1PSQL(1) PostgreSQL 15.4 Documentation PSQL(1)
2
6 psql - PostgreSQL interactive terminal
7
9 psql [option...] [dbname [username]]
10
12 psql is a terminal-based front-end to PostgreSQL. It enables you to
13 type in queries interactively, issue them to PostgreSQL, and see the
14 query results. Alternatively, input can be from a file or from command
15 line arguments. In addition, psql provides a number of meta-commands
16 and various shell-like features to facilitate writing scripts and
17 automating a wide variety of tasks.
18
20 -a
21 --echo-all
22 Print all nonempty input lines to standard output as they are read.
23 (This does not apply to lines read interactively.) This is
24 equivalent to setting the variable ECHO to all.
25 -A
27 --no-align
28 Switches to unaligned output mode. (The default output mode is
29 aligned.) This is equivalent to \pset format unaligned.
30 -b
32 --echo-errors
33 Print failed SQL commands to standard error output. This is
34 equivalent to setting the variable ECHO to errors.
35 -c command
37 --command=command
38 Specifies that psql is to execute the given command string,
39 command. This option can be repeated and combined in any order with
40 the -f option. When either -c or -f is specified, psql does not
41 read commands from standard input; instead it terminates after
42 processing all the -c and -f options in sequence.
43 command must be either a command string that is completely parsable
45 by the server (i.e., it contains no psql-specific features), or a
46 single backslash command. Thus you cannot mix SQL and psql
47 meta-commands within a -c option. To achieve that, you could use
48 repeated -c options or pipe the string into psql, for example:
49 psql -c '\x' -c 'SELECT * FROM foo;'
51 or
53 echo '\x \\ SELECT * FROM foo;' | psql
55 (\\ is the separator meta-command.)
57 Each SQL command string passed to -c is sent to the server as a
59 single request. Because of this, the server executes it as a single
60 transaction even if the string contains multiple SQL commands,
61 unless there are explicit BEGIN/COMMIT commands included in the
62 string to divide it into multiple transactions. (See
63 Section 55.2.2.1 for more details about how the server handles
64 multi-query strings.)
65 If having several commands executed in one transaction is not
67 desired, use repeated -c commands or feed multiple commands to
68 psql's standard input, either using echo as illustrated above, or
69 via a shell here-document, for example:
70 psql <<EOF
72 \x
73 SELECT * FROM foo;
74 EOF
75 --csv
77 Switches to CSV (Comma-Separated Values) output mode. This is
78 equivalent to \pset format csv.
79 -d dbname
81 --dbname=dbname
82 Specifies the name of the database to connect to. This is
83 equivalent to specifying dbname as the first non-option argument on
84 the command line. The dbname can be a connection string. If so,
85 connection string parameters will override any conflicting command
86 line options.
87 -e
89 --echo-queries
90 Copy all SQL commands sent to the server to standard output as
91 well. This is equivalent to setting the variable ECHO to queries.
92 -E
94 --echo-hidden
95 Echo the actual queries generated by \d and other backslash
96 commands. You can use this to study psql's internal operations.
97 This is equivalent to setting the variable ECHO_HIDDEN to on.
98 -f filename
100 --file=filename
101 Read commands from the file filename, rather than standard input.
102 This option can be repeated and combined in any order with the -c
103 option. When either -c or -f is specified, psql does not read
104 commands from standard input; instead it terminates after
105 processing all the -c and -f options in sequence. Except for that,
106 this option is largely equivalent to the meta-command \i.
107 If filename is - (hyphen), then standard input is read until an EOF
109 indication or \q meta-command. This can be used to intersperse
110 interactive input with input from files. Note however that Readline
111 is not used in this case (much as if -n had been specified).
112 Using this option is subtly different from writing psql < filename.
114 In general, both will do what you expect, but using -f enables some
115 nice features such as error messages with line numbers. There is
116 also a slight chance that using this option will reduce the
117 start-up overhead. On the other hand, the variant using the shell's
118 input redirection is (in theory) guaranteed to yield exactly the
119 same output you would have received had you entered everything by
120 hand.
121 -F separator
123 --field-separator=separator
124 Use separator as the field separator for unaligned output. This is
125 equivalent to \pset fieldsep or \f.
126 -h hostname
128 --host=hostname
129 Specifies the host name of the machine on which the server is
130 running. If the value begins with a slash, it is used as the
131 directory for the Unix-domain socket.
132 -H
134 --html
135 Switches to HTML output mode. This is equivalent to \pset format
136 html or the \H command.
137 -l
139 --list
140 List all available databases, then exit. Other non-connection
141 options are ignored. This is similar to the meta-command \list.
142 When this option is used, psql will connect to the database
144 postgres, unless a different database is named on the command line
145 (option -d or non-option argument, possibly via a service entry,
146 but not via an environment variable).
147 -L filename
149 --log-file=filename
150 Write all query output into file filename, in addition to the
151 normal output destination.
152 -n
154 --no-readline
155 Do not use Readline for line editing and do not use the command
156 history (see the section called “Command-Line Editing” below).
157 -o filename
159 --output=filename
160 Put all query output into file filename. This is equivalent to the
161 command \o.
162 -p port
164 --port=port
165 Specifies the TCP port or the local Unix-domain socket file
166 extension on which the server is listening for connections.
167 Defaults to the value of the PGPORT environment variable or, if not
168 set, to the port specified at compile time, usually 5432.
169 -P assignment
171 --pset=assignment
172 Specifies printing options, in the style of \pset. Note that here
173 you have to separate name and value with an equal sign instead of a
174 space. For example, to set the output format to LaTeX, you could
175 write -P format=latex.
176 -q
178 --quiet
179 Specifies that psql should do its work quietly. By default, it
180 prints welcome messages and various informational output. If this
181 option is used, none of this happens. This is useful with the -c
182 option. This is equivalent to setting the variable QUIET to on.
183 -R separator
185 --record-separator=separator
186 Use separator as the record separator for unaligned output. This is
187 equivalent to \pset recordsep.
188 -s
190 --single-step
191 Run in single-step mode. That means the user is prompted before
192 each command is sent to the server, with the option to cancel
193 execution as well. Use this to debug scripts.
194 -S
196 --single-line
197 Runs in single-line mode where a newline terminates an SQL command,
198 as a semicolon does.
199 Note
201 This mode is provided for those who insist on it, but you are
202 not necessarily encouraged to use it. In particular, if you mix
203 SQL and meta-commands on a line the order of execution might
204 not always be clear to the inexperienced user.
205 -t
207 --tuples-only
208 Turn off printing of column names and result row count footers,
209 etc. This is equivalent to \t or \pset tuples_only.
210 -T table_options
212 --table-attr=table_options
213 Specifies options to be placed within the HTML table tag. See \pset
214 tableattr for details.
215 -U username
217 --username=username
218 Connect to the database as the user username instead of the
219 default. (You must have permission to do so, of course.)
220 -v assignment
222 --set=assignment
223 --variable=assignment
224 Perform a variable assignment, like the \set meta-command. Note
225 that you must separate name and value, if any, by an equal sign on
226 the command line. To unset a variable, leave off the equal sign. To
227 set a variable with an empty value, use the equal sign but leave
228 off the value. These assignments are done during command line
229 processing, so variables that reflect connection state will get
230 overwritten later.
231 -V
233 --version
234 Print the psql version and exit.
235 -w
237 --no-password
238 Never issue a password prompt. If the server requires password
239 authentication and a password is not available from other sources
240 such as a .pgpass file, the connection attempt will fail. This
241 option can be useful in batch jobs and scripts where no user is
242 present to enter a password.
243 Note that this option will remain set for the entire session, and
245 so it affects uses of the meta-command \connect as well as the
246 initial connection attempt.
247 -W
249 --password
250 Force psql to prompt for a password before connecting to a
251 database, even if the password will not be used.
252 If the server requires password authentication and a password is
254 not available from other sources such as a .pgpass file, psql will
255 prompt for a password in any case. However, psql will waste a
256 connection attempt finding out that the server wants a password. In
257 some cases it is worth typing -W to avoid the extra connection
258 attempt.
259 Note that this option will remain set for the entire session, and
261 so it affects uses of the meta-command \connect as well as the
262 initial connection attempt.
263 -x
265 --expanded
266 Turn on the expanded table formatting mode. This is equivalent to
267 \x or \pset expanded.
268 -X,
270 --no-psqlrc
271 Do not read the start-up file (neither the system-wide psqlrc file
272 nor the user's ~/.psqlrc file).
273 -z
275 --field-separator-zero
276 Set the field separator for unaligned output to a zero byte. This
277 is equivalent to \pset fieldsep_zero.
278 -0
280 --record-separator-zero
281 Set the record separator for unaligned output to a zero byte. This
282 is useful for interfacing, for example, with xargs -0. This is
283 equivalent to \pset recordsep_zero.
284 -1
286 --single-transaction
287 This option can only be used in combination with one or more -c
288 and/or -f options. It causes psql to issue a BEGIN command before
289 the first such option and a COMMIT command after the last one,
290 thereby wrapping all the commands into a single transaction. If any
291 of the commands fails and the variable ON_ERROR_STOP was set, a
292 ROLLBACK command is sent instead. This ensures that either all the
293 commands complete successfully, or no changes are applied.
294 If the commands themselves contain BEGIN, COMMIT, or ROLLBACK, this
296 option will not have the desired effects. Also, if an individual
297 command cannot be executed inside a transaction block, specifying
298 this option will cause the whole transaction to fail.
299 -?
301 --help[=topic]
302 Show help about psql and exit. The optional topic parameter
303 (defaulting to options) selects which part of psql is explained:
304 commands describes psql's backslash commands; options describes the
305 command-line options that can be passed to psql; and variables
306 shows help about psql configuration variables.
307
309 psql returns 0 to the shell if it finished normally, 1 if a fatal error
310 of its own occurs (e.g., out of memory, file not found), 2 if the
311 connection to the server went bad and the session was not interactive,
312 and 3 if an error occurred in a script and the variable ON_ERROR_STOP
313 was set.
314
316 Connecting to a Database
317 psql is a regular PostgreSQL client application. In order to connect to
318 a database you need to know the name of your target database, the host
319 name and port number of the server, and what user name you want to
320 connect as. psql can be told about those parameters via command line
321 options, namely -d, -h, -p, and -U respectively. If an argument is
322 found that does not belong to any option it will be interpreted as the
323 database name (or the user name, if the database name is already
324 given). Not all of these options are required; there are useful
325 defaults. If you omit the host name, psql will connect via a
326 Unix-domain socket to a server on the local host, or via TCP/IP to
327 localhost on machines that don't have Unix-domain sockets. The default
328 port number is determined at compile time. Since the database server
329 uses the same default, you will not have to specify the port in most
330 cases. The default user name is your operating-system user name, as is
331 the default database name. Note that you cannot just connect to any
332 database under any user name. Your database administrator should have
333 informed you about your access rights.
334 When the defaults aren't quite right, you can save yourself some typing
336 by setting the environment variables PGDATABASE, PGHOST, PGPORT and/or
337 PGUSER to appropriate values. (For additional environment variables,
338 see Section 34.15.) It is also convenient to have a ~/.pgpass file to
339 avoid regularly having to type in passwords. See Section 34.16 for more
340 information.
341 An alternative way to specify connection parameters is in a conninfo
343 string or a URI, which is used instead of a database name. This
344 mechanism give you very wide control over the connection. For example:
345 $ psql "service=myservice sslmode=require"
347 $ psql postgresql://dbmaster:5433/mydb?sslmode=require
348 This way you can also use LDAP for connection parameter lookup as
350 described in Section 34.18. See Section 34.1.2 for more information on
351 all the available connection options.
352 If the connection could not be made for any reason (e.g., insufficient
354 privileges, server is not running on the targeted host, etc.), psql
355 will return an error and terminate.
356 If both standard input and standard output are a terminal, then psql
358 sets the client encoding to “auto”, which will detect the appropriate
359 client encoding from the locale settings (LC_CTYPE environment variable
360 on Unix systems). If this doesn't work out as expected, the client
361 encoding can be overridden using the environment variable
362 PGCLIENTENCODING.
363 Entering SQL Commands
365 In normal operation, psql provides a prompt with the name of the
366 database to which psql is currently connected, followed by the string
367 =>. For example:
368 $ psql testdb
370 psql (15.4)
371 Type "help" for help.
372 testdb=>
374 At the prompt, the user can type in SQL commands. Ordinarily, input
376 lines are sent to the server when a command-terminating semicolon is
377 reached. An end of line does not terminate a command. Thus commands can
378 be spread over several lines for clarity. If the command was sent and
379 executed without error, the results of the command are displayed on the
380 screen.
381 If untrusted users have access to a database that has not adopted a
383 secure schema usage pattern, begin your session by removing
384 publicly-writable schemas from search_path. One can add
385 options=-csearch_path= to the connection string or issue SELECT
386 pg_catalog.set_config('search_path', '', false) before other SQL
387 commands. This consideration is not specific to psql; it applies to
388 every interface for executing arbitrary SQL commands.
