2 doc/src/sgml/ref/psql-ref.sgml
3 PostgreSQL documentation
6 <refentry id="APP-PSQL">
8 <refentrytitle><application>psql</application></refentrytitle>
9 <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
10 <refmiscinfo>Application</refmiscinfo>
14 <refname><application>psql</application></refname>
16 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> interactive terminal
20 <indexterm zone="app-psql">
21 <primary>psql</primary>
26 <command>psql</command>
27 <arg rep="repeat"><replaceable class="parameter">option</replaceable></arg>
28 <arg><replaceable class="parameter">dbname</replaceable>
29 <arg><replaceable class="parameter">username</replaceable></arg></arg>
34 <title>Description</title>
37 <application>psql</application> is a terminal-based front-end to
38 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>. It enables you to type in
39 queries interactively, issue them to
40 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>, and see the query results.
41 Alternatively, input can be from a file. In addition, it provides a
42 number of meta-commands and various shell-like features to
43 facilitate writing scripts and automating a wide variety of tasks.
47 <refsect1 id="R1-APP-PSQL-3">
48 <title>Options</title>
52 <term><option>-a</></term>
53 <term><option>--echo-all</></term>
56 Print all input lines to standard output as they are read. This is more
57 useful for script processing than interactive mode. This is
58 equivalent to setting the variable <varname>ECHO</varname> to
59 <literal>all</literal>.
65 <term><option>-A</></term>
66 <term><option>--no-align</></term>
69 Switches to unaligned output mode. (The default output mode is
76 <term><option>-c <replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable></></term>
77 <term><option>--command=<replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable></></term>
80 Specifies that <application>psql</application> is to execute one
81 command string, <replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable>,
82 and then exit. This is useful in shell scripts. Start-up files
83 (<filename>psqlrc</filename> and <filename>~/.psqlrc</filename>) are
84 ignored with this option.
87 <replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable> must be either
88 a command string that is completely parsable by the server (i.e.,
89 it contains no <application>psql</application>-specific features),
90 or a single backslash command. Thus you cannot mix
91 <acronym>SQL</acronym> and <application>psql</application>
92 meta-commands with this option. To achieve that, you could
93 pipe the string into <application>psql</application>, like
94 this: <literal>echo '\x \\ SELECT * FROM foo;' | psql</literal>.
95 (<literal>\\</> is the separator meta-command.)
98 If the command string contains multiple SQL commands, they are
99 processed in a single transaction, unless there are explicit
100 <command>BEGIN</>/<command>COMMIT</> commands included in the
101 string to divide it into multiple transactions. This is
102 different from the behavior when the same string is fed to
103 <application>psql</application>'s standard input.
109 <term><option>-d <replaceable class="parameter">dbname</replaceable></></term>
110 <term><option>--dbname=<replaceable class="parameter">dbname</replaceable></></term>
113 Specifies the name of the database to connect to. This is
114 equivalent to specifying <replaceable
115 class="parameter">dbname</replaceable> as the first non-option
116 argument on the command line.
119 If this parameter contains an <symbol>=</symbol> sign, it is treated as a
120 <parameter>conninfo</parameter> string. See <xref linkend="libpq-connect"> for more information.
126 <term><option>-e</></term>
127 <term><option>--echo-queries</></term>
130 Copy all SQL commands sent to the server to standard output as well.
132 to setting the variable <varname>ECHO</varname> to
133 <literal>queries</literal>.
139 <term><option>-E</></term>
140 <term><option>--echo-hidden</></term>
143 Echo the actual queries generated by <command>\d</command> and other backslash
144 commands. You can use this to study <application>psql</application>'s
145 internal operations. This is equivalent to
146 setting the variable <varname>ECHO_HIDDEN</varname> from within
147 <application>psql</application>.
153 <term><option>-f <replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable></></term>
154 <term><option>--file=<replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable></></term>
157 Use the file <replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable>
158 as the source of commands instead of reading commands interactively.
159 After the file is processed, <application>psql</application>
160 terminates. This is in many ways equivalent to the internal
161 command <command>\i</command>.
165 If <replaceable>filename</replaceable> is <literal>-</literal>
166 (hyphen), then standard input is read.
170 Using this option is subtly different from writing <literal>psql
172 class="parameter">filename</replaceable></literal>. In general,
173 both will do what you expect, but using <literal>-f</literal>
174 enables some nice features such as error messages with line
175 numbers. There is also a slight chance that using this option will
176 reduce the start-up overhead. On the other hand, the variant using
177 the shell's input redirection is (in theory) guaranteed to yield
178 exactly the same output you would have received had you entered
185 <term><option>-F <replaceable class="parameter">separator</replaceable></></term>
186 <term><option>--field-separator=<replaceable class="parameter">separator</replaceable></></term>
189 Use <replaceable class="parameter">separator</replaceable> as the
190 field separator for unaligned output. This is equivalent to
191 <command>\pset fieldsep</command> or <command>\f</command>.
197 <term><option>-h <replaceable class="parameter">hostname</replaceable></></term>
198 <term><option>--host=<replaceable class="parameter">hostname</replaceable></></term>
201 Specifies the host name of the machine on which the
202 server is running. If the value begins
203 with a slash, it is used as the directory for the Unix-domain
210 <term><option>-H</></term>
211 <term><option>--html</></term>
214 Turn on <acronym>HTML</acronym> tabular output. This is
215 equivalent to <literal>\pset format html</literal> or the
216 <command>\H</command> command.
222 <term><option>-l</></term>
223 <term><option>--list</></term>
226 List all available databases, then exit. Other non-connection
227 options are ignored. This is similar to the internal command
228 <command>\list</command>.
234 <term><option>-L <replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable></></term>
235 <term><option>--log-file=<replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable></></term>
238 Write all query output into file <replaceable
239 class="parameter">filename</replaceable>, in addition to the
240 normal output destination.
246 <term><option>-n</></term>
247 <term><option>--no-readline</></term>
250 Do not use readline for line editing and do not use the history.
251 This can be useful to turn off tab expansion when cutting and pasting.
257 <term><option>-o <replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable></></term>
258 <term><option>--output=<replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable></></term>
261 Put all query output into file <replaceable
262 class="parameter">filename</replaceable>. This is equivalent to
263 the command <command>\o</command>.
269 <term><option>-p <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable></></term>
270 <term><option>--port=<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable></></term>
273 Specifies the TCP port or the local Unix-domain
274 socket file extension on which the server is listening for
275 connections. Defaults to the value of the <envar>PGPORT</envar>
276 environment variable or, if not set, to the port specified at
277 compile time, usually 5432.
283 <term><option>-P <replaceable class="parameter">assignment</replaceable></></term>
284 <term><option>--pset=<replaceable class="parameter">assignment</replaceable></></term>
287 Specifies printing options, in the style of
288 <command>\pset</command>. Note that here you
289 have to separate name and value with an equal sign instead of a
290 space. For example, to set the output format to LaTeX, you could write
291 <literal>-P format=latex</literal>.
297 <term><option>-q</></term>
298 <term><option>--quiet</></term>
301 Specifies that <application>psql</application> should do its work
302 quietly. By default, it prints welcome messages and various
303 informational output. If this option is used, none of this
304 happens. This is useful with the <option>-c</option> option.
305 Within <application>psql</application> you can also set the
306 <varname>QUIET</varname> variable to achieve the same effect.
312 <term><option>-R <replaceable class="parameter">separator</replaceable></></term>
313 <term><option>--record-separator=<replaceable class="parameter">separator</replaceable></></term>
316 Use <replaceable class="parameter">separator</replaceable> as the
317 record separator for unaligned output. This is equivalent to the
318 <command>\pset recordsep</command> command.
324 <term><option>-s</></term>
325 <term><option>--single-step</></term>
328 Run in single-step mode. That means the user is prompted before
329 each command is sent to the server, with the option to cancel
330 execution as well. Use this to debug scripts.
336 <term><option>-S</></term>
337 <term><option>--single-line</></term>
340 Runs in single-line mode where a newline terminates an SQL command, as a
346 This mode is provided for those who insist on it, but you are not
347 necessarily encouraged to use it. In particular, if you mix
348 <acronym>SQL</acronym> and meta-commands on a line the order of
349 execution might not always be clear to the inexperienced user.
356 <term><option>-t</></term>
357 <term><option>--tuples-only</></term>
360 Turn off printing of column names and result row count footers,
361 etc. This is equivalent to the <command>\t</command> command.
367 <term><option>-T <replaceable class="parameter">table_options</replaceable></></term>
368 <term><option>--table-attr=<replaceable class="parameter">table_options</replaceable></></term>
371 Specifies options to be placed within the
372 <acronym>HTML</acronym> <sgmltag>table</sgmltag> tag. See
373 <command>\pset</command> for details.
379 <term><option>-U <replaceable class="parameter">username</replaceable></></term>
380 <term><option>--username=<replaceable class="parameter">username</replaceable></></term>
383 Connect to the database as the user <replaceable
384 class="parameter">username</replaceable> instead of the default.
385 (You must have permission to do so, of course.)
391 <term><option>-v <replaceable class="parameter">assignment</replaceable></></term>
392 <term><option>--set=<replaceable class="parameter">assignment</replaceable></></term>
393 <term><option>--variable=<replaceable class="parameter">assignment</replaceable></></term>
396 Perform a variable assignment, like the <command>\set</command>
397 internal command. Note that you must separate name and value, if
398 any, by an equal sign on the command line. To unset a variable,
399 leave off the equal sign. To just set a variable without a value,
400 use the equal sign but leave off the value. These assignments are
401 done during a very early stage of start-up, so variables reserved
402 for internal purposes might get overwritten later.
408 <term><option>-V</></term>
409 <term><option>--version</></term>
412 Print the <application>psql</application> version and exit.
418 <term><option>-w</></term>
419 <term><option>--no-password</></term>
422 Never issue a password prompt. If the server requires password
423 authentication and a password is not available by other means
424 such as a <filename>.pgpass</filename> file, the connection
425 attempt will fail. This option can be useful in batch jobs and
426 scripts where no user is present to enter a password.
430 Note that this option will remain set for the entire session,
431 and so it affects uses of the meta-command
432 <command>\connect</command> as well as the initial connection attempt.
438 <term><option>-W</></term>
439 <term><option>--password</></term>
442 Force <application>psql</application> to prompt for a
443 password before connecting to a database.
447 This option is never essential, since <application>psql</application>
448 will automatically prompt for a password if the server demands
449 password authentication. However, <application>psql</application>
450 will waste a connection attempt finding out that the server wants a
451 password. In some cases it is worth typing <option>-W</> to avoid
452 the extra connection attempt.
456 Note that this option will remain set for the entire session,
457 and so it affects uses of the meta-command
458 <command>\connect</command> as well as the initial connection attempt.
