PSQL(1)                 PostgreSQL 9.4.5 Documentation                 PSQL(1)



NAME
       psql - PostgreSQL interactive terminal

SYNOPSIS
       psql [option...] [dbname [username]]

DESCRIPTION
       psql is a terminal-based front-end to PostgreSQL. It enables you to
       type in queries interactively, issue them to PostgreSQL, and see the
       query results. Alternatively, input can be from a file. In addition, it
       provides a number of meta-commands and various shell-like features to
       facilitate writing scripts and automating a wide variety of tasks.

OPTIONS
       -a
       --echo-all
           Print all nonempty input lines to standard output as they are read.
           (This does not apply to lines read interactively.) This is
           equivalent to setting the variable ECHO to all.

       -A
       --no-align
           Switches to unaligned output mode. (The default output mode is
           otherwise aligned.)

       -c command
       --command=command
           Specifies that psql is to execute one command string, command, and
           then exit. This is useful in shell scripts. Start-up files (psqlrc
           and ~/.psqlrc) are ignored with this option.


           command must be either a command string that is completely parsable
           by the server (i.e., it contains no psql-specific features), or a
           single backslash command. Thus you cannot mix SQL and psql
           meta-commands with this option. To achieve that, you could pipe the
           string into psql, for example: echo '\x \\ SELECT * FROM foo;' |
           psql. (\\ is the separator meta-command.)

           If the command string contains multiple SQL commands, they are
           processed in a single transaction, unless there are explicit
           BEGIN/COMMIT commands included in the string to divide it into
           multiple transactions. This is different from the behavior when the
           same string is fed to psql's standard input. Also, only the result
           of the last SQL command is returned.

           Because of these legacy behaviors, putting more than one command in
           the -c string often has unexpected results. It's better to feed
           multiple commands to psql's standard input, either using echo as
           illustrated above, or via a shell here-document, for example:

               psql <<EOF
               \x
               SELECT * FROM foo;
               EOF


       -d dbname
       --dbname=dbname
           Specifies the name of the database to connect to. This is
           equivalent to specifying dbname as the first non-option argument on
           the command line.

           If this parameter contains an = sign or starts with a valid URI
           prefix (postgresql:// or postgres://), it is treated as a conninfo
           string. See Section 31.1.1, "Connection Strings", in the
           documentation for more information.

       -e
       --echo-queries
           Copy all SQL commands sent to the server to standard output as
           well. This is equivalent to setting the variable ECHO to queries.

       -E
       --echo-hidden
           Echo the actual queries generated by \d and other backslash
           commands. You can use this to study psql's internal operations.
           This is equivalent to setting the variable ECHO_HIDDEN to on.

       -f filename
       --file=filename
           Use the file filename as the source of commands instead of reading
           commands interactively. After the file is processed, psql
           terminates. This is in many ways equivalent to the meta-command \i.

           If filename is - (hyphen), then standard input is read.

           Using this option is subtly different from writing psql < filename.
           In general, both will do what you expect, but using -f enables some
           nice features such as error messages with line numbers. There is
           also a slight chance that using this option will reduce the
           start-up overhead. On the other hand, the variant using the shell's
           input redirection is (in theory) guaranteed to yield exactly the
           same output you would have received had you entered everything by
           hand.

       -F separator
       --field-separator=separator
           Use separator as the field separator for unaligned output. This is
           equivalent to \pset fieldsep or \f.

       -h hostname
       --host=hostname
           Specifies the host name of the machine on which the server is
           running. If the value begins with a slash, it is used as the
           directory for the Unix-domain socket.

       -H
       --html
           Turn on HTML tabular output. This is equivalent to \pset format
           html or the \H command.

       -l
       --list
           List all available databases, then exit. Other non-connection
           options are ignored. This is similar to the meta-command \list.

       -L filename
       --log-file=filename
           Write all query output into file filename, in addition to the
           normal output destination.

       -n
       --no-readline
           Do not use Readline for line editing and do not use the command
           history. This can be useful to turn off tab expansion when cutting
           and pasting.