389 Whenever a command is executed, psql also polls for asynchronous
391 notification events generated by LISTEN and NOTIFY.
392 While C-style block comments are passed to the server for processing
394 and removal, SQL-standard comments are removed by psql.
395 Meta-Commands
397 Anything you enter in psql that begins with an unquoted backslash is a
398 psql meta-command that is processed by psql itself. These commands make
399 psql more useful for administration or scripting. Meta-commands are
400 often called slash or backslash commands.
401 The format of a psql command is the backslash, followed immediately by
403 a command verb, then any arguments. The arguments are separated from
404 the command verb and each other by any number of whitespace characters.
405 To include whitespace in an argument you can quote it with single
407 quotes. To include a single quote in an argument, write two single
408 quotes within single-quoted text. Anything contained in single quotes
409 is furthermore subject to C-like substitutions for \n (new line), \t
410 (tab), \b (backspace), \r (carriage return), \f (form feed), \digits
411 (octal), and \xdigits (hexadecimal). A backslash preceding any other
412 character within single-quoted text quotes that single character,
413 whatever it is.
414 If an unquoted colon (:) followed by a psql variable name appears
416 within an argument, it is replaced by the variable's value, as
417 described in SQL Interpolation below. The forms :'variable_name' and
418 :"variable_name" described there work as well. The :{?variable_name}
419 syntax allows testing whether a variable is defined. It is substituted
420 by TRUE or FALSE. Escaping the colon with a backslash protects it from
421 substitution.
422 Within an argument, text that is enclosed in backquotes (`) is taken as
424 a command line that is passed to the shell. The output of the command
425 (with any trailing newline removed) replaces the backquoted text.
426 Within the text enclosed in backquotes, no special quoting or other
427 processing occurs, except that appearances of :variable_name where
428 variable_name is a psql variable name are replaced by the variable's
429 value. Also, appearances of :'variable_name' are replaced by the
430 variable's value suitably quoted to become a single shell command
431 argument. (The latter form is almost always preferable, unless you are
432 very sure of what is in the variable.) Because carriage return and line
433 feed characters cannot be safely quoted on all platforms, the
434 :'variable_name' form prints an error message and does not substitute
435 the variable value when such characters appear in the value.
436 Some commands take an SQL identifier (such as a table name) as
438 argument. These arguments follow the syntax rules of SQL: Unquoted
439 letters are forced to lowercase, while double quotes (") protect
440 letters from case conversion and allow incorporation of whitespace into
441 the identifier. Within double quotes, paired double quotes reduce to a
442 single double quote in the resulting name. For example, FOO"BAR"BAZ is
443 interpreted as fooBARbaz, and "A weird"" name" becomes A weird" name.
444 Parsing for arguments stops at the end of the line, or when another
446 unquoted backslash is found. An unquoted backslash is taken as the
447 beginning of a new meta-command. The special sequence \\ (two
448 backslashes) marks the end of arguments and continues parsing SQL
449 commands, if any. That way SQL and psql commands can be freely mixed on
450 a line. But in any case, the arguments of a meta-command cannot
451 continue beyond the end of the line.
452 Many of the meta-commands act on the current query buffer. This is
454 simply a buffer holding whatever SQL command text has been typed but
455 not yet sent to the server for execution. This will include previous
456 input lines as well as any text appearing before the meta-command on
457 the same line.
458 The following meta-commands are defined:
460 \a
462 If the current table output format is unaligned, it is switched to
463 aligned. If it is not unaligned, it is set to unaligned. This
464 command is kept for backwards compatibility. See \pset for a more
465 general solution.
466 \c or \connect [ -reuse-previous=on|off ] [ dbname [ username ] [ host
468 ] [ port ] | conninfo ]
469 Establishes a new connection to a PostgreSQL server. The connection
470 parameters to use can be specified either using a positional syntax
471 (one or more of database name, user, host, and port), or using a
472 conninfo connection string as detailed in Section 34.1.1. If no
473 arguments are given, a new connection is made using the same
474 parameters as before.
475 Specifying any of dbname, username, host or port as - is equivalent
477 to omitting that parameter.
478 The new connection can re-use connection parameters from the
480 previous connection; not only database name, user, host, and port,
481 but other settings such as sslmode. By default, parameters are
482 re-used in the positional syntax, but not when a conninfo string is
483 given. Passing a first argument of -reuse-previous=on or
484 -reuse-previous=off overrides that default. If parameters are
485 re-used, then any parameter not explicitly specified as a
486 positional parameter or in the conninfo string is taken from the
487 existing connection's parameters. An exception is that if the host
488 setting is changed from its previous value using the positional
489 syntax, any hostaddr setting present in the existing connection's
490 parameters is dropped. Also, any password used for the existing
491 connection will be re-used only if the user, host, and port
492 settings are not changed. When the command neither specifies nor
493 reuses a particular parameter, the libpq default is used.
494 If the new connection is successfully made, the previous connection
496 is closed. If the connection attempt fails (wrong user name, access
497 denied, etc.), the previous connection will be kept if psql is in
498 interactive mode. But when executing a non-interactive script, the
499 old connection is closed and an error is reported. That may or may
500 not terminate the script; if it does not, all database-accessing
501 commands will fail until another \connect command is successfully
502 executed. This distinction was chosen as a user convenience against
503 typos on the one hand, and a safety mechanism that scripts are not
504 accidentally acting on the wrong database on the other hand. Note
505 that whenever a \connect command attempts to re-use parameters, the
506 values re-used are those of the last successful connection, not of
507 any failed attempts made subsequently. However, in the case of a
508 non-interactive \connect failure, no parameters are allowed to be
509 re-used later, since the script would likely be expecting the
510 values from the failed \connect to be re-used.
511 Examples:
513 => \c mydb myuser host.dom 6432
515 => \c service=foo
516 => \c "host=localhost port=5432 dbname=mydb connect_timeout=10 sslmode=disable"
517 => \c -reuse-previous=on sslmode=require -- changes only sslmode
518 => \c postgresql://tom@localhost/mydb?application_name=myapp
519 \C [ title ]
521 Sets the title of any tables being printed as the result of a query
522 or unset any such title. This command is equivalent to \pset title
523 title. (The name of this command derives from “caption”, as it was
524 previously only used to set the caption in an HTML table.)
525 \cd [ directory ]
527 Changes the current working directory to directory. Without
528 argument, changes to the current user's home directory.
529 Tip
531 To print your current working directory, use \! pwd.
532 \conninfo
534 Outputs information about the current database connection.
535 \copy { table [ ( column_list ) ] } from { 'filename' | program
537 'command' | stdin | pstdin } [ [ with ] ( option [, ...] ) ] [ where
538 condition ]
539 \copy { table [ ( column_list ) ] | ( query ) } to { 'filename' |
540 program 'command' | stdout | pstdout } [ [ with ] ( option [, ...] ) ]
541 Performs a frontend (client) copy. This is an operation that runs
542 an SQL COPY command, but instead of the server reading or writing
543 the specified file, psql reads or writes the file and routes the
544 data between the server and the local file system. This means that
545 file accessibility and privileges are those of the local user, not
546 the server, and no SQL superuser privileges are required.
547 When program is specified, command is executed by psql and the data
549 passed from or to command is routed between the server and the
550 client. Again, the execution privileges are those of the local
551 user, not the server, and no SQL superuser privileges are required.
552 For \copy ... from stdin, data rows are read from the same source
554 that issued the command, continuing until \. is read or the stream
555 reaches EOF. This option is useful for populating tables in-line
556 within an SQL script file. For \copy ... to stdout, output is sent
557 to the same place as psql command output, and the COPY count
558 command status is not printed (since it might be confused with a
559 data row). To read/write psql's standard input or output regardless
560 of the current command source or \o option, write from pstdin or to
561 pstdout.
562 The syntax of this command is similar to that of the SQL COPY
564 command. All options other than the data source/destination are as
565 specified for COPY. Because of this, special parsing rules apply to
566 the \copy meta-command. Unlike most other meta-commands, the entire
567 remainder of the line is always taken to be the arguments of \copy,
568 and neither variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are
569 performed in the arguments.
570 Tip
572 Another way to obtain the same result as \copy ... to is to use
573 the SQL COPY ... TO STDOUT command and terminate it with \g
574 filename or \g |program. Unlike \copy, this method allows the
575 command to span multiple lines; also, variable interpolation
576 and backquote expansion can be used.
577 Tip
579 These operations are not as efficient as the SQL COPY command
580 with a file or program data source or destination, because all
581 data must pass through the client/server connection. For large
582 amounts of data the SQL command might be preferable.
583 \copyright
585 Shows the copyright and distribution terms of PostgreSQL.
586 \crosstabview [ colV [ colH [ colD [ sortcolH ] ] ] ]
588 Executes the current query buffer (like \g) and shows the results
589 in a crosstab grid. The query must return at least three columns.
590 The output column identified by colV becomes a vertical header and
591 the output column identified by colH becomes a horizontal header.
592 colD identifies the output column to display within the grid.
593 sortcolH identifies an optional sort column for the horizontal
594 header.
595 Each column specification can be a column number (starting at 1) or
597 a column name. The usual SQL case folding and quoting rules apply
598 to column names. If omitted, colV is taken as column 1 and colH as
599 column 2. colH must differ from colV. If colD is not specified,
600 then there must be exactly three columns in the query result, and
601 the column that is neither colV nor colH is taken to be colD.
602 The vertical header, displayed as the leftmost column, contains the
604 values found in column colV, in the same order as in the query
605 results, but with duplicates removed.
606 The horizontal header, displayed as the first row, contains the
608 values found in column colH, with duplicates removed. By default,
609 these appear in the same order as in the query results. But if the
610 optional sortcolH argument is given, it identifies a column whose
611 values must be integer numbers, and the values from colH will
612 appear in the horizontal header sorted according to the
613 corresponding sortcolH values.
614 Inside the crosstab grid, for each distinct value x of colH and
616 each distinct value y of colV, the cell located at the intersection
617 (x,y) contains the value of the colD column in the query result row
618 for which the value of colH is x and the value of colV is y. If
619 there is no such row, the cell is empty. If there are multiple such
620 rows, an error is reported.
621 \d[S+] [ pattern ]
623 For each relation (table, view, materialized view, index, sequence,
624 or foreign table) or composite type matching the pattern, show all
625 columns, their types, the tablespace (if not the default) and any
626 special attributes such as NOT NULL or defaults. Associated
627 indexes, constraints, rules, and triggers are also shown. For
628 foreign tables, the associated foreign server is shown as well.
629 (“Matching the pattern” is defined in Patterns below.)
630 For some types of relation, \d shows additional information for
632 each column: column values for sequences, indexed expressions for
633 indexes, and foreign data wrapper options for foreign tables.
634 The command form \d+ is identical, except that more information is
636 displayed: any comments associated with the columns of the table
637 are shown, as is the presence of OIDs in the table, the view
638 definition if the relation is a view, a non-default replica
639 identity setting and the access method name if the relation has an
640 access method.
641 By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a pattern
643 or the S modifier to include system objects.
644 Note
646 If \d is used without a pattern argument, it is equivalent to
647 \dtvmsE which will show a list of all visible tables, views,
648 materialized views, sequences and foreign tables. This is
649 purely a convenience measure.
650 \da[S] [ pattern ]
652 Lists aggregate functions, together with their return type and the
653 data types they operate on. If pattern is specified, only
654 aggregates whose names match the pattern are shown. By default,
655 only user-created objects are shown; supply a pattern or the S
656 modifier to include system objects.
657 \dA[+] [ pattern ]
659 Lists access methods. If pattern is specified, only access methods
660 whose names match the pattern are shown. If + is appended to the
661 command name, each access method is listed with its associated
662 handler function and description.
663 \dAc[+] [access-method-pattern [input-type-pattern]]
665 Lists operator classes (see Section 38.16.1). If
666 access-method-pattern is specified, only operator classes
667 associated with access methods whose names match that pattern are
668 listed. If input-type-pattern is specified, only operator classes
669 associated with input types whose names match that pattern are
670 listed. If + is appended to the command name, each operator class
671 is listed with its associated operator family and owner.
672 \dAf[+] [access-method-pattern [input-type-pattern]]
674 Lists operator families (see Section 38.16.5). If
675 access-method-pattern is specified, only operator families
676 associated with access methods whose names match that pattern are
677 listed. If input-type-pattern is specified, only operator families
678 associated with input types whose names match that pattern are
679 listed. If + is appended to the command name, each operator family
680 is listed with its owner.
681 \dAo[+] [access-method-pattern [operator-family-pattern]]
683 Lists operators associated with operator families (see
684 Section 38.16.2). If access-method-pattern is specified, only
685 members of operator families associated with access methods whose
686 names match that pattern are listed. If operator-family-pattern is
687 specified, only members of operator families whose names match that
688 pattern are listed. If + is appended to the command name, each
689 operator is listed with its sort operator family (if it is an
690 ordering operator).