464 <term><option>-x</></term>
465 <term><option>--expanded</></term>
468 Turn on the expanded table formatting mode. This is equivalent to the
469 <command>\x</command> command.
475 <term><option>-X,</></term>
476 <term><option>--no-psqlrc</></term>
479 Do not read the start-up file (neither the system-wide
480 <filename>psqlrc</filename> file nor the user's
481 <filename>~/.psqlrc</filename> file).
487 <term><option>-1</option></term>
488 <term><option>--single-transaction</option></term>
491 When <application>psql</application> executes a script with the
492 <option>-f</> option, adding this option wraps
493 <command>BEGIN</>/<command>COMMIT</> around the script to execute it
494 as a single transaction. This ensures that either all the commands
495 complete successfully, or no changes are applied.
499 If the script itself uses <command>BEGIN</>, <command>COMMIT</>,
500 or <command>ROLLBACK</>, this option will not have the desired
502 Also, if the script contains any command that cannot be executed
503 inside a transaction block, specifying this option will cause that
504 command (and hence the whole transaction) to fail.
510 <term><option>-?</></term>
511 <term><option>--help</></term>
514 Show help about <application>psql</application> command line
525 <title>Exit Status</title>
528 <application>psql</application> returns 0 to the shell if it
529 finished normally, 1 if a fatal error of its own occurs (e.g. out of memory,
530 file not found), 2 if the connection to the server went bad
531 and the session was not interactive, and 3 if an error occurred in a
532 script and the variable <varname>ON_ERROR_STOP</varname> was set.
540 <refsect2 id="R2-APP-PSQL-connecting">
541 <title>Connecting to a Database</title>
544 <application>psql</application> is a regular
545 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> client application. In order
546 to connect to a database you need to know the name of your target
547 database, the host name and port number of the server, and what user
548 name you want to connect as. <application>psql</application> can be
549 told about those parameters via command line options, namely
550 <option>-d</option>, <option>-h</option>, <option>-p</option>, and
551 <option>-U</option> respectively. If an argument is found that does
552 not belong to any option it will be interpreted as the database name
553 (or the user name, if the database name is already given). Not all
554 of these options are required; there are useful defaults. If you omit the host
555 name, <application>psql</> will connect via a Unix-domain socket
556 to a server on the local host, or via TCP/IP to <literal>localhost</> on
557 machines that don't have Unix-domain sockets. The default port number is
558 determined at compile time.
559 Since the database server uses the same default, you will not have
560 to specify the port in most cases. The default user name is your
561 Unix user name, as is the default database name. Note that you cannot
562 just connect to any database under any user name. Your database
563 administrator should have informed you about your access rights.
567 When the defaults aren't quite right, you can save yourself
568 some typing by setting the environment variables
569 <envar>PGDATABASE</envar>, <envar>PGHOST</envar>,
570 <envar>PGPORT</envar> and/or <envar>PGUSER</envar> to appropriate
571 values. (For additional environment variables, see <xref
572 linkend="libpq-envars">.) It is also convenient to have a
573 <filename>~/.pgpass</> file to avoid regularly having to type in
574 passwords. See <xref linkend="libpq-pgpass"> for more information.
578 An alternative way to specify connection parameters is in a
579 <parameter>conninfo</parameter> string, which is used instead of a
580 database name. This mechanism give you very wide control over the
581 connection. For example:
583 $ <userinput>psql "service=myservice sslmode=require"</userinput>
585 This way you can also use LDAP for connection parameter lookup as
586 described in <xref linkend="libpq-ldap">.
587 See <xref linkend="libpq-connect"> for more information on all the
588 available connection options.
592 If the connection could not be made for any reason (e.g., insufficient
593 privileges, server is not running on the targeted host, etc.),
594 <application>psql</application> will return an error and terminate.
598 If at least one of standard input or standard output are a
599 terminal, then <application>psql</application> sets the client
600 encoding to <quote>auto</quote>, which will detect the
601 appropriate client encoding from the locale settings
602 (<envar>LC_CTYPE</envar> environment variable on Unix systems).
603 If this doesn't work out as expected, the client encoding can be
604 overridden using the environment
605 variable <envar>PGCLIENTENCODING</envar>.
609 <refsect2 id="R2-APP-PSQL-4">
610 <title>Entering SQL Commands</title>
613 In normal operation, <application>psql</application> provides a
614 prompt with the name of the database to which
615 <application>psql</application> is currently connected, followed by
616 the string <literal>=></literal>. For example:
618 $ <userinput>psql testdb</userinput>
620 Type "help" for help.
627 At the prompt, the user can type in <acronym>SQL</acronym> commands.
628 Ordinarily, input lines are sent to the server when a
629 command-terminating semicolon is reached. An end of line does not
630 terminate a command. Thus commands can be spread over several lines for
631 clarity. If the command was sent and executed without error, the results
632 of the command are displayed on the screen.
636 Whenever a command is executed, <application>psql</application> also polls
637 for asynchronous notification events generated by
638 <xref linkend="SQL-LISTEN"> and
639 <xref linkend="SQL-NOTIFY">.
643 <refsect2 id="APP-PSQL-meta-commands">
644 <title>Meta-Commands</title>
647 Anything you enter in <application>psql</application> that begins
648 with an unquoted backslash is a <application>psql</application>
649 meta-command that is processed by <application>psql</application>
650 itself. These commands make
651 <application>psql</application> more useful for administration or
652 scripting. Meta-commands are often called slash or backslash commands.
656 The format of a <application>psql</application> command is the backslash,
657 followed immediately by a command verb, then any arguments. The arguments
658 are separated from the command verb and each other by any number of
659 whitespace characters.
663 To include whitespace into an argument you can quote it with a
664 single quote. To include a single quote into such an argument,
665 use two single quotes. Anything contained in single quotes is
666 furthermore subject to C-like substitutions for
667 <literal>\n</literal> (new line), <literal>\t</literal> (tab),
668 <literal>\</literal><replaceable>digits</replaceable> (octal), and
669 <literal>\x</literal><replaceable>digits</replaceable> (hexadecimal).
673 If an unquoted argument begins with a colon (<literal>:</literal>),
674 it is taken as a <application>psql</> variable and the value of the
675 variable is used as the argument instead. If the variable name is
676 surrounded by single quotes (e.g. <literal>:'var'</literal>), it
677 will be escaped as an SQL literal and the result will be used as
678 the argument. If the variable name is surrounded by double quotes,
679 it will be escaped as an SQL identifier and the result will be used
684 Arguments that are enclosed in backquotes (<literal>`</literal>)
685 are taken as a command line that is passed to the shell. The
686 output of the command (with any trailing newline removed) is taken
687 as the argument value. The above escape sequences also apply in
692 Some commands take an <acronym>SQL</acronym> identifier (such as a
693 table name) as argument. These arguments follow the syntax rules
694 of <acronym>SQL</acronym>: Unquoted letters are forced to
695 lowercase, while double quotes (<literal>"</>) protect letters
696 from case conversion and allow incorporation of whitespace into
697 the identifier. Within double quotes, paired double quotes reduce
698 to a single double quote in the resulting name. For example,
699 <literal>FOO"BAR"BAZ</> is interpreted as <literal>fooBARbaz</>,
700 and <literal>"A weird"" name"</> becomes <literal>A weird"
705 Parsing for arguments stops at the end of the line, or when another
706 unquoted backslash is found. An unquoted backslash
707 is taken as the beginning of a new meta-command. The special
708 sequence <literal>\\</literal> (two backslashes) marks the end of
709 arguments and continues parsing <acronym>SQL</acronym> commands, if
710 any. That way <acronym>SQL</acronym> and
711 <application>psql</application> commands can be freely mixed on a
712 line. But in any case, the arguments of a meta-command cannot
713 continue beyond the end of the line.
717 The following meta-commands are defined:
721 <term><literal>\a</literal></term>
724 If the current table output format is unaligned, it is switched to aligned.
725 If it is not unaligned, it is set to unaligned. This command is
726 kept for backwards compatibility. See <command>\pset</command> for a
727 more general solution.
733 <term><literal>\c</literal> or <literal>\connect</literal> <literal>[ <replaceable class="parameter">dbname</replaceable> [ <replaceable class="parameter">username</replaceable> ] [ <replaceable class="parameter">host</replaceable> ] [ <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> ] ]</literal></term>
736 Establishes a new connection to a <productname>PostgreSQL</>
737 server. If the new connection is successfully made, the
738 previous connection is closed. If any of <replaceable
739 class="parameter">dbname</replaceable>, <replaceable
740 class="parameter">username</replaceable>, <replaceable
741 class="parameter">host</replaceable> or <replaceable
742 class="parameter">port</replaceable> are omitted or specified
743 as <literal>-</literal>, the value of that parameter from the
744 previous connection is used. If there is no previous
745 connection, the <application>libpq</application> default for
746 the parameter's value is used.
750 If the connection attempt failed (wrong user name, access
751 denied, etc.), the previous connection will only be kept if
752 <application>psql</application> is in interactive mode. When
753 executing a non-interactive script, processing will
754 immediately stop with an error. This distinction was chosen as
755 a user convenience against typos on the one hand, and a safety
756 mechanism that scripts are not accidentally acting on the
757 wrong database on the other hand.
763 <term><literal>\C [ <replaceable class="parameter">title</replaceable> ]</literal></term>
766 Sets the title of any tables being printed as the result of a
767 query or unset any such title. This command is equivalent to
768 <literal>\pset title <replaceable
769 class="parameter">title</replaceable></literal>. (The name of
770 this command derives from <quote>caption</quote>, as it was
771 previously only used to set the caption in an
772 <acronym>HTML</acronym> table.)
778 <term><literal>\cd [ <replaceable>directory</replaceable> ]</literal></term>
781 Changes the current working directory to
782 <replaceable>directory</replaceable>. Without argument, changes
783 to the current user's home directory.
788 To print your current working directory, use <literal>\! pwd</literal>.
795 <term><literal>\conninfo</literal></term>
798 Outputs information about the current database connection.
804 <term><literal>\copy { <replaceable class="parameter">table</replaceable> [ ( <replaceable class="parameter">column_list</replaceable> ) ] | ( <replaceable class="parameter">query</replaceable> ) }
805 { <literal>from</literal> | <literal>to</literal> }
806 { <replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable> | stdin | stdout | pstdin | pstdout }
810 [ delimiter [ as ] '<replaceable class="parameter">character</replaceable>' ]
811 [ null [ as ] '<replaceable class="parameter">string</replaceable>' ]
814 [ quote [ as ] '<replaceable class="parameter">character</replaceable>' ]
815 [ escape [ as ] '<replaceable class="parameter">character</replaceable>' ]
816 [ force quote <replaceable class="parameter">column_list</replaceable> | * ]
817 [ force not null <replaceable class="parameter">column_list</replaceable> ] ]</literal>
822 Performs a frontend (client) copy. This is an operation that
823 runs an <acronym>SQL</acronym> <xref linkend="SQL-COPY">
824 command, but instead of the server
825 reading or writing the specified file,
826 <application>psql</application> reads or writes the file and
827 routes the data between the server and the local file system.