       -o filename
       --output=filename
           Put all query output into file filename. This is equivalent to the
           command \o.

       -p port
       --port=port
           Specifies the TCP port or the local Unix-domain socket file
           extension on which the server is listening for connections.
           Defaults to the value of the PGPORT environment variable or, if not
           set, to the port specified at compile time, usually 5432.

       -P assignment
       --pset=assignment
           Specifies printing options, in the style of \pset. Note that here
           you have to separate name and value with an equal sign instead of a
           space. For example, to set the output format to LaTeX, you could
           write -P format=latex.

       -q
       --quiet
           Specifies that psql should do its work quietly. By default, it
           prints welcome messages and various informational output. If this
           option is used, none of this happens. This is useful with the -c
           option. This is equivalent to setting the variable QUIET to on.

       -R separator
       --record-separator=separator
           Use separator as the record separator for unaligned output. This is
           equivalent to the \pset recordsep command.

       -s
       --single-step
           Run in single-step mode. That means the user is prompted before
           each command is sent to the server, with the option to cancel
           execution as well. Use this to debug scripts.

       -S
       --single-line
           Runs in single-line mode where a newline terminates an SQL command,
           as a semicolon does.

               Note
               This mode is provided for those who insist on it, but you are
               not necessarily encouraged to use it. In particular, if you mix
               SQL and meta-commands on a line the order of execution might
               not always be clear to the inexperienced user.

       -t
       --tuples-only
           Turn off printing of column names and result row count footers,
           etc. This is equivalent to the \t command.

       -T table_options
       --table-attr=table_options
           Specifies options to be placed within the HTML table tag. See \pset
           for details.

       -U username
       --username=username
           Connect to the database as the user username instead of the
           default. (You must have permission to do so, of course.)

       -v assignment
       --set=assignment
       --variable=assignment
           Perform a variable assignment, like the \set meta-command. Note
           that you must separate name and value, if any, by an equal sign on
           the command line. To unset a variable, leave off the equal sign. To
           set a variable with an empty value, use the equal sign but leave
           off the value. These assignments are done during a very early stage
           of start-up, so variables reserved for internal purposes might get
           overwritten later.

       -V
       --version
           Print the psql version and exit.

       -w
       --no-password
           Never issue a password prompt. If the server requires password
           authentication and a password is not available by other means such
           as a .pgpass file, the connection attempt will fail. This option
           can be useful in batch jobs and scripts where no user is present to
           enter a password.

           Note that this option will remain set for the entire session, and
           so it affects uses of the meta-command \connect as well as the
           initial connection attempt.

       -W
       --password
           Force psql to prompt for a password before connecting to a
           database.

           This option is never essential, since psql will automatically
           prompt for a password if the server demands password
           authentication. However, psql will waste a connection attempt
           finding out that the server wants a password. In some cases it is
           worth typing -W to avoid the extra connection attempt.

           Note that this option will remain set for the entire session, and
           so it affects uses of the meta-command \connect as well as the
           initial connection attempt.

       -x
       --expanded
           Turn on the expanded table formatting mode. This is equivalent to
           the \x command.

       -X,
       --no-psqlrc
           Do not read the start-up file (neither the system-wide psqlrc file
           nor the user's ~/.psqlrc file).

       -z
       --field-separator-zero
           Set the field separator for unaligned output to a zero byte.

       -0
       --record-separator-zero
           Set the record separator for unaligned output to a zero byte. This
           is useful for interfacing, for example, with xargs -0.

       -1
       --single-transaction
           When psql executes a script, adding this option wraps BEGIN/COMMIT
           around the script to execute it as a single transaction. This
           ensures that either all the commands complete successfully, or no
           changes are applied.

           If the script itself uses BEGIN, COMMIT, or ROLLBACK, this option
           will not have the desired effects. Also, if the script contains any
           command that cannot be executed inside a transaction block,
           specifying this option will cause that command (and hence the whole
           transaction) to fail.

       -?
       --help
           Show help about psql command line arguments, and exit.