691 \dAp[+] [access-method-pattern [operator-family-pattern]]
693 Lists support functions associated with operator families (see
694 Section 38.16.3). If access-method-pattern is specified, only
695 functions of operator families associated with access methods whose
696 names match that pattern are listed. If operator-family-pattern is
697 specified, only functions of operator families whose names match
698 that pattern are listed. If + is appended to the command name,
699 functions are displayed verbosely, with their actual parameter
700 lists.
701 \db[+] [ pattern ]
703 Lists tablespaces. If pattern is specified, only tablespaces whose
704 names match the pattern are shown. If + is appended to the command
705 name, each tablespace is listed with its associated options,
706 on-disk size, permissions and description.
707 \dc[S+] [ pattern ]
709 Lists conversions between character-set encodings. If pattern is
710 specified, only conversions whose names match the pattern are
711 listed. By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
712 pattern or the S modifier to include system objects. If + is
713 appended to the command name, each object is listed with its
714 associated description.
715 \dconfig[+] [ pattern ]
717 Lists server configuration parameters and their values. If pattern
718 is specified, only parameters whose names match the pattern are
719 listed. Without a pattern, only parameters that are set to
720 non-default values are listed. (Use \dconfig * to see all
721 parameters.) If + is appended to the command name, each parameter
722 is listed with its data type, context in which the parameter can be
723 set, and access privileges (if non-default access privileges have
724 been granted).
725 \dC[+] [ pattern ]
727 Lists type casts. If pattern is specified, only casts whose source
728 or target types match the pattern are listed. If + is appended to
729 the command name, each object is listed with its associated
730 description.
731 \dd[S] [ pattern ]
733 Shows the descriptions of objects of type constraint, operator
734 class, operator family, rule, and trigger. All other comments may
735 be viewed by the respective backslash commands for those object
736 types.
737 \dd displays descriptions for objects matching the pattern, or of
739 visible objects of the appropriate type if no argument is given.
740 But in either case, only objects that have a description are
741 listed. By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
742 pattern or the S modifier to include system objects.
743 Descriptions for objects can be created with the COMMENT SQL
745 command.
746 \dD[S+] [ pattern ]
748 Lists domains. If pattern is specified, only domains whose names
749 match the pattern are shown. By default, only user-created objects
750 are shown; supply a pattern or the S modifier to include system
751 objects. If + is appended to the command name, each object is
752 listed with its associated permissions and description.
753 \ddp [ pattern ]
755 Lists default access privilege settings. An entry is shown for each
756 role (and schema, if applicable) for which the default privilege
757 settings have been changed from the built-in defaults. If pattern
758 is specified, only entries whose role name or schema name matches
759 the pattern are listed.
760 The ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES command is used to set default access
762 privileges. The meaning of the privilege display is explained in
763 Section 5.7.
764 \dE[S+] [ pattern ]
766 \di[S+] [ pattern ]
767 \dm[S+] [ pattern ]
768 \ds[S+] [ pattern ]
769 \dt[S+] [ pattern ]
770 \dv[S+] [ pattern ]
771 In this group of commands, the letters E, i, m, s, t, and v stand
772 for foreign table, index, materialized view, sequence, table, and
773 view, respectively. You can specify any or all of these letters, in
774 any order, to obtain a listing of objects of these types. For
775 example, \dti lists tables and indexes. If + is appended to the
776 command name, each object is listed with its persistence status
777 (permanent, temporary, or unlogged), physical size on disk, and
778 associated description if any. If pattern is specified, only
779 objects whose names match the pattern are listed. By default, only
780 user-created objects are shown; supply a pattern or the S modifier
781 to include system objects.
782 \des[+] [ pattern ]
784 Lists foreign servers (mnemonic: “external servers”). If pattern is
785 specified, only those servers whose name matches the pattern are
786 listed. If the form \des+ is used, a full description of each
787 server is shown, including the server's access privileges, type,
788 version, options, and description.
789 \det[+] [ pattern ]
791 Lists foreign tables (mnemonic: “external tables”). If pattern is
792 specified, only entries whose table name or schema name matches the
793 pattern are listed. If the form \det+ is used, generic options and
794 the foreign table description are also displayed.
795 \deu[+] [ pattern ]
797 Lists user mappings (mnemonic: “external users”). If pattern is
798 specified, only those mappings whose user names match the pattern
799 are listed. If the form \deu+ is used, additional information about
800 each mapping is shown.
801 Caution
803 \deu+ might also display the user name and password of the
804 remote user, so care should be taken not to disclose them.
805 \dew[+] [ pattern ]
807 Lists foreign-data wrappers (mnemonic: “external wrappers”). If
808 pattern is specified, only those foreign-data wrappers whose name
809 matches the pattern are listed. If the form \dew+ is used, the
810 access privileges, options, and description of the foreign-data
811 wrapper are also shown.
812 \df[anptwS+] [ pattern [ arg_pattern ... ] ]
814 Lists functions, together with their result data types, argument
815 data types, and function types, which are classified as “agg”
816 (aggregate), “normal”, “procedure”, “trigger”, or “window”. To
817 display only functions of specific type(s), add the corresponding
818 letters a, n, p, t, or w to the command. If pattern is specified,
819 only functions whose names match the pattern are shown. Any
820 additional arguments are type-name patterns, which are matched to
821 the type names of the first, second, and so on arguments of the
822 function. (Matching functions can have more arguments than what you
823 specify. To prevent that, write a dash - as the last arg_pattern.)
824 By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a pattern
825 or the S modifier to include system objects. If the form \df+ is
826 used, additional information about each function is shown,
827 including volatility, parallel safety, owner, security
828 classification, access privileges, language, source code and
829 description.
830 \dF[+] [ pattern ]
832 Lists text search configurations. If pattern is specified, only
833 configurations whose names match the pattern are shown. If the form
834 \dF+ is used, a full description of each configuration is shown,
835 including the underlying text search parser and the dictionary list
836 for each parser token type.
837 \dFd[+] [ pattern ]
839 Lists text search dictionaries. If pattern is specified, only
840 dictionaries whose names match the pattern are shown. If the form
841 \dFd+ is used, additional information is shown about each selected
842 dictionary, including the underlying text search template and the
843 option values.
844 \dFp[+] [ pattern ]
846 Lists text search parsers. If pattern is specified, only parsers
847 whose names match the pattern are shown. If the form \dFp+ is used,
848 a full description of each parser is shown, including the
849 underlying functions and the list of recognized token types.
850 \dFt[+] [ pattern ]
852 Lists text search templates. If pattern is specified, only
853 templates whose names match the pattern are shown. If the form
854 \dFt+ is used, additional information is shown about each template,
855 including the underlying function names.
856 \dg[S+] [ pattern ]
858 Lists database roles. (Since the concepts of “users” and “groups”
859 have been unified into “roles”, this command is now equivalent to
860 \du.) By default, only user-created roles are shown; supply the S
861 modifier to include system roles. If pattern is specified, only
862 those roles whose names match the pattern are listed. If the form
863 \dg+ is used, additional information is shown about each role;
864 currently this adds the comment for each role.
865 \dl[+]
867 This is an alias for \lo_list, which shows a list of large objects.
868 If + is appended to the command name, each large object is listed
869 with its associated permissions, if any.
870 \dL[S+] [ pattern ]
872 Lists procedural languages. If pattern is specified, only languages
873 whose names match the pattern are listed. By default, only
874 user-created languages are shown; supply the S modifier to include
875 system objects. If + is appended to the command name, each language
876 is listed with its call handler, validator, access privileges, and
877 whether it is a system object.
878 \dn[S+] [ pattern ]
880 Lists schemas (namespaces). If pattern is specified, only schemas
881 whose names match the pattern are listed. By default, only
882 user-created objects are shown; supply a pattern or the S modifier
883 to include system objects. If + is appended to the command name,
884 each object is listed with its associated permissions and
885 description, if any.
886 \do[S+] [ pattern [ arg_pattern [ arg_pattern ] ] ]
888 Lists operators with their operand and result types. If pattern is
889 specified, only operators whose names match the pattern are listed.
890 If one arg_pattern is specified, only prefix operators whose right
891 argument's type name matches that pattern are listed. If two
892 arg_patterns are specified, only binary operators whose argument
893 type names match those patterns are listed. (Alternatively, write -
894 for the unused argument of a unary operator.) By default, only
895 user-created objects are shown; supply a pattern or the S modifier
896 to include system objects. If + is appended to the command name,
897 additional information about each operator is shown, currently just
898 the name of the underlying function.
899 \dO[S+] [ pattern ]
901 Lists collations. If pattern is specified, only collations whose
902 names match the pattern are listed. By default, only user-created
903 objects are shown; supply a pattern or the S modifier to include
904 system objects. If + is appended to the command name, each
905 collation is listed with its associated description, if any. Note
906 that only collations usable with the current database's encoding
907 are shown, so the results may vary in different databases of the
908 same installation.
909 \dp [ pattern ]
911 Lists tables, views and sequences with their associated access
912 privileges. If pattern is specified, only tables, views and
913 sequences whose names match the pattern are listed.
914 The GRANT and REVOKE commands are used to set access privileges.
916 The meaning of the privilege display is explained in Section 5.7.
917 \dP[itn+] [ pattern ]
919 Lists partitioned relations. If pattern is specified, only entries
920 whose name matches the pattern are listed. The modifiers t (tables)
921 and i (indexes) can be appended to the command, filtering the kind
922 of relations to list. By default, partitioned tables and indexes
923 are listed.
924 If the modifier n (“nested”) is used, or a pattern is specified,
926 then non-root partitioned relations are included, and a column is
927 shown displaying the parent of each partitioned relation.
928 If + is appended to the command name, the sum of the sizes of each
930 relation's partitions is also displayed, along with the relation's
931 description. If n is combined with +, two sizes are shown: one
932 including the total size of directly-attached leaf partitions, and
933 another showing the total size of all partitions, including
934 indirectly attached sub-partitions.
935 \drds [ role-pattern [ database-pattern ] ]
937 Lists defined configuration settings. These settings can be
938 role-specific, database-specific, or both. role-pattern and
939 database-pattern are used to select specific roles and databases to
940 list, respectively. If omitted, or if * is specified, all settings
941 are listed, including those not role-specific or database-specific,
942 respectively.
943 The ALTER ROLE and ALTER DATABASE commands are used to define
945 per-role and per-database configuration settings.
946 \dRp[+] [ pattern ]
948 Lists replication publications. If pattern is specified, only those
949 publications whose names match the pattern are listed. If + is
950 appended to the command name, the tables and schemas associated
951 with each publication are shown as well.
952 \dRs[+] [ pattern ]
954 Lists replication subscriptions. If pattern is specified, only
955 those subscriptions whose names match the pattern are listed. If +
956 is appended to the command name, additional properties of the
957 subscriptions are shown.
958 \dT[S+] [ pattern ]
960 Lists data types. If pattern is specified, only types whose names
961 match the pattern are listed. If + is appended to the command name,
962 each type is listed with its internal name and size, its allowed
963 values if it is an enum type, and its associated permissions. By
964 default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a pattern or
965 the S modifier to include system objects.
966 \du[S+] [ pattern ]
968 Lists database roles. (Since the concepts of “users” and “groups”
969 have been unified into “roles”, this command is now equivalent to
970 \dg.) By default, only user-created roles are shown; supply the S
971 modifier to include system roles. If pattern is specified, only
972 those roles whose names match the pattern are listed. If the form
973 \du+ is used, additional information is shown about each role;
974 currently this adds the comment for each role.
975 \dx[+] [ pattern ]
977 Lists installed extensions. If pattern is specified, only those
978 extensions whose names match the pattern are listed. If the form
979 \dx+ is used, all the objects belonging to each matching extension
980 are listed.
981 \dX [ pattern ]
983 Lists extended statistics. If pattern is specified, only those
984 extended statistics whose names match the pattern are listed.
985 The status of each kind of extended statistics is shown in a column
987 named after its statistic kind (e.g. Ndistinct). defined means
988 that it was requested when creating the statistics, and NULL means
989 it wasn't requested. You can use pg_stats_ext if you'd like to know
990 whether ANALYZE was run and statistics are available to the
991 planner.
992 \dy[+] [ pattern ]
994 Lists event triggers. If pattern is specified, only those event
995 triggers whose names match the pattern are listed. If + is appended
996 to the command name, each object is listed with its associated
997 description.
998 \e or \edit [ filename ] [ line_number ]
1000 If filename is specified, the file is edited; after the editor
1001 exits, the file's content is copied into the current query buffer.
1002 If no filename is given, the current query buffer is copied to a
1003 temporary file which is then edited in the same fashion. Or, if the
1004 current query buffer is empty, the most recently executed query is
1005 copied to a temporary file and edited in the same fashion.
1006 If you edit a file or the previous query, and you quit the editor
1008 without modifying the file, the query buffer is cleared. Otherwise,
1009 the new contents of the query buffer are re-parsed according to the
1010 normal rules of psql, treating the whole buffer as a single line.
