+-[ RECORD 1 ]- +first | 1 +second | one +-[ RECORD 2 ]- +first | 2 +second | two +-[ RECORD 3 ]- +first | 3 +second | three +-[ RECORD 4 ]- +first | 4 +second | four +
+
+ Also, these output format options can be set for just one query by using
+ \g:
+
+peter@localhost testdb=>SELECT * FROM my_table+peter@localhost testdb->\g (format=aligned tuples_only=off expanded=on)+-[ RECORD 1 ]- +first | 1 +second | one +-[ RECORD 2 ]- +first | 2 +second | two +-[ RECORD 3 ]- +first | 3 +second | three +-[ RECORD 4 ]- +first | 4 +second | four +
+
+ Here is an example of using the \df command to
+ find only functions with names matching int*pl
+ and whose second argument is of type bigint:
+
+testdb=> \df int*pl * bigint
+ List of functions
+ Schema | Name | Result data type | Argument data types | Type
+------------+---------+------------------+---------------------+------
+ pg_catalog | int28pl | bigint | smallint, bigint | func
+ pg_catalog | int48pl | bigint | integer, bigint | func
+ pg_catalog | int8pl | bigint | bigint, bigint | func
+(3 rows)
++
+ When suitable, query results can be shown in a crosstab representation
+ with the \crosstabview command:
+
+testdb=>SELECT first, second, first > 2 AS gt2 FROM my_table;+ first | second | gt2 +-------+--------+----- + 1 | one | f + 2 | two | f + 3 | three | t + 4 | four | t +(4 rows) + +testdb=>\crosstabview first second+ first | one | two | three | four +-------+-----+-----+-------+------ + 1 | f | | | + 2 | | f | | + 3 | | | t | + 4 | | | | t +(4 rows) +
+ +This second example shows a multiplication table with rows sorted in reverse +numerical order and columns with an independent, ascending numerical order. +
+testdb=>SELECT t1.first as "A", t2.first+100 AS "B", t1.first*(t2.first+100) as "AxB",+testdb(>row_number() over(order by t2.first) AS ord+testdb(>FROM my_table t1 CROSS JOIN my_table t2 ORDER BY 1 DESC+testdb(>\crosstabview "A" "B" "AxB" ord+ A | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104 +---+-----+-----+-----+----- + 4 | 404 | 408 | 412 | 416 + 3 | 303 | 306 | 309 | 312 + 2 | 202 | 204 | 206 | 208 + 1 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104 +(4 rows) +