EXIT STATUS
       psql returns 0 to the shell if it finished normally, 1 if a fatal error
       of its own occurs (e.g. out of memory, file not found), 2 if the
       connection to the server went bad and the session was not interactive,
       and 3 if an error occurred in a script and the variable ON_ERROR_STOP
       was set.

USAGE
   Connecting to a Database
       psql is a regular PostgreSQL client application. In order to connect to
       a database you need to know the name of your target database, the host
       name and port number of the server, and what user name you want to
       connect as.  psql can be told about those parameters via command line
       options, namely -d, -h, -p, and -U respectively. If an argument is
       found that does not belong to any option it will be interpreted as the
       database name (or the user name, if the database name is already
       given). Not all of these options are required; there are useful
       defaults. If you omit the host name, psql will connect via a
       Unix-domain socket to a server on the local host, or via TCP/IP to
       localhost on machines that don't have Unix-domain sockets. The default
       port number is determined at compile time. Since the database server
       uses the same default, you will not have to specify the port in most
       cases. The default user name is your operating-system user name, as is
       the default database name. Note that you cannot just connect to any
       database under any user name. Your database administrator should have
       informed you about your access rights.

       When the defaults aren't quite right, you can save yourself some typing
       by setting the environment variables PGDATABASE, PGHOST, PGPORT and/or
       PGUSER to appropriate values. (For additional environment variables,
       see Section 31.14, "Environment Variables", in the documentation.) It
       is also convenient to have a ~/.pgpass file to avoid regularly having
       to type in passwords. See Section 31.15, "The Password File", in the
       documentation for more information.

       An alternative way to specify connection parameters is in a conninfo
       string or a URI, which is used instead of a database name. This
       mechanism give you very wide control over the connection. For example:

           $ psql "service=myservice sslmode=require"
           $ psql postgresql://dbmaster:5433/mydb?sslmode=require

       This way you can also use LDAP for connection parameter lookup as
       described in Section 31.17, "LDAP Lookup of Connection Parameters", in
       the documentation. See Section 31.1.2, "Parameter Key Words", in the
       documentation for more information on all the available connection
       options.

       If the connection could not be made for any reason (e.g., insufficient
       privileges, server is not running on the targeted host, etc.), psql
       will return an error and terminate.

       If both standard input and standard output are a terminal, then psql
       sets the client encoding to "auto", which will detect the appropriate
       client encoding from the locale settings (LC_CTYPE environment variable
       on Unix systems). If this doesn't work out as expected, the client
       encoding can be overridden using the environment variable
       PGCLIENTENCODING.

   Entering SQL Commands
       In normal operation, psql provides a prompt with the name of the
       database to which psql is currently connected, followed by the string
       =>. For example:

           $ psql testdb
           psql (9.4.5)
           Type "help" for help.

           testdb=>

       At the prompt, the user can type in SQL commands. Ordinarily, input
       lines are sent to the server when a command-terminating semicolon is
       reached. An end of line does not terminate a command. Thus commands can
       be spread over several lines for clarity. If the command was sent and
       executed without error, the results of the command are displayed on the
       screen.

       Whenever a command is executed, psql also polls for asynchronous
       notification events generated by LISTEN(7) and NOTIFY(7).

       While C-style block comments are passed to the server for processing
       and removal, SQL-standard comments are removed by psql.

   Meta-Commands
       Anything you enter in psql that begins with an unquoted backslash is a
       psql meta-command that is processed by psql itself. These commands make
       psql more useful for administration or scripting. Meta-commands are
       often called slash or backslash commands.

       The format of a psql command is the backslash, followed immediately by
       a command verb, then any arguments. The arguments are separated from
       the command verb and each other by any number of whitespace characters.

       To include whitespace in an argument you can quote it with single
       quotes. To include a single quote in an argument, write two single
       quotes within single-quoted text. Anything contained in single quotes
       is furthermore subject to C-like substitutions for \n (new line), \t
       (tab), \b (backspace), \r (carriage return), \f (form feed), \digits
       (octal), and \xdigits (hexadecimal). A backslash preceding any other
       character within single-quoted text quotes that single character,
       whatever it is.