1011 Any complete queries are immediately executed; that is, if the
1012 query buffer contains or ends with a semicolon, everything up to
1013 that point is executed and removed from the query buffer. Whatever
1014 remains in the query buffer is redisplayed. Type semicolon or \g to
1015 send it, or \r to cancel it by clearing the query buffer.
1016 Treating the buffer as a single line primarily affects
1018 meta-commands: whatever is in the buffer after a meta-command will
1019 be taken as argument(s) to the meta-command, even if it spans
1020 multiple lines. (Thus you cannot make meta-command-using scripts
1021 this way. Use \i for that.)
1022 If a line number is specified, psql will position the cursor on the
1024 specified line of the file or query buffer. Note that if a single
1025 all-digits argument is given, psql assumes it is a line number, not
1026 a file name.
1027 Tip
1029 See Environment, below, for how to configure and customize your
1030 editor.
1031 \echo text [ ... ]
1033 Prints the evaluated arguments to standard output, separated by
1034 spaces and followed by a newline. This can be useful to intersperse
1035 information in the output of scripts. For example:
1036 => \echo `date`
1038 Tue Oct 26 21:40:57 CEST 1999
1039 If the first argument is an unquoted -n the trailing newline is not
1041 written (nor is the first argument).
1042 Tip
1044 If you use the \o command to redirect your query output you
1045 might wish to use \qecho instead of this command. See also
1046 \warn.
1047 \ef [ function_description [ line_number ] ]
1049 This command fetches and edits the definition of the named function
1050 or procedure, in the form of a CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION or CREATE
1051 OR REPLACE PROCEDURE command. Editing is done in the same way as
1052 for \edit. If you quit the editor without saving, the statement is
1053 discarded. If you save and exit the editor, the updated command is
1054 executed immediately if you added a semicolon to it. Otherwise it
1055 is redisplayed; type semicolon or \g to send it, or \r to cancel.
1056 The target function can be specified by name alone, or by name and
1058 arguments, for example foo(integer, text). The argument types must
1059 be given if there is more than one function of the same name.
1060 If no function is specified, a blank CREATE FUNCTION template is
1062 presented for editing.
1063 If a line number is specified, psql will position the cursor on the
1065 specified line of the function body. (Note that the function body
1066 typically does not begin on the first line of the file.)
1067 Unlike most other meta-commands, the entire remainder of the line
1069 is always taken to be the argument(s) of \ef, and neither variable
1070 interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in the
1071 arguments.
1072 Tip
1074 See Environment, below, for how to configure and customize your
1075 editor.
1076 \encoding [ encoding ]
1078 Sets the client character set encoding. Without an argument, this
1079 command shows the current encoding.
1080 \errverbose
1082 Repeats the most recent server error message at maximum verbosity,
1083 as though VERBOSITY were set to verbose and SHOW_CONTEXT were set
1084 to always.
1085 \ev [ view_name [ line_number ] ]
1087 This command fetches and edits the definition of the named view, in
1088 the form of a CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW command. Editing is done in
1089 the same way as for \edit. If you quit the editor without saving,
1090 the statement is discarded. If you save and exit the editor, the
1091 updated command is executed immediately if you added a semicolon to
1092 it. Otherwise it is redisplayed; type semicolon or \g to send it,
1093 or \r to cancel.
1094 If no view is specified, a blank CREATE VIEW template is presented
1096 for editing.
1097 If a line number is specified, psql will position the cursor on the
1099 specified line of the view definition.
1100 Unlike most other meta-commands, the entire remainder of the line
1102 is always taken to be the argument(s) of \ev, and neither variable
1103 interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in the
1104 arguments.
1105 \f [ string ]
1107 Sets the field separator for unaligned query output. The default is
1108 the vertical bar (|). It is equivalent to \pset fieldsep.
1109 \g [ (option=value [...]) ] [ filename ]
1111 \g [ (option=value [...]) ] [ |command ]
1112 Sends the current query buffer to the server for execution.
1113 If parentheses appear after \g, they surround a space-separated
1115 list of option=value formatting-option clauses, which are
1116 interpreted in the same way as \pset option value commands, but
1117 take effect only for the duration of this query. In this list,
1118 spaces are not allowed around = signs, but are required between
1119 option clauses. If =value is omitted, the named option is changed
1120 in the same way as for \pset option with no explicit value.
1121 If a filename or |command argument is given, the query's output is
1123 written to the named file or piped to the given shell command,
1124 instead of displaying it as usual. The file or command is written
1125 to only if the query successfully returns zero or more tuples, not
1126 if the query fails or is a non-data-returning SQL command.
1127 If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently sent query
1129 is re-executed instead. Except for that behavior, \g without any
1130 arguments is essentially equivalent to a semicolon. With arguments,
1131 \g provides a “one-shot” alternative to the \o command, and
1132 additionally allows one-shot adjustments of the output formatting
1133 options normally set by \pset.
1134 When the last argument begins with |, the entire remainder of the
1136 line is taken to be the command to execute, and neither variable
1137 interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in it. The rest
1138 of the line is simply passed literally to the shell.
1139 \gdesc
1141 Shows the description (that is, the column names and data types) of
1142 the result of the current query buffer. The query is not actually
1143 executed; however, if it contains some type of syntax error, that
1144 error will be reported in the normal way.
1145 If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently sent query
1147 is described instead.
1148 \getenv psql_var env_var
1150 Gets the value of the environment variable env_var and assigns it
1151 to the psql variable psql_var. If env_var is not defined in the
1152 psql process's environment, psql_var is not changed. Example:
1153 => \getenv home HOME
1155 => \echo :home
1156 /home/postgres
1157 \gexec
1159 Sends the current query buffer to the server, then treats each
1160 column of each row of the query's output (if any) as an SQL
1161 statement to be executed. For example, to create an index on each
1162 column of my_table:
1163 => SELECT format('create index on my_table(%I)', attname)
1165 -> FROM pg_attribute
1166 -> WHERE attrelid = 'my_table'::regclass AND attnum > 0
1167 -> ORDER BY attnum
1168 -> \gexec
1169 CREATE INDEX
1170 CREATE INDEX
1171 CREATE INDEX
1172 CREATE INDEX
1173 The generated queries are executed in the order in which the rows
1175 are returned, and left-to-right within each row if there is more
1176 than one column. NULL fields are ignored. The generated queries are
1177 sent literally to the server for processing, so they cannot be psql
1178 meta-commands nor contain psql variable references. If any
1179 individual query fails, execution of the remaining queries
1180 continues unless ON_ERROR_STOP is set. Execution of each query is
1181 subject to ECHO processing. (Setting ECHO to all or queries is
1182 often advisable when using \gexec.) Query logging, single-step
1183 mode, timing, and other query execution features apply to each
1184 generated query as well.
1185 If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently sent query
1187 is re-executed instead.
1188 \gset [ prefix ]
1190 Sends the current query buffer to the server and stores the query's
1191 output into psql variables (see Variables below). The query to be
1192 executed must return exactly one row. Each column of the row is
1193 stored into a separate variable, named the same as the column. For
1194 example:
1195 => SELECT 'hello' AS var1, 10 AS var2
1197 -> \gset
1198 => \echo :var1 :var2
1199 hello 10
1200 If you specify a prefix, that string is prepended to the query's
1202 column names to create the variable names to use:
1203 => SELECT 'hello' AS var1, 10 AS var2
1205 -> \gset result_
1206 => \echo :result_var1 :result_var2
1207 hello 10
1208 If a column result is NULL, the corresponding variable is unset
1210 rather than being set.
1211 If the query fails or does not return one row, no variables are
1213 changed.
1214 If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently sent query
1216 is re-executed instead.
1217 \gx [ (option=value [...]) ] [ filename ]
1219 \gx [ (option=value [...]) ] [ |command ]
1220 \gx is equivalent to \g, except that it forces expanded output mode
1221 for this query, as if expanded=on were included in the list of
1222 \pset options. See also \x.
1223 \h or \help [ command ]
1225 Gives syntax help on the specified SQL command. If command is not
1226 specified, then psql will list all the commands for which syntax
1227 help is available. If command is an asterisk (*), then syntax help
1228 on all SQL commands is shown.
1229 Unlike most other meta-commands, the entire remainder of the line
1231 is always taken to be the argument(s) of \help, and neither
1232 variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in the
1233 arguments.
1234 Note
1236 To simplify typing, commands that consists of several words do
1237 not have to be quoted. Thus it is fine to type \help alter
1238 table.
1239 \H or \html
1241 Turns on HTML query output format. If the HTML format is already
1242 on, it is switched back to the default aligned text format. This
1243 command is for compatibility and convenience, but see \pset about
1244 setting other output options.
1245 \i or \include filename
1247 Reads input from the file filename and executes it as though it had
1248 been typed on the keyboard.
1249 If filename is - (hyphen), then standard input is read until an EOF
1251 indication or \q meta-command. This can be used to intersperse
1252 interactive input with input from files. Note that Readline
1253 behavior will be used only if it is active at the outermost level.
1254 Note
1256 If you want to see the lines on the screen as they are read you
1257 must set the variable ECHO to all.
1258 \if expression
1260 \elif expression
1261 \else
1262 \endif
1263 This group of commands implements nestable conditional blocks. A
1264 conditional block must begin with an \if and end with an \endif. In
1265 between there may be any number of \elif clauses, which may
1266 optionally be followed by a single \else clause. Ordinary queries
1267 and other types of backslash commands may (and usually do) appear
1268 between the commands forming a conditional block.
1269 The \if and \elif commands read their argument(s) and evaluate them
1271 as a Boolean expression. If the expression yields true then
1272 processing continues normally; otherwise, lines are skipped until a
1273 matching \elif, \else, or \endif is reached. Once an \if or \elif
1274 test has succeeded, the arguments of later \elif commands in the
1275 same block are not evaluated but are treated as false. Lines
1276 following an \else are processed only if no earlier matching \if or
1277 \elif succeeded.
1278 The expression argument of an \if or \elif command is subject to
1280 variable interpolation and backquote expansion, just like any other
1281 backslash command argument. After that it is evaluated like the
1282 value of an on/off option variable. So a valid value is any
1283 unambiguous case-insensitive match for one of: true, false, 1, 0,
1284 on, off, yes, no. For example, t, T, and tR will all be considered
1285 to be true.
1286 Expressions that do not properly evaluate to true or false will
1288 generate a warning and be treated as false.
1289 Lines being skipped are parsed normally to identify queries and
1291 backslash commands, but queries are not sent to the server, and
1292 backslash commands other than conditionals (\if, \elif, \else,
1293 \endif) are ignored. Conditional commands are checked only for
1294 valid nesting. Variable references in skipped lines are not
1295 expanded, and backquote expansion is not performed either.
1296 All the backslash commands of a given conditional block must appear
1298 in the same source file. If EOF is reached on the main input file
1299 or an \include-ed file before all local \if-blocks have been
1300 closed, then psql will raise an error.
1301 Here is an example:
1303 -- check for the existence of two separate records in the database and store
1305 -- the results in separate psql variables
1306 SELECT
1307 EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM customer WHERE customer_id = 123) as is_customer,
1308 EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM employee WHERE employee_id = 456) as is_employee
1309 \gset
1310 \if :is_customer
1311 SELECT * FROM customer WHERE customer_id = 123;
1312 \elif :is_employee
1313 \echo 'is not a customer but is an employee'
1314 SELECT * FROM employee WHERE employee_id = 456;
1315 \else
1316 \if yes
1317 \echo 'not a customer or employee'
1318 \else
1319 \echo 'this will never print'
1320 \endif
1321 \endif
1322 \ir or \include_relative filename
1324 The \ir command is similar to \i, but resolves relative file names
1325 differently. When executing in interactive mode, the two commands
1326 behave identically. However, when invoked from a script, \ir
1327 interprets file names relative to the directory in which the script
1328 is located, rather than the current working directory.
1329 \l[+] or \list[+] [ pattern ]
1331 List the databases in the server and show their names, owners,
1332 character set encodings, and access privileges. If pattern is
1333 specified, only databases whose names match the pattern are listed.
1334 If + is appended to the command name, database sizes, default
1335 tablespaces, and descriptions are also displayed. (Size information
1336 is only available for databases that the current user can connect
1337 to.)
1338 \lo_export loid filename
1340 Reads the large object with OID loid from the database and writes
1341 it to filename. Note that this is subtly different from the server
1342 function lo_export, which acts with the permissions of the user
1343 that the database server runs as and on the server's file system.
1344 Tip
1346 Use \lo_list to find out the large object's OID.
1347 \lo_import filename [ comment ]
1349 Stores the file into a PostgreSQL large object. Optionally, it
1350 associates the given comment with the object. Example:
1351 foo=> \lo_import '/home/peter/pictures/photo.xcf' 'a picture of me'
1353 lo_import 152801
1354 The response indicates that the large object received object ID
1356 152801, which can be used to access the newly-created large object
1357 in the future. For the sake of readability, it is recommended to
1358 always associate a human-readable comment with every object. Both
1359 OIDs and comments can be viewed with the \lo_list command.
1360 Note that this command is subtly different from the server-side
1362 lo_import because it acts as the local user on the local file
1363 system, rather than the server's user and file system.