828 This means that file accessibility and privileges are those of
829 the local user, not the server, and no SQL superuser
830 privileges are required.
834 The syntax of the command is similar to that of the
835 <acronym>SQL</acronym> <xref linkend="sql-copy">
836 command. Note that, because of this,
837 special parsing rules apply to the <command>\copy</command>
838 command. In particular, the variable substitution rules and
839 backslash escapes do not apply.
843 <literal>\copy ... from stdin | to stdout</literal>
844 reads/writes based on the command input and output respectively.
845 All rows are read from the same source that issued the command,
846 continuing until <literal>\.</literal> is read or the stream
847 reaches <acronym>EOF</>. Output is sent to the same place as
848 command output. To read/write from
849 <application>psql</application>'s standard input or output, use
850 <literal>pstdin</> or <literal>pstdout</>. This option is useful
851 for populating tables in-line within a SQL script file.
856 This operation is not as efficient as the <acronym>SQL</acronym>
857 <command>COPY</command> command because all data must pass
858 through the client/server connection. For large
859 amounts of data the <acronym>SQL</acronym> command might be preferable.
867 <term><literal>\copyright</literal></term>
870 Shows the copyright and distribution terms of
871 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>.
877 <term><literal>\d[S+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
881 For each relation (table, view, index, sequence or foreign table)
883 <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable>, show all
884 columns, their types, the tablespace (if not the default) and any
885 special attributes such as <literal>NOT NULL</literal> or defaults.
886 Associated indexes, constraints, rules, and triggers are
887 also shown. For foreign tables, the associated foreign
888 server is shown as well.
889 (<quote>Matching the pattern</> is defined in
890 <xref linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns" endterm="APP-PSQL-patterns-title">
895 The command form <literal>\d+</literal> is identical, except that
896 more information is displayed: any comments associated with the
897 columns of the table are shown, as is the presence of OIDs in the
898 table, the view definition if the relation is a view, and the generic
899 options if the relation is a foreign table.
903 By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
904 pattern or the <literal>S</literal> modifier to include system
910 If <command>\d</command> is used without a
911 <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> argument, it is
912 equivalent to <command>\dtvsE</command> which will show a list of
913 all visible tables, views, sequences and foreign tables.
914 This is purely a convenience measure.
921 <term><literal>\da[S] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
925 Lists aggregate functions, together with their
926 return type and the data types they operate on. If <replaceable
927 class="parameter">pattern</replaceable>
928 is specified, only aggregates whose names match the pattern are shown.
929 By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
930 pattern or the <literal>S</literal> modifier to include system
938 <term><literal>\db[+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
942 Lists tablespaces. If <replaceable
943 class="parameter">pattern</replaceable>
944 is specified, only tablespaces whose names match the pattern are shown.
945 If <literal>+</literal> is appended to the command name, each object
946 is listed with its associated permissions.
953 <term><literal>\dc[S] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
956 Lists conversions between character-set encodings.
957 If <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable>
958 is specified, only conversions whose names match the pattern are
960 By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
961 pattern or the <literal>S</literal> modifier to include system
969 <term><literal>\dC [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
973 If <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable>
974 is specified, only casts whose source or target types match the
982 <term><literal>\dd[S] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
985 Shows the descriptions of objects matching the <replaceable
986 class="parameter">pattern</replaceable>, or of all visible objects if
987 no argument is given. But in either case, only objects that have
988 a description are listed.
989 By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
990 pattern or the <literal>S</literal> modifier to include system
992 <quote>Object</quote> covers aggregates, functions, operators,
993 types, relations (tables, views, indexes, sequences), large
994 objects, rules, and triggers. For example:
996 => <userinput>\dd version</userinput>
998 Schema | Name | Object | Description
999 ------------+---------+----------+---------------------------
1000 pg_catalog | version | function | PostgreSQL version string
1006 Descriptions for objects can be created with the <xref
1007 linkend="sql-comment">
1008 <acronym>SQL</acronym> command.
1015 <term><literal>\ddp [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1018 Lists default access privilege settings. An entry is shown for
1019 each role (and schema, if applicable) for which the default
1020 privilege settings have been changed from the built-in defaults.
1021 If <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> is
1022 specified, only entries whose role name or schema name matches
1023 the pattern are listed.
1027 The <xref linkend="sql-alterdefaultprivileges"> command is used to set
1028 default access privileges. The meaning of the
1029 privilege display is explained under
1030 <xref linkend="sql-grant">.
1037 <term><literal>\dD[S] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1040 Lists domains. If <replaceable
1041 class="parameter">pattern</replaceable>
1042 is specified, only domains whose names match the pattern are shown.
1043 By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
1044 pattern or the <literal>S</literal> modifier to include system
1052 <term><literal>\dE[S+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1053 <term><literal>\di[S+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1054 <term><literal>\ds[S+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1055 <term><literal>\dt[S+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1056 <term><literal>\dv[S+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1060 In this group of commands, the letters <literal>E</literal>,
1061 <literal>i</literal>, <literal>s</literal>,
1062 <literal>t</literal>, and <literal>v</literal>
1063 stand for foreign table, index, sequence, table, and view,
1065 You can specify any or all of
1066 these letters, in any order, to obtain a listing of objects
1067 of these types. For example, <literal>\dit</> lists indexes
1068 and tables. If <literal>+</literal> is
1069 appended to the command name, each object is listed with its
1070 physical size on disk and its associated description, if any.
1071 If <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> is
1072 specified, only objects whose names match the pattern are listed.
1073 By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
1074 pattern or the <literal>S</literal> modifier to include system
1082 <term><literal>\des[+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1085 Lists foreign servers (mnemonic: <quote>external
1087 If <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> is
1088 specified, only those servers whose name matches the pattern
1089 are listed. If the form <literal>\des+</literal> is used, a
1090 full description of each server is shown, including the
1091 server's ACL, type, version, and options.
1098 <term><literal>\det[+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1101 Lists foreign tables (mnemonic: <quote>external tables</quote>).
1102 If <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> is
1103 specified, only entries whose table name or schema name matches
1104 the pattern are listed. If the form <literal>\det+</literal>
1105 is used, generic options are also displayed.
1112 <term><literal>\deu[+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1115 Lists user mappings (mnemonic: <quote>external
1117 If <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> is
1118 specified, only those mappings whose user names match the
1119 pattern are listed. If the form <literal>\deu+</literal> is
1120 used, additional information about each mapping is shown.
1125 <literal>\deu+</literal> might also display the user name and
1126 password of the remote user, so care should be taken not to
1135 <term><literal>\dew[+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1138 Lists foreign-data wrappers (mnemonic: <quote>external
1140 If <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> is
1141 specified, only those foreign-data wrappers whose name matches
1142 the pattern are listed. If the form <literal>\dew+</literal>
1143 is used, the ACL and options of the foreign-data wrapper are
1151 <term><literal>\df[antwS+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1155 Lists functions, together with their arguments, return types, and
1156 function types, which are classified as <quote>agg</> (aggregate),
1157 <quote>normal</>, <quote>trigger</>, or <quote>window</>.
1158 To display only functions
1159 of specific type(s), add the corresponding letters <literal>a</>,
1160 <literal>n</>, <literal>t</>, or <literal>w</> to the command.
1162 class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> is specified, only
1163 functions whose names match the pattern are shown. If the
1164 form <literal>\df+</literal> is used, additional information
1165 about each function, including volatility, language, source
1166 code and description, is shown. By default, only user-created
1167 objects are shown; supply a pattern or the <literal>S</literal>
1168 modifier to include system objects.
1173 To look up functions taking arguments or returning values of a specific
1174 type, use your pager's search capability to scroll through the
1175 <literal>\df</> output.
1183 <term><literal>\dF[+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1186 Lists text search configurations.
1187 If <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> is specified,
1188 only configurations whose names match the pattern are shown.
1189 If the form <literal>\dF+</literal> is used, a full description of
1190 each configuration is shown, including the underlying text search
1191 parser and the dictionary list for each parser token type.
1197 <term><literal>\dFd[+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1200 Lists text search dictionaries.
1201 If <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> is specified,
1202 only dictionaries whose names match the pattern are shown.
1203 If the form <literal>\dFd+</literal> is used, additional information
1204 is shown about each selected dictionary, including the underlying
1205 text search template and the option values.
1211 <term><literal>\dFp[+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1214 Lists text search parsers.
1215 If <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> is specified,
1216 only parsers whose names match the pattern are shown.
1217 If the form <literal>\dFp+</literal> is used, a full description of
1218 each parser is shown, including the underlying functions and the
1219 list of recognized token types.
1225 <term><literal>\dFt[+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1228 Lists text search templates.
1229 If <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> is specified,
1230 only templates whose names match the pattern are shown.
1231 If the form <literal>\dFt+</literal> is used, additional information
1232 is shown about each template, including the underlying function names.
1239 <term><literal>\dg[+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1242 Lists database roles. If <replaceable
1243 class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> is specified, only
1244 those roles whose names match the pattern are listed.
1245 (This command is now effectively the same as <literal>\du</literal>).
1246 If the form <literal>\dg+</literal> is used, additional information
1247 is shown about each role, including the comment for each role.
1254 <term><literal>\dl</literal></term>
1257 This is an alias for <command>\lo_list</command>, which shows a
1258 list of large objects.
1264 <term><literal>\dL[S+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1267 Lists procedural languages. If <replaceable
1268 class="parameter">pattern</replaceable>
1269 is specified, only languages whose names match the pattern are listed.
1270 By default, only user-created languages
1271 are shown; supply the <literal>S</literal> modifier to include system
1272 objects. If <literal>+</literal> is appended to the command name, each
1273 language is listed with its call handler, validator, access privileges,
1274 and whether it is a system object.
1281 <term><literal>\dn[S+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1285 Lists schemas (namespaces). If <replaceable
1286 class="parameter">pattern</replaceable>
1287 is specified, only schemas whose names match the pattern are listed.
1288 By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
1289 pattern or the <literal>S</literal> modifier to include system objects.
1290 If <literal>+</literal> is appended to the command name, each object
1291 is listed with its associated permissions and description, if any.
1298 <term><literal>\do[S] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1301 Lists operators with their operand and return types.
1302 If <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> is
1303 specified, only operators whose names match the pattern are listed.
1304 By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
1305 pattern or the <literal>S</literal> modifier to include system
1313 <term><literal>\dO[S+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1317 If <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> is
1318 specified, only collations whose names match the pattern are
1319 listed. By default, only user-created objects are shown;
1320 supply a pattern or the <literal>S</literal> modifier to
1321 include system objects. If <literal>+</literal> is appended
1322 to the command name, each collation is listed with its associated
1323 description, if any.