       Within an argument, text that is enclosed in backquotes (`) is taken as
       a command line that is passed to the shell. The output of the command
       (with any trailing newline removed) replaces the backquoted text.

       If an unquoted colon (:) followed by a psql variable name appears
       within an argument, it is replaced by the variable's value, as
       described in SQL Interpolation.

       Some commands take an SQL identifier (such as a table name) as
       argument. These arguments follow the syntax rules of SQL: Unquoted
       letters are forced to lowercase, while double quotes (") protect
       letters from case conversion and allow incorporation of whitespace into
       the identifier. Within double quotes, paired double quotes reduce to a
       single double quote in the resulting name. For example, FOO"BAR"BAZ is
       interpreted as fooBARbaz, and "A weird"" name" becomes A weird" name.

       Parsing for arguments stops at the end of the line, or when another
       unquoted backslash is found. An unquoted backslash is taken as the
       beginning of a new meta-command. The special sequence \\ (two
       backslashes) marks the end of arguments and continues parsing SQL
       commands, if any. That way SQL and psql commands can be freely mixed on
       a line. But in any case, the arguments of a meta-command cannot
       continue beyond the end of the line.

       The following meta-commands are defined:

       \a
           If the current table output format is unaligned, it is switched to
           aligned. If it is not unaligned, it is set to unaligned. This
           command is kept for backwards compatibility. See \pset for a more
           general solution.

       \c or \connect [ dbname [ username ] [ host ] [ port ] ] | conninfo
           Establishes a new connection to a PostgreSQL server. The connection
           parameters to use can be specified either using a positional
           syntax, or using conninfo connection strings as detailed in Section
           31.1.1, "Connection Strings", in the documentation.

           When using positional parameters, if any of dbname, username, host
           or port are omitted or specified as -, the value of that parameter
           from the previous connection is used; if there is no previous
           connection, the libpq default for the parameter's value is used.
           When using conninfo strings, no values from the previous connection
           are used for the new connection.

           If the new connection is successfully made, the previous connection
           is closed. If the connection attempt failed (wrong user name,
           access denied, etc.), the previous connection will only be kept if
           psql is in interactive mode. When executing a non-interactive
           script, processing will immediately stop with an error. This
           distinction was chosen as a user convenience against typos on the
           one hand, and a safety mechanism that scripts are not accidentally
           acting on the wrong database on the other hand.

           Examples:

               => \c mydb myuser host.dom 6432
               => \c service=foo
               => \c "host=localhost port=5432 dbname=mydb connect_timeout=10 sslmode=disable"
               => \c postgresql://tom@localhost/mydb?application_name=myapp

       \C [ title ]
           Sets the title of any tables being printed as the result of a query
           or unset any such title. This command is equivalent to \pset title
           title. (The name of this command derives from "caption", as it was
           previously only used to set the caption in an HTML table.)

       \cd [ directory ]
           Changes the current working directory to directory. Without
           argument, changes to the current user's home directory.

               Tip
               To print your current working directory, use \! pwd.

       \conninfo
           Outputs information about the current database connection.

       \copy { table [ ( column_list ) ] | ( query ) } { from | to } {
       'filename' | program 'command' | stdin | stdout | pstdin | pstdout } [
       [ with ] ( option [, ...] ) ]
           Performs a frontend (client) copy. This is an operation that runs
           an SQL COPY(7) command, but instead of the server reading or
           writing the specified file, psql reads or writes the file and
           routes the data between the server and the local file system. This
           means that file accessibility and privileges are those of the local
           user, not the server, and no SQL superuser privileges are required.

           When program is specified, command is executed by psql and the data
           passed from or to command is routed between the server and the
           client. Again, the execution privileges are those of the local
           user, not the server, and no SQL superuser privileges are required.