1364 \lo_list[+]
1366 Shows a list of all PostgreSQL large objects currently stored in
1367 the database, along with any comments provided for them. If + is
1368 appended to the command name, each large object is listed with its
1369 associated permissions, if any.
1370 \lo_unlink loid
1372 Deletes the large object with OID loid from the database.
1373 Tip
1375 Use \lo_list to find out the large object's OID.
1376 \o or \out [ filename ]
1378 \o or \out [ |command ]
1379 Arranges to save future query results to the file filename or pipe
1380 future results to the shell command command. If no argument is
1381 specified, the query output is reset to the standard output.
1382 If the argument begins with |, then the entire remainder of the
1384 line is taken to be the command to execute, and neither variable
1385 interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in it. The rest
1386 of the line is simply passed literally to the shell.
1387 “Query results” includes all tables, command responses, and notices
1389 obtained from the database server, as well as output of various
1390 backslash commands that query the database (such as \d); but not
1391 error messages.
1392 Tip
1394 To intersperse text output in between query results, use
1395 \qecho.
1396 \p or \print
1398 Print the current query buffer to the standard output. If the
1399 current query buffer is empty, the most recently executed query is
1400 printed instead.
1401 \password [ username ]
1403 Changes the password of the specified user (by default, the current
1404 user). This command prompts for the new password, encrypts it, and
1405 sends it to the server as an ALTER ROLE command. This makes sure
1406 that the new password does not appear in cleartext in the command
1407 history, the server log, or elsewhere.
1408 \prompt [ text ] name
1410 Prompts the user to supply text, which is assigned to the variable
1411 name. An optional prompt string, text, can be specified. (For
1412 multiword prompts, surround the text with single quotes.)
1413 By default, \prompt uses the terminal for input and output.
1415 However, if the -f command line switch was used, \prompt uses
1416 standard input and standard output.
1417 \pset [ option [ value ] ]
1419 This command sets options affecting the output of query result
1420 tables. option indicates which option is to be set. The semantics
1421 of value vary depending on the selected option. For some options,
1422 omitting value causes the option to be toggled or unset, as
1423 described under the particular option. If no such behavior is
1424 mentioned, then omitting value just results in the current setting
1425 being displayed.
1426 \pset without any arguments displays the current status of all
1428 printing options.
1429 Adjustable printing options are:
1431 border
1433 The value must be a number. In general, the higher the number
1434 the more borders and lines the tables will have, but details
1435 depend on the particular format. In HTML format, this will
1436 translate directly into the border=... attribute. In most
1437 other formats only values 0 (no border), 1 (internal dividing
1438 lines), and 2 (table frame) make sense, and values above 2 will
1439 be treated the same as border = 2. The latex and
1440 latex-longtable formats additionally allow a value of 3 to add
1441 dividing lines between data rows.
1442 columns
1444 Sets the target width for the wrapped format, and also the
1445 width limit for determining whether output is wide enough to
1446 require the pager or switch to the vertical display in expanded
1447 auto mode. Zero (the default) causes the target width to be
1448 controlled by the environment variable COLUMNS, or the detected
1449 screen width if COLUMNS is not set. In addition, if columns is
1450 zero then the wrapped format only affects screen output. If
1451 columns is nonzero then file and pipe output is wrapped to that
1452 width as well.
1453 csv_fieldsep
1455 Specifies the field separator to be used in CSV output format.
1456 If the separator character appears in a field's value, that
1457 field is output within double quotes, following standard CSV
1458 rules. The default is a comma.
1459 expanded (or x)
1461 If value is specified it must be either on or off, which will
1462 enable or disable expanded mode, or auto. If value is omitted
1463 the command toggles between the on and off settings. When
1464 expanded mode is enabled, query results are displayed in two
1465 columns, with the column name on the left and the data on the
1466 right. This mode is useful if the data wouldn't fit on the
1467 screen in the normal “horizontal” mode. In the auto setting,
1468 the expanded mode is used whenever the query output has more
1469 than one column and is wider than the screen; otherwise, the
1470 regular mode is used. The auto setting is only effective in the
1471 aligned and wrapped formats. In other formats, it always
1472 behaves as if the expanded mode is off.
1473 fieldsep
1475 Specifies the field separator to be used in unaligned output
1476 format. That way one can create, for example, tab-separated
1477 output, which other programs might prefer. To set a tab as
1478 field separator, type \pset fieldsep '\t'. The default field
1479 separator is '|' (a vertical bar).
1480 fieldsep_zero
1482 Sets the field separator to use in unaligned output format to a
1483 zero byte.
1484 footer
1486 If value is specified it must be either on or off which will
1487 enable or disable display of the table footer (the (n rows)
1488 count). If value is omitted the command toggles footer display
1489 on or off.
1490 format
1492 Sets the output format to one of aligned, asciidoc, csv, html,
1493 latex, latex-longtable, troff-ms, unaligned, or wrapped. Unique
1494 abbreviations are allowed.
1495 aligned format is the standard, human-readable, nicely
1497 formatted text output; this is the default.
1498 unaligned format writes all columns of a row on one line,
1500 separated by the currently active field separator. This is
1501 useful for creating output that might be intended to be read in
1502 by other programs, for example, tab-separated or
1503 comma-separated format. However, the field separator character
1504 is not treated specially if it appears in a column's value; so
1505 CSV format may be better suited for such purposes.
1506 csv format
1508 writes column values separated by commas, applying the quoting
1510 rules described in RFC 4180. This output is compatible with the
1511 CSV format of the server's COPY command. A header line with
1512 column names is generated unless the tuples_only parameter is
1513 on. Titles and footers are not printed. Each row is terminated
1514 by the system-dependent end-of-line character, which is
1515 typically a single newline (\n) for Unix-like systems or a
1516 carriage return and newline sequence (\r\n) for Microsoft
1517 Windows. Field separator characters other than comma can be
1518 selected with \pset csv_fieldsep.
1519 wrapped format is like aligned but wraps wide data values
1521 across lines to make the output fit in the target column width.
1522 The target width is determined as described under the columns
1523 option. Note that psql will not attempt to wrap column header
1524 titles; therefore, wrapped format behaves the same as aligned
1525 if the total width needed for column headers exceeds the
1526 target.
1527 The asciidoc, html, latex, latex-longtable, and troff-ms
1529 formats put out tables that are intended to be included in
1530 documents using the respective mark-up language. They are not
1531 complete documents! This might not be necessary in HTML, but in
1532 LaTeX you must have a complete document wrapper. The latex
1533 format uses LaTeX's tabular environment. The latex-longtable
1534 format requires the LaTeX longtable and booktabs packages.
1535 linestyle
1537 Sets the border line drawing style to one of ascii, old-ascii,
1538 or unicode. Unique abbreviations are allowed. (That would mean
1539 one letter is enough.) The default setting is ascii. This
1540 option only affects the aligned and wrapped output formats.
1541 ascii style uses plain ASCII characters. Newlines in data are
1543 shown using a + symbol in the right-hand margin. When the
1544 wrapped format wraps data from one line to the next without a
1545 newline character, a dot (.) is shown in the right-hand margin
1546 of the first line, and again in the left-hand margin of the
1547 following line.
1548 old-ascii style uses plain ASCII characters, using the
1550 formatting style used in PostgreSQL 8.4 and earlier. Newlines
1551 in data are shown using a : symbol in place of the left-hand
1552 column separator. When the data is wrapped from one line to the
1553 next without a newline character, a ; symbol is used in place
1554 of the left-hand column separator.
1555 unicode style uses Unicode box-drawing characters. Newlines in
1557 data are shown using a carriage return symbol in the right-hand
1558 margin. When the data is wrapped from one line to the next
1559 without a newline character, an ellipsis symbol is shown in the
1560 right-hand margin of the first line, and again in the left-hand
1561 margin of the following line.
1562 When the border setting is greater than zero, the linestyle
1564 option also determines the characters with which the border
1565 lines are drawn. Plain ASCII characters work everywhere, but
1566 Unicode characters look nicer on displays that recognize them.
1567 null
1569 Sets the string to be printed in place of a null value. The
1570 default is to print nothing, which can easily be mistaken for
1571 an empty string. For example, one might prefer \pset null
1572 '(null)'.
1573 numericlocale
1575 If value is specified it must be either on or off which will
1576 enable or disable display of a locale-specific character to
1577 separate groups of digits to the left of the decimal marker. If
1578 value is omitted the command toggles between regular and
1579 locale-specific numeric output.
1580 pager
1582 Controls use of a pager program for query and psql help output.
1583 When the pager option is off, the pager program is not used.
1584 When the pager option is on, the pager is used when
1585 appropriate, i.e., when the output is to a terminal and will
1586 not fit on the screen. The pager option can also be set to
1587 always, which causes the pager to be used for all terminal
1588 output regardless of whether it fits on the screen. \pset
1589 pager without a value toggles pager use on and off.
1590 If the environment variable PSQL_PAGER or PAGER is set, output
1592 to be paged is piped to the specified program. Otherwise a
1593 platform-dependent default program (such as more) is used.
1594 When using the \watch command to execute a query repeatedly,
1596 the environment variable PSQL_WATCH_PAGER is used to find the
1597 pager program instead, on Unix systems. This is configured
1598 separately because it may confuse traditional pagers, but can
1599 be used to send output to tools that understand psql's output
1600 format (such as pspg --stream).
1601 pager_min_lines
1603 If pager_min_lines is set to a number greater than the page
1604 height, the pager program will not be called unless there are
1605 at least this many lines of output to show. The default setting
1606 is 0.
1607 recordsep
1609 Specifies the record (line) separator to use in unaligned
1610 output format. The default is a newline character.
1611 recordsep_zero
1613 Sets the record separator to use in unaligned output format to
1614 a zero byte.
1615 tableattr (or T)
1617 In HTML format, this specifies attributes to be placed inside
1618 the table tag. This could for example be cellpadding or
1619 bgcolor. Note that you probably don't want to specify border
1620 here, as that is already taken care of by \pset border. If no
1621 value is given, the table attributes are unset.
1622 In latex-longtable format, this controls the proportional width
1624 of each column containing a left-aligned data type. It is
1625 specified as a whitespace-separated list of values, e.g., '0.2
1626 0.2 0.6'. Unspecified output columns use the last specified
1627 value.
1628 title (or C)
1630 Sets the table title for any subsequently printed tables. This
1631 can be used to give your output descriptive tags. If no value
1632 is given, the title is unset.
1633 tuples_only (or t)
1635 If value is specified it must be either on or off which will
1636 enable or disable tuples-only mode. If value is omitted the
1637 command toggles between regular and tuples-only output. Regular
1638 output includes extra information such as column headers,
1639 titles, and various footers. In tuples-only mode, only actual
1640 table data is shown.
1641 unicode_border_linestyle
1643 Sets the border drawing style for the unicode line style to one
1644 of single or double.
1645 unicode_column_linestyle
1647 Sets the column drawing style for the unicode line style to one
1648 of single or double.
1649 unicode_header_linestyle
1651 Sets the header drawing style for the unicode line style to one
1652 of single or double.
1653 Illustrations of how these different formats look can be seen in
1655 Examples, below.
1656 Tip
1658 There are various shortcut commands for \pset. See \a, \C, \f,
1659 \H, \t, \T, and \x.
1660 \q or \quit
1662 Quits the psql program. In a script file, only execution of that
1663 script is terminated.
1664 \qecho text [ ... ]
1666 This command is identical to \echo except that the output will be
1667 written to the query output channel, as set by \o.
1668 \r or \reset
1670 Resets (clears) the query buffer.
1671 \s [ filename ]
1673 Print psql's command line history to filename. If filename is
1674 omitted, the history is written to the standard output (using the
1675 pager if appropriate). This command is not available if psql was
1676 built without Readline support.
1677 \set [ name [ value [ ... ] ] ]
1679 Sets the psql variable name to value, or if more than one value is
1680 given, to the concatenation of all of them. If only one argument is
1681 given, the variable is set to an empty-string value. To unset a
1682 variable, use the \unset command.
1683 \set without any arguments displays the names and values of all
1685 currently-set psql variables.
1686 Valid variable names can contain letters, digits, and underscores.
1688 See Variables below for details. Variable names are case-sensitive.
1689 Certain variables are special, in that they control psql's behavior
1691 or are automatically set to reflect connection state. These
1692 variables are documented in Variables, below.
1693 Note
1695 This command is unrelated to the SQL command SET.
1696 \setenv name [ value ]
1698 Sets the environment variable name to value, or if the value is not
1699 supplied, unsets the environment variable. Example:
1700 testdb=> \setenv PAGER less
1702 testdb=> \setenv LESS -imx4F
1703 \sf[+] function_description
1705 This command fetches and shows the definition of the named function
1706 or procedure, in the form of a CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION or CREATE
1707 OR REPLACE PROCEDURE command. The definition is printed to the
1708 current query output channel, as set by \o.