1324 Note that only collations usable with the current database's encoding
1325 are shown, so the results may vary in different databases of the
1333 <term><literal>\dp [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1336 Lists tables, views and sequences with their
1337 associated access privileges.
1338 If <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> is
1339 specified, only tables, views and sequences whose names match the
1344 The <xref linkend="sql-grant"> and
1345 <xref linkend="sql-revoke">
1346 commands are used to set access privileges. The meaning of the
1347 privilege display is explained under
1348 <xref linkend="sql-grant">.
1354 <term><literal>\drds [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">role-pattern</replaceable></link> [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">database-pattern</replaceable></link> ] ]</literal></term>
1357 Lists defined configuration settings. These settings can be
1358 role-specific, database-specific, or both.
1359 <replaceable>role-pattern</replaceable> and
1360 <replaceable>database-pattern</replaceable> are used to select
1361 specific roles and databases to list, respectively. If omitted, or if
1362 <literal>*</> is specified, all settings are listed, including those
1363 not role-specific or database-specific, respectively.
1367 The <xref linkend="sql-alterrole"> and
1368 <xref linkend="sql-alterdatabase">
1369 commands are used to define per-role and per-database configuration
1376 <term><literal>\dT[S+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1380 If <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> is
1381 specified, only types whose names match the pattern are listed.
1382 If <literal>+</literal> is appended to the command name, each type is
1383 listed with its internal name and size, as well as its allowed values
1384 if it is an <type>enum</> type.
1385 By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
1386 pattern or the <literal>S</literal> modifier to include system
1393 <term><literal>\du[+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1396 Lists database roles. If <replaceable
1397 class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> is specified, only
1398 those roles whose names match the pattern are listed.
1399 If the form <literal>\du+</literal> is used, additional information
1400 is shown about each role, including the comment for each role.
1406 <term><literal>\dx[+] [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
1409 Lists installed extensions.
1410 If <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable>
1411 is specified, only those extensions whose names match the pattern
1413 If the form <literal>\dx+</literal> is used, all the objects belonging
1414 to each matching extension are listed.
1420 <term><literal>\e</literal> or <literal>\edit</> <literal> <optional> <replaceable class="parameter">filename</> </optional> <optional> <replaceable class="parameter">line_number</> </optional> </literal></term>
1424 If <replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable> is
1425 specified, the file is edited; after the editor exits, its
1426 content is copied back to the query buffer. If no <replaceable
1427 class="parameter">filename</replaceable> is given, the current query
1428 buffer is copied to a temporary file which is then edited in the same
1433 The new query buffer is then re-parsed according to the normal
1434 rules of <application>psql</application>, where the whole buffer
1435 is treated as a single line. (Thus you cannot make scripts this
1436 way. Use <command>\i</command> for that.) This means that
1437 if the query ends with (or contains) a semicolon, it is
1438 immediately executed. Otherwise it will merely wait in the
1439 query buffer; type semicolon or <literal>\g</> to send it, or
1440 <literal>\r</> to cancel.
1445 <application>psql</application> checks the environment
1446 variables <envar>PSQL_EDITOR</envar>, <envar>EDITOR</envar>, and
1447 <envar>VISUAL</envar> (in that order) for an editor to use. If
1448 all of them are unset, <filename>vi</filename> is used on Unix
1449 systems, <filename>notepad.exe</filename> on Windows systems.
1454 If a line number is specified, <application>psql</application> will
1455 position the cursor on the specified line of the file or query buffer.
1456 This feature requires the <varname>EDITOR_LINENUMBER_SWITCH</varname>
1457 variable to be set, so that <application>psql</application> knows how
1458 to specify the line number to the editor. Note that if a single
1459 all-digits argument is given, <application>psql</application> assumes
1460 it is a line number not a file name.
1466 <term><literal>\echo <replaceable class="parameter">text</replaceable> [ ... ]</literal></term>
1469 Prints the arguments to the standard output, separated by one
1470 space and followed by a newline. This can be useful to
1471 intersperse information in the output of scripts. For example:
1473 => <userinput>\echo `date`</userinput>
1474 Tue Oct 26 21:40:57 CEST 1999
1476 If the first argument is an unquoted <literal>-n</literal> the trailing
1477 newline is not written.
1482 If you use the <command>\o</command> command to redirect your
1483 query output you might wish to use <command>\qecho</command>
1484 instead of this command.
1491 <term><literal>\ef <optional> <replaceable class="parameter">function_description</> <optional> <replaceable class="parameter">line_number</> </optional> </optional> </literal></term>
1495 This command fetches and edits the definition of the named function,
1496 in the form of a <command>CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION</> command.
1497 Editing is done in the same way as for <literal>\edit</>.
1498 After the editor exits, the updated command waits in the query buffer;
1499 type semicolon or <literal>\g</> to send it, or <literal>\r</>
1504 The target function can be specified by name alone, or by name
1505 and arguments, for example <literal>foo(integer, text)</>.
1506 The argument types must be given if there is more
1507 than one function of the same name.
1511 If no function is specified, a blank <command>CREATE FUNCTION</>
1512 template is presented for editing.
1516 If a line number is specified, <application>psql</application> will
1517 position the cursor on the specified line of the function body
1518 (note that the function body typically does not begin on the
1519 first line of the file).
1520 This feature requires the <varname>EDITOR_LINENUMBER_SWITCH</varname>
1521 variable to be set, so that <application>psql</application> knows how
1522 to specify the line number to the editor.
1529 <term><literal>\encoding [ <replaceable class="parameter">encoding</replaceable> ]</literal></term>
1533 Sets the client character set encoding. Without an argument, this command
1534 shows the current encoding.
1541 <term><literal>\f [ <replaceable class="parameter">string</replaceable> ]</literal></term>
1545 Sets the field separator for unaligned query output. The default
1546 is the vertical bar (<literal>|</literal>). See also
1547 <command>\pset</command> for a generic way of setting output
1555 <term><literal>\g</literal> [ { <replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable> | <literal>|</literal><replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable> } ]</term>
1559 Sends the current query input buffer to the server and
1560 optionally stores the query's output in <replaceable
1561 class="parameter">filename</replaceable> or pipes the output
1562 into a separate Unix shell executing <replaceable
1563 class="parameter">command</replaceable>. A bare
1564 <literal>\g</literal> is virtually equivalent to a semicolon. A
1565 <literal>\g</literal> with argument is a <quote>one-shot</quote>
1566 alternative to the <command>\o</command> command.
1572 <term><literal>\h</literal> or <literal>\help</literal> <literal>[ <replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable> ]</literal></term>
1575 Gives syntax help on the specified <acronym>SQL</acronym>
1576 command. If <replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable>
1577 is not specified, then <application>psql</application> will list
1578 all the commands for which syntax help is available. If
1579 <replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable> is an
1580 asterisk (<literal>*</literal>), then syntax help on all
1581 <acronym>SQL</acronym> commands is shown.
1586 To simplify typing, commands that consists of several words do
1587 not have to be quoted. Thus it is fine to type <userinput>\help
1588 alter table</userinput>.
1596 <term><literal>\H</literal></term>
1599 Turns on <acronym>HTML</acronym> query output format. If the
1600 <acronym>HTML</acronym> format is already on, it is switched
1601 back to the default aligned text format. This command is for
1602 compatibility and convenience, but see <command>\pset</command>
1603 about setting other output options.
1610 <term><literal>\i <replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable></literal></term>
1613 Reads input from the file <replaceable
1614 class="parameter">filename</replaceable> and executes it as
1615 though it had been typed on the keyboard.
1619 If you want to see the lines on the screen as they are read you
1620 must set the variable <varname>ECHO</varname> to
1621 <literal>all</literal>.
1629 <term><literal>\l</literal> (or <literal>\list</literal>)</term>
1630 <term><literal>\l+</literal> (or <literal>\list+</literal>)</term>
1633 List the names, owners, character set encodings, and access privileges
1634 of all the databases in the server.
1635 If <literal>+</literal> is appended to the command name, database
1636 sizes, default tablespaces, and descriptions are also displayed.
1637 (Size information is only available for databases that the current
1638 user can connect to.)
1645 <term><literal>\lo_export <replaceable class="parameter">loid</replaceable> <replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable></literal></term>
1649 Reads the large object with <acronym>OID</acronym> <replaceable
1650 class="parameter">loid</replaceable> from the database and
1651 writes it to <replaceable
1652 class="parameter">filename</replaceable>. Note that this is
1653 subtly different from the server function
1654 <function>lo_export</function>, which acts with the permissions
1655 of the user that the database server runs as and on the server's
1660 Use <command>\lo_list</command> to find out the large object's
1661 <acronym>OID</acronym>.
1669 <term><literal>\lo_import <replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable> [ <replaceable class="parameter">comment</replaceable> ]</literal></term>
1673 Stores the file into a <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
1674 large object. Optionally, it associates the given
1675 comment with the object. Example:
1677 foo=> <userinput>\lo_import '/home/peter/pictures/photo.xcf' 'a picture of me'</userinput>
1680 The response indicates that the large object received object
1681 ID 152801, which can be used to access the newly-created large
1682 object in the future. For the sake of readability, it is
1683 recommended to always associate a human-readable comment with
1684 every object. Both OIDs and comments can be viewed with the
1685 <command>\lo_list</command> command.
1689 Note that this command is subtly different from the server-side
1690 <function>lo_import</function> because it acts as the local user
1691 on the local file system, rather than the server's user and file
1698 <term><literal>\lo_list</literal></term>
1701 Shows a list of all <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
1702 large objects currently stored in the database,
1703 along with any comments provided for them.
1709 <term><literal>\lo_unlink <replaceable class="parameter">loid</replaceable></literal></term>
1713 Deletes the large object with <acronym>OID</acronym>
1714 <replaceable class="parameter">loid</replaceable> from the
1720 Use <command>\lo_list</command> to find out the large object's
1721 <acronym>OID</acronym>.
1729 <term><literal>\o</literal> [ {<replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable> | <literal>|</literal><replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable>} ]</term>
1733 Saves future query results to the file <replaceable
1734 class="parameter">filename</replaceable> or pipes future results
1735 into a separate Unix shell to execute <replaceable
1736 class="parameter">command</replaceable>. If no arguments are
1737 specified, the query output will be reset to the standard output.
1741 <quote>Query results</quote> includes all tables, command
1742 responses, and notices obtained from the database server, as
1743 well as output of various backslash commands that query the
1744 database (such as <command>\d</command>), but not error
1750 To intersperse text output in between query results, use
1751 <command>\qecho</command>.