1709 The target function can be specified by name alone, or by name and
1711 arguments, for example foo(integer, text). The argument types must
1712 be given if there is more than one function of the same name.
1713 If + is appended to the command name, then the output lines are
1715 numbered, with the first line of the function body being line 1.
1716 Unlike most other meta-commands, the entire remainder of the line
1718 is always taken to be the argument(s) of \sf, and neither variable
1719 interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in the
1720 arguments.
1721 \sv[+] view_name
1723 This command fetches and shows the definition of the named view, in
1724 the form of a CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW command. The definition is
1725 printed to the current query output channel, as set by \o.
1726 If + is appended to the command name, then the output lines are
1728 numbered from 1.
1729 Unlike most other meta-commands, the entire remainder of the line
1731 is always taken to be the argument(s) of \sv, and neither variable
1732 interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in the
1733 arguments.
1734 \t
1736 Toggles the display of output column name headings and row count
1737 footer. This command is equivalent to \pset tuples_only and is
1738 provided for convenience.
1739 \T table_options
1741 Specifies attributes to be placed within the table tag in HTML
1742 output format. This command is equivalent to \pset tableattr
1743 table_options.
1744 \timing [ on | off ]
1746 With a parameter, turns displaying of how long each SQL statement
1747 takes on or off. Without a parameter, toggles the display between
1748 on and off. The display is in milliseconds; intervals longer than 1
1749 second are also shown in minutes:seconds format, with hours and
1750 days fields added if needed.
1751 \unset name
1753 Unsets (deletes) the psql variable name.
1754 Most variables that control psql's behavior cannot be unset;
1756 instead, an \unset command is interpreted as setting them to their
1757 default values. See Variables below.
1758 \w or \write filename
1760 \w or \write |command
1761 Writes the current query buffer to the file filename or pipes it to
1762 the shell command command. If the current query buffer is empty,
1763 the most recently executed query is written instead.
1764 If the argument begins with |, then the entire remainder of the
1766 line is taken to be the command to execute, and neither variable
1767 interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in it. The rest
1768 of the line is simply passed literally to the shell.
1769 \warn text [ ... ]
1771 This command is identical to \echo except that the output will be
1772 written to psql's standard error channel, rather than standard
1773 output.
1774 \watch [ seconds ]
1776 Repeatedly execute the current query buffer (as \g does) until
1777 interrupted or the query fails. Wait the specified number of
1778 seconds (default 2) between executions. Each query result is
1779 displayed with a header that includes the \pset title string (if
1780 any), the time as of query start, and the delay interval.
1781 If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently sent query
1783 is re-executed instead.
1784 \x [ on | off | auto ]
1786 Sets or toggles expanded table formatting mode. As such it is
1787 equivalent to \pset expanded.
1788 \z [ pattern ]
1790 Lists tables, views and sequences with their associated access
1791 privileges. If a pattern is specified, only tables, views and
1792 sequences whose names match the pattern are listed.
1793 This is an alias for \dp (“display privileges”).
1795 \! [ command ]
1797 With no argument, escapes to a sub-shell; psql resumes when the
1798 sub-shell exits. With an argument, executes the shell command
1799 command.
1800 Unlike most other meta-commands, the entire remainder of the line
1802 is always taken to be the argument(s) of \!, and neither variable
1803 interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in the
1804 arguments. The rest of the line is simply passed literally to the
1805 shell.
1806 \? [ topic ]
1808 Shows help information. The optional topic parameter (defaulting to
1809 commands) selects which part of psql is explained: commands
1810 describes psql's backslash commands; options describes the
1811 command-line options that can be passed to psql; and variables
1812 shows help about psql configuration variables.
1813 \;
1815 Backslash-semicolon is not a meta-command in the same way as the
1816 preceding commands; rather, it simply causes a semicolon to be
1817 added to the query buffer without any further processing.
1818 Normally, psql will dispatch an SQL command to the server as soon
1820 as it reaches the command-ending semicolon, even if more input
1821 remains on the current line. Thus for example entering
1822 select 1; select 2; select 3;
1824 will result in the three SQL commands being individually sent to
1826 the server, with each one's results being displayed before
1827 continuing to the next command. However, a semicolon entered as \;
1828 will not trigger command processing, so that the command before it
1829 and the one after are effectively combined and sent to the server
1830 in one request. So for example
1831 select 1\; select 2\; select 3;
1833 results in sending the three SQL commands to the server in a single
1835 request, when the non-backslashed semicolon is reached. The server
1836 executes such a request as a single transaction, unless there are
1837 explicit BEGIN/COMMIT commands included in the string to divide it
1838 into multiple transactions. (See Section 55.2.2.1 for more details
1839 about how the server handles multi-query strings.)
1840 Patterns
1842 The various \d commands accept a pattern parameter to specify the
1843 object name(s) to be displayed. In the simplest case, a pattern is
1844 just the exact name of the object. The characters within a pattern
1845 are normally folded to lower case, just as in SQL names; for
1846 example, \dt FOO will display the table named foo. As in SQL names,
1847 placing double quotes around a pattern stops folding to lower case.
1848 Should you need to include an actual double quote character in a
1849 pattern, write it as a pair of double quotes within a double-quote
1850 sequence; again this is in accord with the rules for SQL quoted
1851 identifiers. For example, \dt "FOO""BAR" will display the table
1852 named FOO"BAR (not foo"bar). Unlike the normal rules for SQL names,
1853 you can put double quotes around just part of a pattern, for
1854 instance \dt FOO"FOO"BAR will display the table named fooFOObar.
1855 Whenever the pattern parameter is omitted completely, the \d
1857 commands display all objects that are visible in the current schema
1858 search path — this is equivalent to using * as the pattern. (An
1859 object is said to be visible if its containing schema is in the
1860 search path and no object of the same kind and name appears earlier
1861 in the search path. This is equivalent to the statement that the
1862 object can be referenced by name without explicit schema
1863 qualification.) To see all objects in the database regardless of
1864 visibility, use *.* as the pattern.
1865 Within a pattern, * matches any sequence of characters (including
1867 no characters) and ? matches any single character. (This notation
1868 is comparable to Unix shell file name patterns.) For example, \dt
1869 int* displays tables whose names begin with int. But within double
1870 quotes, * and ? lose these special meanings and are just matched
1871 literally.
1872 A relation pattern that contains a dot (.) is interpreted as a
1874 schema name pattern followed by an object name pattern. For
1875 example, \dt foo*.*bar* displays all tables whose table name
1876 includes bar that are in schemas whose schema name starts with foo.
1877 When no dot appears, then the pattern matches only objects that are
1878 visible in the current schema search path. Again, a dot within
1879 double quotes loses its special meaning and is matched literally. A
1880 relation pattern that contains two dots (.) is interpreted as a
1881 database name followed by a schema name pattern followed by an
1882 object name pattern. The database name portion will not be treated
1883 as a pattern and must match the name of the currently connected
1884 database, else an error will be raised.
1885 A schema pattern that contains a dot (.) is interpreted as a
1887 database name followed by a schema name pattern. For example, \dn
1888 mydb.*foo* displays all schemas whose schema name includes foo. The
1889 database name portion will not be treated as a pattern and must
1890 match the name of the currently connected database, else an error
1891 will be raised.
1892 Advanced users can use regular-expression notations such as
1894 character classes, for example [0-9] to match any digit. All
1895 regular expression special characters work as specified in
1896 Section 9.7.3, except for . which is taken as a separator as
1897 mentioned above, * which is translated to the regular-expression
1898 notation .*, ? which is translated to ., and $ which is matched
1899 literally. You can emulate these pattern characters at need by
1900 writing ? for ., (R+|) for R*, or (R|) for R?. $ is not needed as
1901 a regular-expression character since the pattern must match the
1902 whole name, unlike the usual interpretation of regular expressions
1903 (in other words, $ is automatically appended to your pattern).
1904 Write * at the beginning and/or end if you don't wish the pattern
1905 to be anchored. Note that within double quotes, all regular
1906 expression special characters lose their special meanings and are
1907 matched literally. Also, the regular expression special characters
1908 are matched literally in operator name patterns (i.e., the argument
1909 of \do).
1910 Advanced Features
1912 Variables
1913 psql provides variable substitution features similar to common Unix
1914 command shells. Variables are simply name/value pairs, where the
1915 value can be any string of any length. The name must consist of
1916 letters (including non-Latin letters), digits, and underscores.
1917 To set a variable, use the psql meta-command \set. For example,
1919 testdb=> \set foo bar
1921 sets the variable foo to the value bar. To retrieve the content of
1923 the variable, precede the name with a colon, for example:
1924 testdb=> \echo :foo
1926 bar
1927 This works in both regular SQL commands and meta-commands; there is
1929 more detail in SQL Interpolation, below.
1930 If you call \set without a second argument, the variable is set to
1932 an empty-string value. To unset (i.e., delete) a variable, use the
1933 command \unset. To show the values of all variables, call \set
1934 without any argument.
1935 Note
1937 The arguments of \set are subject to the same substitution
1938 rules as with other commands. Thus you can construct
1939 interesting references such as \set :foo 'something' and get
1940 “soft links” or “variable variables” of Perl or PHP fame,
1941 respectively. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), there is no way
1942 to do anything useful with these constructs. On the other hand,
1943 \set bar :foo is a perfectly valid way to copy a variable.
1944 A number of these variables are treated specially by psql. They
1946 represent certain option settings that can be changed at run time
1947 by altering the value of the variable, or in some cases represent
1948 changeable state of psql. By convention, all specially treated
1949 variables' names consist of all upper-case ASCII letters (and
1950 possibly digits and underscores). To ensure maximum compatibility
1951 in the future, avoid using such variable names for your own
1952 purposes.
1953 Variables that control psql's behavior generally cannot be unset or
1955 set to invalid values. An \unset command is allowed but is
1956 interpreted as setting the variable to its default value. A \set
1957 command without a second argument is interpreted as setting the
1958 variable to on, for control variables that accept that value, and
1959 is rejected for others. Also, control variables that accept the
1960 values on and off will also accept other common spellings of
1961 Boolean values, such as true and false.
1962 The specially treated variables are:
1964 AUTOCOMMIT
1966 When on (the default), each SQL command is automatically
1967 committed upon successful completion. To postpone commit in
1968 this mode, you must enter a BEGIN or START TRANSACTION SQL
1969 command. When off or unset, SQL commands are not committed
1970 until you explicitly issue COMMIT or END. The autocommit-off
1971 mode works by issuing an implicit BEGIN for you, just before
1972 any command that is not already in a transaction block and is
1973 not itself a BEGIN or other transaction-control command, nor a
1974 command that cannot be executed inside a transaction block
1975 (such as VACUUM).
1976 Note
1978 In autocommit-off mode, you must explicitly abandon any
1979 failed transaction by entering ABORT or ROLLBACK. Also keep
1980 in mind that if you exit the session without committing,
1981 your work will be lost.
1982 Note
1984 The autocommit-on mode is PostgreSQL's traditional
1985 behavior, but autocommit-off is closer to the SQL spec. If
1986 you prefer autocommit-off, you might wish to set it in the
1987 system-wide psqlrc file or your ~/.psqlrc file.
1988 COMP_KEYWORD_CASE
1990 Determines which letter case to use when completing an SQL key
1991 word. If set to lower or upper, the completed word will be in
1992 lower or upper case, respectively. If set to preserve-lower or
1993 preserve-upper (the default), the completed word will be in the
1994 case of the word already entered, but words being completed
1995 without anything entered will be in lower or upper case,
1996 respectively.
1997 DBNAME
1999 The name of the database you are currently connected to. This
2000 is set every time you connect to a database (including program
2001 start-up), but can be changed or unset.
2002 ECHO
2004 If set to all, all nonempty input lines are printed to standard
2005 output as they are read. (This does not apply to lines read
2006 interactively.) To select this behavior on program start-up,
2007 use the switch -a. If set to queries, psql prints each query to
2008 standard output as it is sent to the server. The switch to
2009 select this behavior is -e. If set to errors, then only failed
2010 queries are displayed on standard error output. The switch for
2011 this behavior is -b. If set to none (the default), then no
2012 queries are displayed.
2013 ECHO_HIDDEN
2015 When this variable is set to on and a backslash command queries
2016 the database, the query is first shown. This feature helps you
2017 to study PostgreSQL internals and provide similar functionality
2018 in your own programs. (To select this behavior on program
2019 start-up, use the switch -E.) If you set this variable to the
2020 value noexec, the queries are just shown but are not actually
2021 sent to the server and executed. The default value is off.
2022 ENCODING
2024 The current client character set encoding. This is set every
2025 time you connect to a database (including program start-up),
2026 and when you change the encoding with \encoding, but it can be
2027 changed or unset.
2028 ERROR
2030 true if the last SQL query failed, false if it succeeded. See
2031 also SQLSTATE.