1759 <term><literal>\p</literal></term>
1762 Print the current query buffer to the standard output.
1768 <term><literal>\password [ <replaceable class="parameter">username</replaceable> ]</literal></term>
1771 Changes the password of the specified user (by default, the current
1772 user). This command prompts for the new password, encrypts it, and
1773 sends it to the server as an <command>ALTER ROLE</> command. This
1774 makes sure that the new password does not appear in cleartext in the
1775 command history, the server log, or elsewhere.
1781 <term><literal>\prompt [ <replaceable class="parameter">text</replaceable> ] <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></literal></term>
1784 Prompts the user to set variable <replaceable
1785 class="parameter">name</>. An optional prompt, <replaceable
1786 class="parameter">text</>, can be specified. (For multiword
1787 prompts, use single quotes.)
1791 By default, <literal>\prompt</> uses the terminal for input and
1792 output. However, if the <option>-f</> command line switch is
1793 used, <literal>\prompt</> uses standard input and standard output.
1799 <term><literal>\pset <replaceable class="parameter">option</replaceable> [ <replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable> ]</literal></term>
1803 This command sets options affecting the output of query result tables.
1804 <replaceable class="parameter">option</replaceable>
1805 indicates which option is to be set. The semantics of
1806 <replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable> vary depending
1807 on the selected option. For some options, omitting <replaceable
1808 class="parameter">value</replaceable> causes the option to be toggled
1809 or unset, as described under the particular option. If no such
1810 behavior is mentioned, then omitting
1811 <replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable> just results in
1812 the current setting being displayed.
1816 Adjustable printing options are:
1819 <term><literal>border</literal></term>
1822 The <replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable> must be a
1823 number. In general, the higher
1824 the number the more borders and lines the tables will have,
1825 but this depends on the particular format. In
1826 <acronym>HTML</acronym> format, this will translate directly
1827 into the <literal>border=...</literal> attribute; in the
1828 other formats only values 0 (no border), 1 (internal dividing lines),
1829 and 2 (table frame) make sense.
1835 <term><literal>columns</literal></term>
1838 Sets the target width for the <literal>wrapped</> format, and also
1839 the width limit for determining whether output is wide enough to
1841 Zero (the default) causes the target width to be controlled by the
1842 environment variable <envar>COLUMNS</>, or the detected screen width
1843 if <envar>COLUMNS</> is not set.
1844 In addition, if <literal>columns</> is zero then the
1845 <literal>wrapped</> format only affects screen output.
1846 If <literal>columns</> is nonzero then file and pipe output is
1847 wrapped to that width as well.
1853 <term><literal>expanded</literal> (or <literal>x</literal>)</term>
1856 If <replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable> is specified
1857 it must be either <literal>on</literal> or <literal>off</literal>
1858 which will enable or disable expanded mode. If <replaceable
1859 class="parameter">value</replaceable> is omitted the command toggles
1860 between regular and expanded mode.
1861 When expanded mode is enabled, query results
1862 are displayed in two columns, with the column name on the left and
1863 the data on the right. This mode is useful if the data wouldn't fit
1864 on the screen in the normal <quote>horizontal</quote> mode.
1870 <term><literal>fieldsep</literal></term>
1873 Specifies the field separator to be used in unaligned output
1874 format. That way one can create, for example, tab- or
1875 comma-separated output, which other programs might prefer. To
1876 set a tab as field separator, type <literal>\pset fieldsep
1877 '\t'</literal>. The default field separator is
1878 <literal>'|'</literal> (a vertical bar).
1884 <term><literal>footer</literal></term>
1887 If <replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable> is specified
1888 it must be either <literal>on</literal> or <literal>off</literal>
1889 which will enable or disable display of the table footer
1890 (the <literal>(<replaceable>n</> rows)</literal> count).
1891 If <replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable> is omitted the
1892 command toggles footer display on or off.
1898 <term><literal>format</literal></term>
1901 Sets the output format to one of <literal>unaligned</literal>,
1902 <literal>aligned</literal>, <literal>wrapped</literal>,
1903 <literal>html</literal>,
1904 <literal>latex</literal>, or <literal>troff-ms</literal>.
1905 Unique abbreviations are allowed. (That would mean one letter
1910 <literal>unaligned</> format writes all columns of a row on one
1911 line, separated by the currently active field separator. This
1912 is useful for creating output that might be intended to be read
1913 in by other programs (for example, tab-separated or comma-separated
1918 <literal>aligned</literal> format is the standard, human-readable,
1919 nicely formatted text output; this is the default.
1923 <literal>wrapped</> format is like <literal>aligned</> but wraps
1924 wide data values across lines to make the output fit in the target
1925 column width. The target width is determined as described under
1926 the <literal>columns</> option. Note that <application>psql</> will
1927 not attempt to wrap column header titles; therefore,
1928 <literal>wrapped</> format behaves the same as <literal>aligned</>
1929 if the total width needed for column headers exceeds the target.
1933 The <literal>html</>, <literal>latex</>, and <literal>troff-ms</>
1934 formats put out tables that are intended to
1935 be included in documents using the respective mark-up
1936 language. They are not complete documents! (This might not be
1937 so dramatic in <acronym>HTML</acronym>, but in LaTeX you must
1938 have a complete document wrapper.)
1944 <term><literal>linestyle</literal></term>
1947 Sets the border line drawing style to one
1948 of <literal>ascii</literal>, <literal>old-ascii</literal>
1949 or <literal>unicode</literal>.
1950 Unique abbreviations are allowed. (That would mean one
1952 The default setting is <literal>ascii</>.
1953 This option only affects the <literal>aligned</> and
1954 <literal>wrapped</> output formats.
1958 <literal>ascii</literal> style uses plain <acronym>ASCII</acronym>
1959 characters. Newlines in data are shown using
1960 a <literal>+</literal> symbol in the right-hand margin.
1961 When the <literal>wrapped</literal> format wraps data from
1962 one line to the next without a newline character, a dot
1963 (<literal>.</>) is shown in the right-hand margin of the first line,
1964 and again in the left-hand margin of the following line.
1968 <literal>old-ascii</literal> style uses plain <acronym>ASCII</>
1969 characters, using the formatting style used
1970 in <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 8.4 and earlier.
1971 Newlines in data are shown using a <literal>:</literal>
1972 symbol in place of the left-hand column separator.
1973 When the data is wrapped from one line
1974 to the next without a newline character, a <literal>;</>
1975 symbol is used in place of the left-hand column separator.
1979 <literal>unicode</literal> style uses Unicode box-drawing characters.
1980 Newlines in data are shown using a carriage return symbol
1981 in the right-hand margin. When the data is wrapped from one line
1982 to the next without a newline character, an ellipsis symbol
1983 is shown in the right-hand margin of the first line, and
1984 again in the left-hand margin of the following line.
1988 When the <literal>border</> setting is greater than zero,
1989 this option also determines the characters
1990 with which the border lines are drawn.
1991 Plain <acronym>ASCII</acronym> characters work everywhere, but
1992 Unicode characters look nicer on displays that recognize them.
1998 <term><literal>null</literal></term>
2001 Sets the string to be printed in place of a null value.
2002 The default is to print nothing, which can easily be mistaken for
2003 an empty string. For example, one might prefer <literal>\pset null
2010 <term><literal>numericlocale</literal></term>
2013 If <replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable> is specified
2014 it must be either <literal>on</literal> or <literal>off</literal>
2015 which will enable or disable display of a locale-specific character
2016 to separate groups of digits to the left of the decimal marker.
2017 If <replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable> is omitted the
2018 command toggles between regular and locale-specific numeric output.
2024 <term><literal>pager</literal></term>
2027 Controls use of a pager program for query and <application>psql</>
2028 help output. If the environment variable <envar>PAGER</envar>
2029 is set, the output is piped to the specified program.
2030 Otherwise a platform-dependent default (such as
2031 <filename>more</filename>) is used.
2035 When the <literal>pager</> option is <literal>off</>, the pager
2036 program is not used. When the <literal>pager</> option is
2037 <literal>on</>, the pager is used when appropriate, i.e., when the
2038 output is to a terminal and will not fit on the screen.
2039 The <literal>pager</> option can also be set to <literal>always</>,
2040 which causes the pager to be used for all terminal output regardless
2041 of whether it fits on the screen. <literal>\pset pager</>
2042 without a <replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable>
2043 toggles pager use on and off.
2049 <term><literal>recordsep</literal></term>
2052 Specifies the record (line) separator to use in unaligned
2053 output format. The default is a newline character.
2059 <term><literal>tableattr</literal> (or <literal>T</literal>)</term>
2062 Specifies attributes to be placed inside the
2063 <acronym>HTML</acronym> <sgmltag>table</sgmltag> tag in
2064 <literal>html</> output format. This
2065 could for example be <literal>cellpadding</literal> or
2066 <literal>bgcolor</literal>. Note that you probably don't want
2067 to specify <literal>border</literal> here, as that is already
2068 taken care of by <literal>\pset border</literal>.
2070 <replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable> is given,
2071 the table attributes are unset.
2077 <term><literal>title</literal></term>
2080 Sets the table title for any subsequently printed tables. This
2081 can be used to give your output descriptive tags. If no
2082 <replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable> is given,
2089 <term><literal>tuples_only</literal> (or <literal>t</literal>)</term>
2092 If <replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable> is specified
2093 it must be either <literal>on</literal> or <literal>off</literal>
2094 which will enable or disable tuples-only mode.
2095 If <replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable> is omitted the
2096 command toggles between regular and tuples-only output.
2097 Regular output includes extra information such
2098 as column headers, titles, and various footers. In tuples-only
2099 mode, only actual table data is shown.
2107 Illustrations of how these different formats look can be seen in
2108 the <xref linkend="APP-PSQL-examples"
2109 endterm="APP-PSQL-examples-title"> section.
2114 There are various shortcut commands for <command>\pset</command>. See
2115 <command>\a</command>, <command>\C</command>, <command>\H</command>,
2116 <command>\t</command>, <command>\T</command>, and <command>\x</command>.
2122 It is an error to call <command>\pset</command> without any
2123 arguments. In the future this case might show the current status
2124 of all printing options.
2133 <term><literal>\q</literal></term>
2136 Quits the <application>psql</application> program.
2143 <term><literal>\qecho <replaceable class="parameter">text</replaceable> [ ... ] </literal></term>
2146 This command is identical to <command>\echo</command> except
2147 that the output will be written to the query output channel, as
2148 set by <command>\o</command>.
2155 <term><literal>\r</literal></term>
2158 Resets (clears) the query buffer.
2165 <term><literal>\s [ <replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable> ]</literal></term>
2168 Print or save the command line history to <replaceable
2169 class="parameter">filename</replaceable>. If <replaceable
2170 class="parameter">filename</replaceable> is omitted, the history
2171 is written to the standard output. This option is only available
2172 if <application>psql</application> is configured to use the
2173 <acronym>GNU</acronym> <application>Readline</application> library.
2180 <term><literal>\set [ <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable> [ <replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable> [ ... ] ] ]</literal></term>
2184 Sets the internal variable <replaceable
2185 class="parameter">name</replaceable> to <replaceable
2186 class="parameter">value</replaceable> or, if more than one value
2187 is given, to the concatenation of all of them. If no second
2188 argument is given, the variable is just set with no value. To
2189 unset a variable, use the <command>\unset</command> command.
2193 Valid variable names can contain characters, digits, and
2194 underscores. See the section <xref
2195 linkend="APP-PSQL-variables"
2196 endterm="APP-PSQL-variables-title"> below for details.
2197 Variable names are case-sensitive.
2201 Although you are welcome to set any variable to anything you
2202 want, <application>psql</application> treats several variables
2203 as special. They are documented in the section about variables.
2208 This command is totally separate from the <acronym>SQL</acronym>
2209 command <xref linkend="SQL-SET">.
2217 <term><literal>\sf[+] <replaceable class="parameter">function_description</> </literal></term>
2221 This command fetches and shows the definition of the named function,
2222 in the form of a <command>CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION</> command.
2223 The definition is printed to the current query output channel,
2224 as set by <command>\o</command>.
2228 The target function can be specified by name alone, or by name
2229 and arguments, for example <literal>foo(integer, text)</>.
2230 The argument types must be given if there is more
2231 than one function of the same name.
2235 If <literal>+</literal> is appended to the command name, then the
2236 output lines are numbered, with the first line of the function body
2244 <term><literal>\t</literal></term>
2247 Toggles the display of output column name headings and row count
2248 footer. This command is equivalent to <literal>\pset
2249 tuples_only</literal> and is provided for convenience.
2256 <term><literal>\T <replaceable class="parameter">table_options</replaceable></literal></term>
2259 Specifies attributes to be placed within the
2260 <sgmltag>table</sgmltag> tag in <acronym>HTML</acronym>
2261 output format. This command is equivalent to <literal>\pset
2262 tableattr <replaceable
2263 class="parameter">table_options</replaceable></literal>.
2270 <term><literal>\timing [ <replaceable class="parameter">on</replaceable> | <replaceable class="parameter">off</replaceable> ]</literal></term>
2273 Without parameter, toggles a display of how long each SQL statement
2274 takes, in milliseconds. With parameter, sets same.
2281 <term><literal>\w</literal> <replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable></term>
2282 <term><literal>\w</literal> <literal>|</><replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable></term>
2285 Outputs the current query buffer to the file <replaceable
2286 class="parameter">filename</replaceable> or pipes it to the Unix
2287 command <replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable>.
2294 <term><literal>\x</literal></term>
2297 Toggles expanded table formatting mode. As such it is equivalent to
2298 <literal>\pset expanded</literal>.
2305 <term><literal>\z [ <link linkend="APP-PSQL-patterns"><replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable></link> ]</literal></term>
2308 Lists tables, views and sequences with their
2309 associated access privileges.
2310 If a <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> is
2311 specified, only tables, views and sequences whose names match the
2316 This is an alias for <command>\dp</command> (<quote>display
2317 privileges</quote>).
2324 <term><literal>\! [ <replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable> ]</literal></term>
2327 Escapes to a separate Unix shell or executes the Unix command
2328 <replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable>. The
2329 arguments are not further interpreted; the shell will see them
2337 <term><literal>\?</literal></term>
2340 Shows help information about the backslash commands.
2348 <refsect3 id="APP-PSQL-patterns">
2349 <title id="APP-PSQL-patterns-title">Patterns</title>
2352 <primary>patterns</primary>
2353 <secondary>in psql and pg_dump</secondary>
2357 The various <literal>\d</> commands accept a <replaceable
2358 class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> parameter to specify the
2359 object name(s) to be displayed. In the simplest case, a pattern
2360 is just the exact name of the object. The characters within a
2361 pattern are normally folded to lower case, just as in SQL names;
2362 for example, <literal>\dt FOO</> will display the table named
2363 <literal>foo</>. As in SQL names, placing double quotes around
2364 a pattern stops folding to lower case. Should you need to include
2365 an actual double quote character in a pattern, write it as a pair
2366 of double quotes within a double-quote sequence; again this is in
2367 accord with the rules for SQL quoted identifiers. For example,
2368 <literal>\dt "FOO""BAR"</> will display the table named
2369 <literal>FOO"BAR</> (not <literal>foo"bar</>). Unlike the normal
2370 rules for SQL names, you can put double quotes around just part
2371 of a pattern, for instance <literal>\dt FOO"FOO"BAR</> will display
2372 the table named <literal>fooFOObar</>.
2376 Whenever the <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> parameter
2377 is omitted completely, the <literal>\d</> commands display all objects
2378 that are visible in the current schema search path — this is
2379 equivalent to using <literal>*</> as the pattern.
2380 (An object is said to be <firstterm>visible</> if its
2381 containing schema is in the search path and no object of the same
2382 kind and name appears earlier in the search path. This is equivalent to the
2383 statement that the object can be referenced by name without explicit
2384 schema qualification.)
2385 To see all objects in the database regardless of visibility,
2386 use <literal>*.*</> as the pattern.
2390 Within a pattern, <literal>*</> matches any sequence of characters
2391 (including no characters) and <literal>?</> matches any single character.
2392 (This notation is comparable to Unix shell file name patterns.)
2393 For example, <literal>\dt int*</> displays tables whose names
2394 begin with <literal>int</>. But within double quotes, <literal>*</>
2395 and <literal>?</> lose these special meanings and are just matched
2400 A pattern that contains a dot (<literal>.</>) is interpreted as a schema
2401 name pattern followed by an object name pattern. For example,
2402 <literal>\dt foo*.*bar*</> displays all tables whose table name
2403 includes <literal>bar</> that are in schemas whose schema name
2404 starts with <literal>foo</>. When no dot appears, then the pattern
2405 matches only objects that are visible in the current schema search path.
2406 Again, a dot within double quotes loses its special meaning and is matched
2411 Advanced users can use regular-expression notations such as character
2412 classes, for example <literal>[0-9]</> to match any digit. All regular
2413 expression special characters work as specified in
2414 <xref linkend="functions-posix-regexp">, except for <literal>.</> which
2415 is taken as a separator as mentioned above, <literal>*</> which is
2416 translated to the regular-expression notation <literal>.*</>,
2417 <literal>?</> which is translated to <literal>.</>, and
2418 <literal>$</> which is matched literally. You can emulate
2419 these pattern characters at need by writing
2420 <literal>?</> for <literal>.</>,
2421 <literal>(<replaceable class="parameter">R</replaceable>+|)</literal> for
2422 <literal><replaceable class="parameter">R</replaceable>*</literal>, or
2423 <literal>(<replaceable class="parameter">R</replaceable>|)</literal> for
2424 <literal><replaceable class="parameter">R</replaceable>?</literal>.
2425 <literal>$</> is not needed as a regular-expression character since
2426 the pattern must match the whole name, unlike the usual
2427 interpretation of regular expressions (in other words, <literal>$</>
2428 is automatically appended to your pattern). Write <literal>*</> at the
2429 beginning and/or end if you don't wish the pattern to be anchored.
2430 Note that within double quotes, all regular expression special characters
2431 lose their special meanings and are matched literally. Also, the regular
2432 expression special characters are matched literally in operator name
2433 patterns (i.e., the argument of <literal>\do</>).
2439 <title>Advanced Features</title>
2441 <refsect3 id="APP-PSQL-variables">
2442 <title id="APP-PSQL-variables-title">Variables</title>
2445 <application>psql</application> provides variable substitution
2446 features similar to common Unix command shells.
2447 Variables are simply name/value pairs, where the value
2448 can be any string of any length. To set variables, use the
2449 <application>psql</application> meta-command
2450 <command>\set</command>:
2452 testdb=> <userinput>\set foo bar</userinput>
2454 sets the variable <literal>foo</literal> to the value
2455 <literal>bar</literal>. To retrieve the content of the variable, precede
2456 the name with a colon and use it as the argument of any slash
2459 testdb=> <userinput>\echo :foo</userinput>
2466 The arguments of <command>\set</command> are subject to the same
2467 substitution rules as with other commands. Thus you can construct
2468 interesting references such as <literal>\set :foo
2469 'something'</literal> and get <quote>soft links</quote> or
2470 <quote>variable variables</quote> of <productname>Perl</productname>
2471 or <productname><acronym>PHP</acronym></productname> fame,
2472 respectively. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), there is no way to do
2473 anything useful with these constructs. On the other hand,
2474 <literal>\set bar :foo</literal> is a perfectly valid way to copy a
2480 If you call <command>\set</command> without a second argument, the
2481 variable is set, with an empty string as value. To unset (or delete) a
2482 variable, use the command <command>\unset</command>.
2486 <application>psql</application>'s internal variable names can
2487 consist of letters, numbers, and underscores in any order and any
2488 number of them. A number of these variables are treated specially
2489 by <application>psql</application>. They indicate certain option
2490 settings that can be changed at run time by altering the value of
2491 the variable or that represent some state of the application. Although
2492 you can use these variables for any other purpose, this is not
2493 recommended, as the program behavior might grow really strange
2494 really quickly. By convention, all specially treated variables
2495 consist of all upper-case letters (and possibly numbers and
2496 underscores). To ensure maximum compatibility in the future, avoid
2497 using such variable names for your own purposes. A list of all specially
2498 treated variables follows.
2504 <primary>autocommit</primary>
2505 <secondary>psql</secondary>
2507 <term><varname>AUTOCOMMIT</varname></term>
2510 When <literal>on</> (the default), each SQL command is automatically
2511 committed upon successful completion. To postpone commit in this
2512 mode, you must enter a <command>BEGIN</> or <command>START
2513 TRANSACTION</> SQL command. When <literal>off</> or unset, SQL
2514 commands are not committed until you explicitly issue
2515 <command>COMMIT</> or <command>END</>. The autocommit-off
2516 mode works by issuing an implicit <command>BEGIN</> for you, just
2517 before any command that is not already in a transaction block and
2518 is not itself a <command>BEGIN</> or other transaction-control
2519 command, nor a command that cannot be executed inside a transaction
2520 block (such as <command>VACUUM</>).
2525 In autocommit-off mode, you must explicitly abandon any failed
2526 transaction by entering <command>ABORT</> or <command>ROLLBACK</>.
2527 Also keep in mind that if you exit the session
2528 without committing, your work will be lost.
2534 The autocommit-on mode is <productname>PostgreSQL</>'s traditional
2535 behavior, but autocommit-off is closer to the SQL spec. If you
2536 prefer autocommit-off, you might wish to set it in the system-wide
2537 <filename>psqlrc</filename> file or your
2538 <filename>~/.psqlrc</filename> file.