2032 FETCH_COUNT
2034 If this variable is set to an integer value greater than zero,
2035 the results of SELECT queries are fetched and displayed in
2036 groups of that many rows, rather than the default behavior of
2037 collecting the entire result set before display. Therefore only
2038 a limited amount of memory is used, regardless of the size of
2039 the result set. Settings of 100 to 1000 are commonly used when
2040 enabling this feature. Keep in mind that when using this
2041 feature, a query might fail after having already displayed some
2042 rows.
2043 Tip
2045 Although you can use any output format with this feature,
2046 the default aligned format tends to look bad because each
2047 group of FETCH_COUNT rows will be formatted separately,
2048 leading to varying column widths across the row groups. The
2049 other output formats work better.
2050 HIDE_TABLEAM
2052 If this variable is set to true, a table's access method
2053 details are not displayed. This is mainly useful for regression
2054 tests.
2055 HIDE_TOAST_COMPRESSION
2057 If this variable is set to true, column compression method
2058 details are not displayed. This is mainly useful for regression
2059 tests.
2060 HISTCONTROL
2062 If this variable is set to ignorespace, lines which begin with
2063 a space are not entered into the history list. If set to a
2064 value of ignoredups, lines matching the previous history line
2065 are not entered. A value of ignoreboth combines the two
2066 options. If set to none (the default), all lines read in
2067 interactive mode are saved on the history list.
2068 Note
2070 This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from Bash.
2071 HISTFILE
2073 The file name that will be used to store the history list. If
2074 unset, the file name is taken from the PSQL_HISTORY environment
2075 variable. If that is not set either, the default is
2076 ~/.psql_history, or %APPDATA%\postgresql\psql_history on
2077 Windows. For example, putting:
2078 \set HISTFILE ~/.psql_history-:DBNAME
2080 in ~/.psqlrc will cause psql to maintain a separate history for
2082 each database.
2083 Note
2085 This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from Bash.
2086 HISTSIZE
2088 The maximum number of commands to store in the command history
2089 (default 500). If set to a negative value, no limit is applied.
2090 Note
2092 This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from Bash.
2093 HOST
2095 The database server host you are currently connected to. This
2096 is set every time you connect to a database (including program
2097 start-up), but can be changed or unset.
2098 IGNOREEOF
2100 If set to 1 or less, sending an EOF character (usually
2101 Control+D) to an interactive session of psql will terminate the
2102 application. If set to a larger numeric value, that many
2103 consecutive EOF characters must be typed to make an interactive
2104 session terminate. If the variable is set to a non-numeric
2105 value, it is interpreted as 10. The default is 0.
2106 Note
2108 This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from Bash.
2109 LASTOID
2111 The value of the last affected OID, as returned from an INSERT
2112 or \lo_import command. This variable is only guaranteed to be
2113 valid until after the result of the next SQL command has been
2114 displayed. PostgreSQL servers since version 12 do not support
2115 OID system columns anymore, thus LASTOID will always be 0
2116 following INSERT when targeting such servers.
2117 LAST_ERROR_MESSAGE
2119 LAST_ERROR_SQLSTATE
2120 The primary error message and associated SQLSTATE code for the
2121 most recent failed query in the current psql session, or an
2122 empty string and 00000 if no error has occurred in the current
2123 session.
2124 ON_ERROR_ROLLBACK
2126 When set to on, if a statement in a transaction block generates
2127 an error, the error is ignored and the transaction continues.
2128 When set to interactive, such errors are only ignored in
2129 interactive sessions, and not when reading script files. When
2130 set to off (the default), a statement in a transaction block
2131 that generates an error aborts the entire transaction. The
2132 error rollback mode works by issuing an implicit SAVEPOINT for
2133 you, just before each command that is in a transaction block,
2134 and then rolling back to the savepoint if the command fails.
2135 ON_ERROR_STOP
2137 By default, command processing continues after an error. When
2138 this variable is set to on, processing will instead stop
2139 immediately. In interactive mode, psql will return to the
2140 command prompt; otherwise, psql will exit, returning error code
2141 3 to distinguish this case from fatal error conditions, which
2142 are reported using error code 1. In either case, any currently
2143 running scripts (the top-level script, if any, and any other
2144 scripts which it may have in invoked) will be terminated
2145 immediately. If the top-level command string contained multiple
2146 SQL commands, processing will stop with the current command.
2147 PORT
2149 The database server port to which you are currently connected.
2150 This is set every time you connect to a database (including
2151 program start-up), but can be changed or unset.
2152 PROMPT1
2154 PROMPT2
2155 PROMPT3
2156 These specify what the prompts psql issues should look like.
2157 See Prompting below.
2158 QUIET
2160 Setting this variable to on is equivalent to the command line
2161 option -q. It is probably not too useful in interactive mode.
2162 ROW_COUNT
2164 The number of rows returned or affected by the last SQL query,
2165 or 0 if the query failed or did not report a row count.
2166 SERVER_VERSION_NAME
2168 SERVER_VERSION_NUM
2169 The server's version number as a string, for example 9.6.2,
2170 10.1 or 11beta1, and in numeric form, for example 90602 or
2171 100001. These are set every time you connect to a database
2172 (including program start-up), but can be changed or unset.
2173 SHOW_ALL_RESULTS
2175 When this variable is set to off, only the last result of a
2176 combined query (\;) is shown instead of all of them. The
2177 default is on. The off behavior is for compatibility with older
2178 versions of psql.
2179 SHOW_CONTEXT
2181 This variable can be set to the values never, errors, or always
2182 to control whether CONTEXT fields are displayed in messages
2183 from the server. The default is errors (meaning that context
2184 will be shown in error messages, but not in notice or warning
2185 messages). This setting has no effect when VERBOSITY is set to
2186 terse or sqlstate. (See also \errverbose, for use when you want
2187 a verbose version of the error you just got.)
2188 SINGLELINE
2190 Setting this variable to on is equivalent to the command line
2191 option -S.
2192 SINGLESTEP
2194 Setting this variable to on is equivalent to the command line
2195 option -s.
2196 SQLSTATE
2198 The error code (see Appendix A) associated with the last SQL
2199 query's failure, or 00000 if it succeeded.
2200 USER
2202 The database user you are currently connected as. This is set
2203 every time you connect to a database (including program
2204 start-up), but can be changed or unset.
2205 VERBOSITY
2207 This variable can be set to the values default, verbose, terse,
2208 or sqlstate to control the verbosity of error reports. (See
2209 also \errverbose, for use when you want a verbose version of
2210 the error you just got.)
2211 VERSION
2213 VERSION_NAME
2214 VERSION_NUM
2215 These variables are set at program start-up to reflect psql's
2216 version, respectively as a verbose string, a short string
2217 (e.g., 9.6.2, 10.1, or 11beta1), and a number (e.g., 90602 or
2218 100001). They can be changed or unset.
2219 SQL Interpolation
2221 A key feature of psql variables is that you can substitute
2222 (“interpolate”) them into regular SQL statements, as well as the
2223 arguments of meta-commands. Furthermore, psql provides facilities
2224 for ensuring that variable values used as SQL literals and
2225 identifiers are properly quoted. The syntax for interpolating a
2226 value without any quoting is to prepend the variable name with a
2227 colon (:). For example,
2228 testdb=> \set foo 'my_table'
2230 testdb=> SELECT * FROM :foo;
2231 would query the table my_table. Note that this may be unsafe: the
2233 value of the variable is copied literally, so it can contain
2234 unbalanced quotes, or even backslash commands. You must make sure
2235 that it makes sense where you put it.
2236 When a value is to be used as an SQL literal or identifier, it is
2238 safest to arrange for it to be quoted. To quote the value of a
2239 variable as an SQL literal, write a colon followed by the variable
2240 name in single quotes. To quote the value as an SQL identifier,
2241 write a colon followed by the variable name in double quotes. These
2242 constructs deal correctly with quotes and other special characters
2243 embedded within the variable value. The previous example would be
2244 more safely written this way:
2245 testdb=> \set foo 'my_table'
2247 testdb=> SELECT * FROM :"foo";
2248 Variable interpolation will not be performed within quoted SQL
2250 literals and identifiers. Therefore, a construction such as ':foo'
2251 doesn't work to produce a quoted literal from a variable's value
2252 (and it would be unsafe if it did work, since it wouldn't correctly
2253 handle quotes embedded in the value).
2254 One example use of this mechanism is to copy the contents of a file
2256 into a table column. First load the file into a variable and then
2257 interpolate the variable's value as a quoted string:
2258 testdb=> \set content `cat my_file.txt`
2260 testdb=> INSERT INTO my_table VALUES (:'content');
2261 (Note that this still won't work if my_file.txt contains NUL bytes.
2263 psql does not support embedded NUL bytes in variable values.)
2264 Since colons can legally appear in SQL commands, an apparent
2266 attempt at interpolation (that is, :name, :'name', or :"name") is
2267 not replaced unless the named variable is currently set. In any
2268 case, you can escape a colon with a backslash to protect it from
2269 substitution.
2270 The :{?name} special syntax returns TRUE or FALSE depending on
2272 whether the variable exists or not, and is thus always substituted,
2273 unless the colon is backslash-escaped.
2274 The colon syntax for variables is standard SQL for embedded query
2276 languages, such as ECPG. The colon syntaxes for array slices and
2277 type casts are PostgreSQL extensions, which can sometimes conflict
2278 with the standard usage. The colon-quote syntax for escaping a
2279 variable's value as an SQL literal or identifier is a psql
2280 extension.
2281 Prompting
2283 The prompts psql issues can be customized to your preference. The
2284 three variables PROMPT1, PROMPT2, and PROMPT3 contain strings and
2285 special escape sequences that describe the appearance of the
2286 prompt. Prompt 1 is the normal prompt that is issued when psql
2287 requests a new command. Prompt 2 is issued when more input is
2288 expected during command entry, for example because the command was
2289 not terminated with a semicolon or a quote was not closed. Prompt 3
2290 is issued when you are running an SQL COPY FROM STDIN command and
2291 you need to type in a row value on the terminal.
2292 The value of the selected prompt variable is printed literally,
2294 except where a percent sign (%) is encountered. Depending on the
2295 next character, certain other text is substituted instead. Defined
2296 substitutions are:
2297 %M
2299 The full host name (with domain name) of the database server,
2300 or [local] if the connection is over a Unix domain socket, or
2301 [local:/dir/name], if the Unix domain socket is not at the
2302 compiled in default location.
2303 %m
2305 The host name of the database server, truncated at the first
2306 dot, or [local] if the connection is over a Unix domain socket.
2307 %>
2309 The port number at which the database server is listening.
2310 %n
2312 The database session user name. (The expansion of this value
2313 might change during a database session as the result of the
2314 command SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION.)
2315 %/
2317 The name of the current database.
2318 %~
2320 Like %/, but the output is ~ (tilde) if the database is your
2321 default database.
2322 %#
2324 If the session user is a database superuser, then a #,
2325 otherwise a >. (The expansion of this value might change during
2326 a database session as the result of the command SET SESSION
2327 AUTHORIZATION.)
2328 %p
2330 The process ID of the backend currently connected to.
2331 %R
2333 In prompt 1 normally =, but @ if the session is in an inactive
2334 branch of a conditional block, or ^ if in single-line mode, or
2335 ! if the session is disconnected from the database (which can
2336 happen if \connect fails). In prompt 2 %R is replaced by a
2337 character that depends on why psql expects more input: - if the
2338 command simply wasn't terminated yet, but * if there is an
2339 unfinished /* ... */ comment, a single quote if there is an
2340 unfinished quoted string, a double quote if there is an
2341 unfinished quoted identifier, a dollar sign if there is an
2342 unfinished dollar-quoted string, or ( if there is an unmatched
2343 left parenthesis. In prompt 3 %R doesn't produce anything.
2344 %x
2346 Transaction status: an empty string when not in a transaction
2347 block, or * when in a transaction block, or ! when in a failed
2348 transaction block, or ? when the transaction state is
2349 indeterminate (for example, because there is no connection).
2350 %l
2352 The line number inside the current statement, starting from 1.
2353 %digits
2355 The character with the indicated octal code is substituted.
2356 %:name:
2358 The value of the psql variable name. See Variables, above, for
2359 details.
2360 %`command`
2362 The output of command, similar to ordinary “back-tick”
2363 substitution.
2364 %[ ... %]
2366 Prompts can contain terminal control characters which, for
2367 example, change the color, background, or style of the prompt
2368 text, or change the title of the terminal window. In order for
2369 the line editing features of Readline to work properly, these
2370 non-printing control characters must be designated as invisible
2371 by surrounding them with %[ and %]. Multiple pairs of these can
2372 occur within the prompt. For example:
2373 testdb=> \set PROMPT1 '%[%033[1;33;40m%]%n@%/%R%[%033[0m%]%# '
2375 results in a boldfaced (1;) yellow-on-black (33;40) prompt on
2377 VT100-compatible, color-capable terminals.
2378 %w
2380 Whitespace of the same width as the most recent output of
2381 PROMPT1. This can be used as a PROMPT2 setting, so that
2382 multi-line statements are aligned with the first line, but
2383 there is no visible secondary prompt.