2545 <term><varname>DBNAME</varname></term>
2548 The name of the database you are currently connected to. This is
2549 set every time you connect to a database (including program
2550 start-up), but can be unset.
2556 <term><varname>ECHO</varname></term>
2559 If set to <literal>all</literal>, all lines
2560 entered from the keyboard or from a script are written to the standard output
2561 before they are parsed or executed. To select this behavior on program
2562 start-up, use the switch <option>-a</option>. If set to
2563 <literal>queries</literal>,
2564 <application>psql</application> merely prints all queries as
2565 they are sent to the server. The switch for this is
2566 <option>-e</option>.
2572 <term><varname>ECHO_HIDDEN</varname></term>
2575 When this variable is set and a backslash command queries the
2576 database, the query is first shown. This way you can study the
2577 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> internals and provide
2578 similar functionality in your own programs. (To select this behavior
2579 on program start-up, use the switch <option>-E</option>.) If you set
2580 the variable to the value <literal>noexec</literal>, the queries are
2581 just shown but are not actually sent to the server and executed.
2587 <term><varname>EDITOR_LINENUMBER_SWITCH</varname></term>
2590 When <command>\edit</command> or <command>\ef</command> is used with a
2591 line number argument, this variable specifies the command-line switch
2592 used to pass the line number to the user's editor. For editors such
2593 as <productname>emacs</> or <productname>vi</>, you can simply set
2594 this variable to a plus sign. Include a trailing space in the value
2595 of the variable if there needs to be space between the switch name and
2600 \set EDITOR_LINENUMBER_SWITCH +
2601 \set EDITOR_LINENUMBER_SWITCH '--line '
2608 <term><varname>ENCODING</varname></term>
2611 The current client character set encoding.
2617 <term><varname>FETCH_COUNT</varname></term>
2620 If this variable is set to an integer value > 0,
2621 the results of <command>SELECT</command> queries are fetched
2622 and displayed in groups of that many rows, rather than the
2623 default behavior of collecting the entire result set before
2624 display. Therefore only a
2625 limited amount of memory is used, regardless of the size of
2626 the result set. Settings of 100 to 1000 are commonly used
2627 when enabling this feature.
2628 Keep in mind that when using this feature, a query might
2629 fail after having already displayed some rows.
2633 Although you can use any output format with this feature,
2634 the default <literal>aligned</> format tends to look bad
2635 because each group of <varname>FETCH_COUNT</varname> rows
2636 will be formatted separately, leading to varying column
2637 widths across the row groups. The other output formats work better.
2644 <term><varname>HISTCONTROL</varname></term>
2647 If this variable is set to <literal>ignorespace</literal>,
2648 lines which begin with a space are not entered into the history
2649 list. If set to a value of <literal>ignoredups</literal>, lines
2650 matching the previous history line are not entered. A value of
2651 <literal>ignoreboth</literal> combines the two options. If
2652 unset, or if set to any other value than those above, all lines
2653 read in interactive mode are saved on the history list.
2657 This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from
2658 <application>Bash</application>.
2665 <term><varname>HISTFILE</varname></term>
2668 The file name that will be used to store the history list. The default
2669 value is <filename>~/.psql_history</filename>. For example, putting:
2671 \set HISTFILE ~/.psql_history- :DBNAME
2673 in <filename>~/.psqlrc</filename> will cause
2674 <application>psql</application> to maintain a separate history for
2679 This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from
2680 <application>Bash</application>.
2687 <term><varname>HISTSIZE</varname></term>
2690 The number of commands to store in the command history. The
2691 default value is 500.
2695 This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from
2696 <application>Bash</application>.
2703 <term><varname>HOST</varname></term>
2706 The database server host you are currently connected to. This is
2707 set every time you connect to a database (including program
2708 start-up), but can be unset.
2714 <term><varname>IGNOREEOF</varname></term>
2717 If unset, sending an <acronym>EOF</> character (usually
2718 <keycombo action="simul"><keycap>Control</><keycap>D</></>)
2719 to an interactive session of <application>psql</application>
2720 will terminate the application. If set to a numeric value,
2721 that many <acronym>EOF</> characters are ignored before the
2722 application terminates. If the variable is set but has no
2723 numeric value, the default is 10.
2727 This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from
2728 <application>Bash</application>.
2735 <term><varname>LASTOID</varname></term>
2738 The value of the last affected OID, as returned from an
2739 <command>INSERT</command> or <command>\lo_import</command>
2740 command. This variable is only guaranteed to be valid until
2741 after the result of the next <acronym>SQL</acronym> command has
2749 <primary>rollback</primary>
2750 <secondary>psql</secondary>
2752 <term><varname>ON_ERROR_ROLLBACK</varname></term>
2755 When <literal>on</>, if a statement in a transaction block
2756 generates an error, the error is ignored and the transaction
2757 continues. When <literal>interactive</>, such errors are only
2758 ignored in interactive sessions, and not when reading script
2759 files. When <literal>off</> (the default), a statement in a
2760 transaction block that generates an error aborts the entire
2761 transaction. The on_error_rollback-on mode works by issuing an
2762 implicit <command>SAVEPOINT</> for you, just before each command
2763 that is in a transaction block, and rolls back to the savepoint
2770 <term><varname>ON_ERROR_STOP</varname></term>
2773 By default, if non-interactive scripts encounter an error, such
2774 as a malformed <acronym>SQL</acronym> command or internal
2775 meta-command, processing continues. This has been the
2776 traditional behavior of <application>psql</application> but it
2777 is sometimes not desirable. If this variable is set, script
2778 processing will immediately terminate. If the script was called
2779 from another script it will terminate in the same fashion. If
2780 the outermost script was not called from an interactive
2781 <application>psql</application> session but rather using the
2782 <option>-f</option> option, <application>psql</application> will
2783 return error code 3, to distinguish this case from fatal error
2784 conditions (error code 1).
2790 <term><varname>PORT</varname></term>
2793 The database server port to which you are currently connected.
2794 This is set every time you connect to a database (including
2795 program start-up), but can be unset.
2801 <term><varname>PROMPT1</varname></term>
2802 <term><varname>PROMPT2</varname></term>
2803 <term><varname>PROMPT3</varname></term>
2806 These specify what the prompts <application>psql</application>
2807 issues should look like. See <xref
2808 linkend="APP-PSQL-prompting"
2809 endterm="APP-PSQL-prompting-title"> below.
2815 <term><varname>QUIET</varname></term>
2818 This variable is equivalent to the command line option
2819 <option>-q</option>. It is probably not too useful in
2826 <term><varname>SINGLELINE</varname></term>
2829 This variable is equivalent to the command line option
2830 <option>-S</option>.
2836 <term><varname>SINGLESTEP</varname></term>
2839 This variable is equivalent to the command line option
2840 <option>-s</option>.
2846 <term><varname>USER</varname></term>
2849 The database user you are currently connected as. This is set
2850 every time you connect to a database (including program
2851 start-up), but can be unset.
2857 <term><varname>VERBOSITY</varname></term>
2860 This variable can be set to the values <literal>default</>,
2861 <literal>verbose</>, or <literal>terse</> to control the verbosity
2872 <title><acronym>SQL</acronym> Interpolation</title>
2875 An additional useful feature of <application>psql</application>
2876 variables is that you can substitute (<quote>interpolate</quote>)
2877 them into regular <acronym>SQL</acronym> statements.
2878 <application>psql</application> provides special facilities for
2879 ensuring that values used as SQL literals and identifiers are
2880 properly escaped. The syntax for interpolating a value without
2881 any special escaping is again to prepend the variable name with a colon
2882 (<literal>:</literal>):
2884 testdb=> <userinput>\set foo 'my_table'</userinput>
2885 testdb=> <userinput>SELECT * FROM :foo;</userinput>
2887 would then query the table <literal>my_table</literal>. Note that this
2888 may be unsafe: the value of the variable is copied literally, so it can
2889 even contain unbalanced quotes or backslash commands. You must make sure
2890 that it makes sense where you put it.
2894 When a value is to be used as an SQL literal or identifier, it is
2895 safest to arrange for it to be escaped. To escape the value of
2896 a variable as an SQL literal, write a colon followed by the variable
2897 name in single quotes. To escape the value an SQL identifier, write
2898 a colon followed by the variable name in double quotes. The previous
2899 example would be more safely written this way:
2901 testdb=> <userinput>\set foo 'my_table'</userinput>
2902 testdb=> <userinput>SELECT * FROM :"foo";</userinput>
2904 Variable interpolation will not be performed into quoted
2905 <acronym>SQL</acronym> entities.
2909 One possible use of this mechanism is to
2910 copy the contents of a file into a table column. First load the file into a
2911 variable and then proceed as above:
2913 testdb=> <userinput>\set content `cat my_file.txt`</userinput>
2914 testdb=> <userinput>INSERT INTO my_table VALUES (:'content');</userinput>
2916 (Note that this still won't work if <filename>my_file.txt</filename> contains NUL bytes.
2917 psql does not support embedded NUL bytes in variable values.)
2921 Since colons can legally appear in SQL commands, an apparent attempt
2922 at interpolation (such as <literal>:name</literal>,
2923 <literal>:'name'</literal>, or <literal>:"name"</literal>) is not
2924 changed unless the named variable is currently set. In any case, you
2925 can escape a colon with a backslash to protect it from substitution.
2926 (The colon syntax for variables is standard <acronym>SQL</acronym> for
2927 embedded query languages, such as <application>ECPG</application>.
2928 The colon syntax for array slices and type casts are
2929 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> extensions, hence the
2930 conflict. The colon syntax for escaping a variable's value as an
2931 SQL literal or identifier is a <application>psql</application>
2937 <refsect3 id="APP-PSQL-prompting">
2938 <title id="APP-PSQL-prompting-title">Prompting</title>
2941 The prompts <application>psql</application> issues can be customized
2942 to your preference. The three variables <varname>PROMPT1</varname>,
2943 <varname>PROMPT2</varname>, and <varname>PROMPT3</varname> contain strings
2944 and special escape sequences that describe the appearance of the
2945 prompt. Prompt 1 is the normal prompt that is issued when
2946 <application>psql</application> requests a new command. Prompt 2 is
2947 issued when more input is expected during command input because the
2948 command was not terminated with a semicolon or a quote was not closed.
2949 Prompt 3 is issued when you run an <acronym>SQL</acronym>
2950 <command>COPY</command> command and you are expected to type in the
2951 row values on the terminal.
2955 The value of the selected prompt variable is printed literally,
2956 except where a percent sign (<literal>%</literal>) is encountered.