2384 To insert a percent sign into your prompt, write %%. The default
2385 prompts are '%/%R%x%# ' for prompts 1 and 2, and '>> ' for prompt
2386 3.
2387 Note
2389 This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from tcsh.
2390 Command-Line Editing
2392 psql uses the Readline or libedit library, if available, for
2393 convenient line editing and retrieval. The command history is
2394 automatically saved when psql exits and is reloaded when psql
2395 starts up. Type up-arrow or control-P to retrieve previous lines.
2396 You can also use tab completion to fill in partially-typed keywords
2398 and SQL object names in many (by no means all) contexts. For
2399 example, at the start of a command, typing ins and pressing TAB
2400 will fill in insert into. Then, typing a few characters of a table
2401 or schema name and pressing TAB will fill in the unfinished name,
2402 or offer a menu of possible completions when there's more than one.
2403 (Depending on the library in use, you may need to press TAB more
2404 than once to get a menu.)
2405 Tab completion for SQL object names requires sending queries to the
2407 server to find possible matches. In some contexts this can
2408 interfere with other operations. For example, after BEGIN it will
2409 be too late to issue SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL if a
2410 tab-completion query is issued in between. If you do not want tab
2411 completion at all, you can turn it off permanently by putting this
2412 in a file named .inputrc in your home directory:
2413 $if psql
2415 set disable-completion on
2416 $endif
2417 (This is not a psql but a Readline feature. Read its documentation
2419 for further details.)
2420 The -n (--no-readline) command line option can also be useful to
2422 disable use of Readline for a single run of psql. This prevents tab
2423 completion, use or recording of command line history, and editing
2424 of multi-line commands. It is particularly useful when you need to
2425 copy-and-paste text that contains TAB characters.
2426
2428 COLUMNS
2429 If \pset columns is zero, controls the width for the wrapped format
2430 and width for determining if wide output requires the pager or
2431 should be switched to the vertical format in expanded auto mode.
2432 PGDATABASE
2434 PGHOST
2435 PGPORT
2436 PGUSER
2437 Default connection parameters (see Section 34.15).
2438 PG_COLOR
2440 Specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages. Possible
2441 values are always, auto and never.
2442 PSQL_EDITOR
2444 EDITOR
2445 VISUAL
2446 Editor used by the \e, \ef, and \ev commands. These variables are
2447 examined in the order listed; the first that is set is used. If
2448 none of them is set, the default is to use vi on Unix systems or
2449 notepad.exe on Windows systems.
2450 PSQL_EDITOR_LINENUMBER_ARG
2452 When \e, \ef, or \ev is used with a line number argument, this
2453 variable specifies the command-line argument used to pass the
2454 starting line number to the user's editor. For editors such as
2455 Emacs or vi, this is a plus sign. Include a trailing space in the
2456 value of the variable if there needs to be space between the option
2457 name and the line number. Examples:
2458 PSQL_EDITOR_LINENUMBER_ARG='+'
2460 PSQL_EDITOR_LINENUMBER_ARG='--line '
2461 The default is + on Unix systems (corresponding to the default
2463 editor vi, and useful for many other common editors); but there is
2464 no default on Windows systems.
2465 PSQL_HISTORY
2467 Alternative location for the command history file. Tilde (~)
2468 expansion is performed.
2469 PSQL_PAGER
2471 PAGER
2472 If a query's results do not fit on the screen, they are piped
2473 through this command. Typical values are more or less. Use of the
2474 pager can be disabled by setting PSQL_PAGER or PAGER to an empty
2475 string, or by adjusting the pager-related options of the \pset
2476 command. These variables are examined in the order listed; the
2477 first that is set is used. If neither of them is set, the default
2478 is to use more on most platforms, but less on Cygwin.
2479 PSQL_WATCH_PAGER
2481 When a query is executed repeatedly with the \watch command, a
2482 pager is not used by default. This behavior can be changed by
2483 setting PSQL_WATCH_PAGER to a pager command, on Unix systems. The
2484 pspg pager (not part of PostgreSQL but available in many open
2485 source software distributions) can display the output of \watch if
2486 started with the option --stream.
2487 PSQLRC
2489 Alternative location of the user's .psqlrc file. Tilde (~)
2490 expansion is performed.
2491 SHELL
2493 Command executed by the \! command.
2494 TMPDIR
2496 Directory for storing temporary files. The default is /tmp.
2497 This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the
2499 environment variables supported by libpq (see Section 34.15).
2500
2502 psqlrc and ~/.psqlrc
2503 Unless it is passed an -X option, psql attempts to read and execute
2504 commands from the system-wide startup file (psqlrc) and then the
2505 user's personal startup file (~/.psqlrc), after connecting to the
2506 database but before accepting normal commands. These files can be
2507 used to set up the client and/or the server to taste, typically
2508 with \set and SET commands.
2509 The system-wide startup file is named psqlrc. By default it is
2511 sought in the installation's “system configuration” directory,
2512 which is most reliably identified by running pg_config
2513 --sysconfdir. Typically this directory will be ../etc/ relative to
2514 the directory containing the PostgreSQL executables. The directory
2515 to look in can be set explicitly via the PGSYSCONFDIR environment
2516 variable.
2517 The user's personal startup file is named .psqlrc and is sought in
2519 the invoking user's home directory. On Windows the personal startup
2520 file is instead named %APPDATA%\postgresql\psqlrc.conf. In either
2521 case, this default file path can be overridden by setting the
2522 PSQLRC environment variable.
2523 Both the system-wide startup file and the user's personal startup
2525 file can be made psql-version-specific by appending a dash and the
2526 PostgreSQL major or minor release identifier to the file name, for
2527 example ~/.psqlrc-15 or ~/.psqlrc-15.4. The most specific
2528 version-matching file will be read in preference to a
2529 non-version-specific file. These version suffixes are added after
2530 determining the file path as explained above.
2531 .psql_history
2533 The command-line history is stored in the file ~/.psql_history, or
2534 %APPDATA%\postgresql\psql_history on Windows.
2535 The location of the history file can be set explicitly via the
2537 HISTFILE psql variable or the PSQL_HISTORY environment variable.
2538
2540 • psql works best with servers of the same or an older major version.
2541 Backslash commands are particularly likely to fail if the server is
2542 of a newer version than psql itself. However, backslash commands of
2543 the \d family should work with servers of versions back to 9.2,
2544 though not necessarily with servers newer than psql itself. The
2545 general functionality of running SQL commands and displaying query
2546 results should also work with servers of a newer major version, but
2547 this cannot be guaranteed in all cases.
2548 If you want to use psql to connect to several servers of different
2550 major versions, it is recommended that you use the newest version
2551 of psql. Alternatively, you can keep around a copy of psql from
2552 each major version and be sure to use the version that matches the
2553 respective server. But in practice, this additional complication
2554 should not be necessary.
2555 • Before PostgreSQL 9.6, the -c option implied -X (--no-psqlrc); this
2557 is no longer the case.
2558 • Before PostgreSQL 8.4, psql allowed the first argument of a
2560 single-letter backslash command to start directly after the
2561 command, without intervening whitespace. Now, some whitespace is
2562 required.
2563
2565 psql is built as a “console application”. Since the Windows console
2566 windows use a different encoding than the rest of the system, you must
2567 take special care when using 8-bit characters within psql. If psql
2568 detects a problematic console code page, it will warn you at startup.
2569 To change the console code page, two things are necessary:
2570 • Set the code page by entering cmd.exe /c chcp 1252. (1252 is a code
2572 page that is appropriate for German; replace it with your value.)
2573 If you are using Cygwin, you can put this command in /etc/profile.
2574 • Set the console font to Lucida Console, because the raster font
2576 does not work with the ANSI code page.
2577
2579 The first example shows how to spread a command over several lines of
2580 input. Notice the changing prompt:
2581 testdb=> CREATE TABLE my_table (
2583 testdb(> first integer not null default 0,
2584 testdb(> second text)
2585 testdb-> ;
2586 CREATE TABLE
2587 Now look at the table definition again:
2589 testdb=> \d my_table
2591 Table "public.my_table"
2592 Column | Type | Collation | Nullable | Default
2593 --------+---------+-----------+----------+---------
2594 first | integer | | not null | 0
2595 second | text | | |
2596 Now we change the prompt to something more interesting:
2598 testdb=> \set PROMPT1 '%n@%m %~%R%# '
2600 peter@localhost testdb=>
2601 Let's assume you have filled the table with data and want to take a
2603 look at it:
2604 peter@localhost testdb=> SELECT * FROM my_table;
2606 first | second
2607 -------+--------
2608 1 | one
2609 2 | two
2610 3 | three
2611 4 | four
2612 (4 rows)
2613 You can display tables in different ways by using the \pset command:
2615 peter@localhost testdb=> \pset border 2
2617 Border style is 2.
2618 peter@localhost testdb=> SELECT * FROM my_table;
2619 +-------+--------+
2620 | first | second |
2621 +-------+--------+
2622 | 1 | one |
2623 | 2 | two |
2624 | 3 | three |
2625 | 4 | four |
2626 +-------+--------+
2627 (4 rows)
2628 peter@localhost testdb=> \pset border 0
2630 Border style is 0.
2631 peter@localhost testdb=> SELECT * FROM my_table;
2632 first second
2633 ----- ------
2634 1 one
2635 2 two
2636 3 three
2637 4 four
2638 (4 rows)
2639 peter@localhost testdb=> \pset border 1
2641 Border style is 1.
2642 peter@localhost testdb=> \pset format csv
2643 Output format is csv.
2644 peter@localhost testdb=> \pset tuples_only
2645 Tuples only is on.
2646 peter@localhost testdb=> SELECT second, first FROM my_table;
2647 one,1
2648 two,2
2649 three,3
2650 four,4
2651 peter@localhost testdb=> \pset format unaligned
2652 Output format is unaligned.
2653 peter@localhost testdb=> \pset fieldsep '\t'
2654 Field separator is " ".
2655 peter@localhost testdb=> SELECT second, first FROM my_table;
2656 one 1
2657 two 2
2658 three 3
2659 four 4
2660 Alternatively, use the short commands:
2662 peter@localhost testdb=> \a \t \x
2664 Output format is aligned.
2665 Tuples only is off.
2666 Expanded display is on.
2667 peter@localhost testdb=> SELECT * FROM my_table;
2668 -[ RECORD 1 ]-
2669 first | 1
2670 second | one
2671 -[ RECORD 2 ]-
2672 first | 2
2673 second | two
2674 -[ RECORD 3 ]-
2675 first | 3
2676 second | three
2677 -[ RECORD 4 ]-
2678 first | 4
2679 second | four
2680 Also, these output format options can be set for just one query by
2682 using \g:
2683 peter@localhost testdb=> SELECT * FROM my_table
2685 peter@localhost testdb-> \g (format=aligned tuples_only=off expanded=on)
2686 -[ RECORD 1 ]-
2687 first | 1
2688 second | one
2689 -[ RECORD 2 ]-
2690 first | 2
2691 second | two
2692 -[ RECORD 3 ]-
2693 first | 3
2694 second | three
2695 -[ RECORD 4 ]-
2696 first | 4
2697 second | four
2698 Here is an example of using the \df command to find only functions with
2700 names matching int*pl and whose second argument is of type bigint:
2701 testdb=> \df int*pl * bigint
2703 List of functions
2704 Schema | Name | Result data type | Argument data types | Type
2705 ------------+---------+------------------+---------------------+------
2706 pg_catalog | int28pl | bigint | smallint, bigint | func
2707 pg_catalog | int48pl | bigint | integer, bigint | func
2708 pg_catalog | int8pl | bigint | bigint, bigint | func
2709 (3 rows)
2710 When suitable, query results can be shown in a crosstab representation
2712 with the \crosstabview command:
2713 testdb=> SELECT first, second, first > 2 AS gt2 FROM my_table;
2715 first | second | gt2
2716 -------+--------+-----
2717 1 | one | f
2718 2 | two | f
2719 3 | three | t
2720 4 | four | t
2721 (4 rows)
2722 testdb=> \crosstabview first second
2724 first | one | two | three | four
2725 -------+-----+-----+-------+------
2726 1 | f | | |
2727 2 | | f | |
2728 3 | | | t |
2729 4 | | | | t
2730 (4 rows)
2731 This second example shows a multiplication table with rows sorted in
2733 reverse numerical order and columns with an independent, ascending
2734 numerical order.
2735 testdb=> SELECT t1.first as "A", t2.first+100 AS "B", t1.first*(t2.first+100) as "AxB",
2737 testdb(> row_number() over(order by t2.first) AS ord
2738 testdb(> FROM my_table t1 CROSS JOIN my_table t2 ORDER BY 1 DESC
2739 testdb(> \crosstabview "A" "B" "AxB" ord
2740 A | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104
2741 ---+-----+-----+-----+-----
2742 4 | 404 | 408 | 412 | 416
2743 3 | 303 | 306 | 309 | 312
2744 2 | 202 | 204 | 206 | 208
2745 1 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104
2746 (4 rows)
2747PostgreSQL 15.4 2023 PSQL(1)