2957 Depending on the next character, certain other text is substituted
2958 instead. Defined substitutions are:
2962 <term><literal>%M</literal></term>
2965 The full host name (with domain name) of the database server,
2966 or <literal>[local]</literal> if the connection is over a Unix
2968 <literal>[local:<replaceable>/dir/name</replaceable>]</literal>,
2969 if the Unix domain socket is not at the compiled in default
2976 <term><literal>%m</literal></term>
2979 The host name of the database server, truncated at the
2980 first dot, or <literal>[local]</literal> if the connection is
2981 over a Unix domain socket.
2987 <term><literal>%></literal></term>
2988 <listitem><para>The port number at which the database server is listening.</para></listitem>
2992 <term><literal>%n</literal></term>
2995 The database session user name. (The expansion of this
2996 value might change during a database session as the result
2997 of the command <command>SET SESSION
2998 AUTHORIZATION</command>.)
3004 <term><literal>%/</literal></term>
3005 <listitem><para>The name of the current database.</para></listitem>
3009 <term><literal>%~</literal></term>
3010 <listitem><para>Like <literal>%/</literal>, but the output is <literal>~</literal>
3011 (tilde) if the database is your default database.</para></listitem>
3015 <term><literal>%#</literal></term>
3018 If the session user is a database superuser, then a
3019 <literal>#</literal>, otherwise a <literal>></literal>.
3020 (The expansion of this value might change during a database
3021 session as the result of the command <command>SET SESSION
3022 AUTHORIZATION</command>.)
3028 <term><literal>%R</literal></term>
3031 In prompt 1 normally <literal>=</literal>, but <literal>^</literal> if
3032 in single-line mode, and <literal>!</literal> if the session is
3033 disconnected from the database (which can happen if
3034 <command>\connect</command> fails). In prompt 2 the sequence is
3035 replaced by <literal>-</literal>, <literal>*</literal>, a single quote,
3036 a double quote, or a dollar sign, depending on whether
3037 <application>psql</application> expects more input because the
3038 command wasn't terminated yet, because you are inside a
3039 <literal>/* ... */</literal> comment, or because you are inside
3040 a quoted or dollar-escaped string. In prompt 3 the sequence doesn't
3047 <term><literal>%x</literal></term>
3050 Transaction status: an empty string when not in a transaction
3051 block, or <literal>*</> when in a transaction block, or
3052 <literal>!</> when in a failed transaction block, or <literal>?</>
3053 when the transaction state is indeterminate (for example, because
3054 there is no connection).
3060 <term><literal>%</literal><replaceable class="parameter">digits</replaceable></term>
3063 The character with the indicated octal code is substituted.
3069 <term><literal>%:</literal><replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable><literal>:</literal></term>
3072 The value of the <application>psql</application> variable
3073 <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>. See the
3074 section <xref linkend="APP-PSQL-variables"
3075 endterm="APP-PSQL-variables-title"> for details.
3081 <term><literal>%`</literal><replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable><literal>`</literal></term>
3084 The output of <replaceable
3085 class="parameter">command</replaceable>, similar to ordinary
3086 <quote>back-tick</quote> substitution.
3092 <term><literal>%[</literal> ... <literal>%]</literal></term>
3095 Prompts can contain terminal control characters which, for
3096 example, change the color, background, or style of the prompt
3097 text, or change the title of the terminal window. In order for
3098 the line editing features of <application>Readline</application> to work properly, these
3099 non-printing control characters must be designated as invisible
3100 by surrounding them with <literal>%[</literal> and
3101 <literal>%]</literal>. Multiple pairs of these can occur within
3102 the prompt. For example:
3104 testdb=> \set PROMPT1 '%[%033[1;33;40m%]%n@%/%R%[%033[0m%]%# '
3106 results in a boldfaced (<literal>1;</literal>) yellow-on-black
3107 (<literal>33;40</literal>) prompt on VT100-compatible, color-capable
3115 To insert a percent sign into your prompt, write
3116 <literal>%%</literal>. The default prompts are
3117 <literal>'%/%R%# '</literal> for prompts 1 and 2, and
3118 <literal>'>> '</literal> for prompt 3.
3123 This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from
3124 <application>tcsh</application>.
3131 <title>Command-Line Editing</title>
3134 <application>psql</application> supports the <application>Readline</application>
3135 library for convenient line editing and retrieval. The command
3136 history is automatically saved when <application>psql</application>
3137 exits and is reloaded when
3138 <application>psql</application> starts up. Tab-completion is also
3139 supported, although the completion logic makes no claim to be an
3140 <acronym>SQL</acronym> parser. If for some reason you do not like the tab completion, you
3141 can turn it off by putting this in a file named
3142 <filename>.inputrc</filename> in your home directory:
3145 set disable-completion on
3148 (This is not a <application>psql</application> but a
3149 <application>Readline</application> feature. Read its documentation
3150 for further details.)
3158 <title>Environment</title>
3163 <term><envar>COLUMNS</envar></term>
3167 If <literal>\pset columns</> is zero, controls the
3168 width for the <literal>wrapped</> format and width for determining
3169 if wide output requires the pager.
3175 <term><envar>PAGER</envar></term>
3179 If the query results do not fit on the screen, they are piped
3180 through this command. Typical values are
3181 <literal>more</literal> or <literal>less</literal>. The default
3182 is platform-dependent. The use of the pager can be disabled by
3183 using the <command>\pset</command> command.
3189 <term><envar>PGDATABASE</envar></term>
3190 <term><envar>PGHOST</envar></term>
3191 <term><envar>PGPORT</envar></term>
3192 <term><envar>PGUSER</envar></term>
3196 Default connection parameters (see <xref linkend="libpq-envars">).
3202 <term><envar>PSQL_EDITOR</envar></term>
3203 <term><envar>EDITOR</envar></term>
3204 <term><envar>VISUAL</envar></term>
3208 Editor used by the <command>\e</command> command. The variables
3209 are examined in the order listed; the first that is set is used.
3215 <term><envar>SHELL</envar></term>
3219 Command executed by the <command>\!</command> command.
3225 <term><envar>TMPDIR</envar></term>
3229 Directory for storing temporary files. The default is
3230 <filename>/tmp</filename>.
3237 This utility, like most other <productname>PostgreSQL</> utilities,
3238 also uses the environment variables supported by <application>libpq</>
3239 (see <xref linkend="libpq-envars">).
3246 <title>Files</title>
3251 Unless it is passed an <option>-X</option>
3252 or <option>-c</option> option,
3253 <application>psql</application> attempts to
3254 read and execute commands from the system-wide
3255 <filename>psqlrc</filename> file and the user's
3256 <filename>~/.psqlrc</filename> file before starting up.
3257 (On Windows, the user's startup file is named
3258 <filename>%APPDATA%\postgresql\psqlrc.conf</filename>.)
3259 See <filename><replaceable>PREFIX</>/share/psqlrc.sample</>
3260 for information on setting up the system-wide file. It could be used
3261 to set up the client or the server to taste (using the <command>\set
3262 </command> and <command>SET</command> commands).
3268 Both the system-wide <filename>psqlrc</filename> file and the user's
3269 <filename>~/.psqlrc</filename> file can be made version-specific
3270 by appending a dash and the <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
3271 release number, for example <filename>~/.psqlrc-&version;</filename>.
3272 A matching version-specific file will be read in preference to a
3273 non-version-specific file.
3279 The command-line history is stored in the file
3280 <filename>~/.psql_history</filename>, or
3281 <filename>%APPDATA%\postgresql\psql_history</filename> on Windows.
3289 <title>Notes</title>
3294 In an earlier life <application>psql</application> allowed the
3295 first argument of a single-letter backslash command to start
3296 directly after the command, without intervening whitespace.
3297 As of <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 8.4 this is no
3304 <application>psql</application> is only guaranteed to work smoothly
3305 with servers of the same version. That does not mean other combinations
3306 will fail outright, but subtle and not-so-subtle problems might come
3307 up. Backslash commands are particularly likely to fail if the
3308 server is of a newer version than <application>psql</> itself. However,
3309 backslash commands of the <literal>\d</> family should work with
3310 servers of versions back to 7.4, though not necessarily with servers
3311 newer than <application>psql</> itself.
3320 <title>Notes for Windows Users</title>
3323 <application>psql</application> is built as a <quote>console
3324 application</>. Since the Windows console windows use a different
3325 encoding than the rest of the system, you must take special care
3326 when using 8-bit characters within <application>psql</application>.
3327 If <application>psql</application> detects a problematic
3328 console code page, it will warn you at startup. To change the
3329 console code page, two things are necessary:
3334 Set the code page by entering <userinput>cmd.exe /c chcp
3335 1252</userinput>. (1252 is a code page that is appropriate for
3336 German; replace it with your value.) If you are using Cygwin,
3337 you can put this command in <filename>/etc/profile</filename>.
3343 Set the console font to <literal>Lucida Console</>, because the
3344 raster font does not work with the ANSI code page.
3353 <refsect1 id="APP-PSQL-examples">
3354 <title id="APP-PSQL-examples-title">Examples</title>
3357 The first example shows how to spread a command over several lines of
3358 input. Notice the changing prompt:
3360 testdb=> <userinput>CREATE TABLE my_table (</userinput>
3361 testdb(> <userinput> first integer not null default 0,</userinput>
3362 testdb(> <userinput> second text)</userinput>
3363 testdb-> <userinput>;</userinput>
3366 Now look at the table definition again:
3368 testdb=> <userinput>\d my_table</userinput>
3370 Attribute | Type | Modifier
3371 -----------+---------+--------------------
3372 first | integer | not null default 0
3376 Now we change the prompt to something more interesting:
3378 testdb=> <userinput>\set PROMPT1 '%n@%m %~%R%# '</userinput>
3379 peter@localhost testdb=>
3381 Let's assume you have filled the table with data and want to take a
3384 peter@localhost testdb=> SELECT * FROM my_table;
3394 You can display tables in different ways by using the
3395 <command>\pset</command> command:
3397 peter@localhost testdb=> <userinput>\pset border 2</userinput>
3399 peter@localhost testdb=> <userinput>SELECT * FROM my_table;</userinput>
3410 peter@localhost testdb=> <userinput>\pset border 0</userinput>
3412 peter@localhost testdb=> <userinput>SELECT * FROM my_table;</userinput>
3421 peter@localhost testdb=> <userinput>\pset border 1</userinput>
3423 peter@localhost testdb=> <userinput>\pset format unaligned</userinput>
3424 Output format is unaligned.
3425 peter@localhost testdb=> <userinput>\pset fieldsep ","</userinput>
3426 Field separator is ",".
3427 peter@localhost testdb=> <userinput>\pset tuples_only</userinput>
3428 Showing only tuples.
3429 peter@localhost testdb=> <userinput>SELECT second, first FROM my_table;</userinput>
3435 Alternatively, use the short commands:
3437 peter@localhost testdb=> <userinput>\a \t \x</userinput>
3438 Output format is aligned.
3440 Expanded display is on.
3441 peter@localhost testdb=> <userinput>SELECT * FROM my_table;</userinput>