           For \copy ... from stdin, data rows are read from the same source
           that issued the command, continuing until \.  is read or the stream
           reaches EOF. This option is useful for populating tables in-line
           within a SQL script file. For \copy ... to stdout, output is sent
           to the same place as psql command output, and the COPY count
           command status is not printed (since it might be confused with a
           data row). To read/write psql's standard input or output regardless
           of the current command source or \o option, write from pstdin or to
           pstdout.

           The syntax of this command is similar to that of the SQL COPY(7)
           command. All options other than the data source/destination are as
           specified for COPY(7). Because of this, special parsing rules apply
           to the \copy command. In particular, psql's variable substitution
           rules and backslash escapes do not apply.

               Tip
               This operation is not as efficient as the SQL COPY command
               because all data must pass through the client/server
               connection. For large amounts of data the SQL command might be
               preferable.

       \copyright
           Shows the copyright and distribution terms of PostgreSQL.

       \d[S+] [ pattern ]
           For each relation (table, view, index, sequence, or foreign table)
           or composite type matching the pattern, show all columns, their
           types, the tablespace (if not the default) and any special
           attributes such as NOT NULL or defaults. Associated indexes,
           constraints, rules, and triggers are also shown. For foreign
           tables, the associated foreign server is shown as well. ("Matching
           the pattern" is defined in Patterns below.)

           For some types of relation, \d shows additional information for
           each column: column values for sequences, indexed expression for
           indexes and foreign data wrapper options for foreign tables.

           The command form \d+ is identical, except that more information is
           displayed: any comments associated with the columns of the table
           are shown, as is the presence of OIDs in the table, the view
           definition if the relation is a view, a non-default replica
           identity setting.

           By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a pattern
           or the S modifier to include system objects.

               Note
               If \d is used without a pattern argument, it is equivalent to
               \dtvsE which will show a list of all visible tables, views,
               sequences and foreign tables. This is purely a convenience
               measure.

       \da[S] [ pattern ]
           Lists aggregate functions, together with their return type and the
           data types they operate on. If pattern is specified, only
           aggregates whose names match the pattern are shown. By default,
           only user-created objects are shown; supply a pattern or the S
           modifier to include system objects.

       \db[+] [ pattern ]
           Lists tablespaces. If pattern is specified, only tablespaces whose
           names match the pattern are shown. If + is appended to the command
           name, each object is listed with its associated permissions.

       \dc[S+] [ pattern ]
           Lists conversions between character-set encodings. If pattern is
           specified, only conversions whose names match the pattern are
           listed. By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
           pattern or the S modifier to include system objects. If + is
           appended to the command name, each object is listed with its
           associated description.

       \dC[+] [ pattern ]
           Lists type casts. If pattern is specified, only casts whose source
           or target types match the pattern are listed. If + is appended to
           the command name, each object is listed with its associated
           description.

       \dd[S] [ pattern ]
           Shows the descriptions of objects of type constraint, operator
           class, operator family, rule, and trigger. All other comments may
           be viewed by the respective backslash commands for those object
           types.

           \dd displays descriptions for objects matching the pattern, or of
           visible objects of the appropriate type if no argument is given.
           But in either case, only objects that have a description are
           listed. By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a
           pattern or the S modifier to include system objects.

           Descriptions for objects can be created with the COMMENT(7) SQL
           command.

       \ddp [ pattern ]
           Lists default access privilege settings. An entry is shown for each
           role (and schema, if applicable) for which the default privilege
           settings have been changed from the built-in defaults. If pattern
           is specified, only entries whose role name or schema name matches
           the pattern are listed.

           The ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES (ALTER_DEFAULT_PRIVILEGES(7)) command
           is used to set default access privileges. The meaning of the
           privilege display is explained under GRANT(7).

       \dD[S+] [ pattern ]
           Lists domains. If pattern is specified, only domains whose names
           match the pattern are shown. By default, only user-created objects
           are shown; supply a pattern or the S modifier to include system
           objects. If + is appended to the command name, each object is
           listed with its associated permissions and description.

       \dE[S+] [ pattern ]
       \di[S+] [ pattern ]
       \dm[S+] [ pattern ]
       \ds[S+] [ pattern ]
       \dt[S+] [ pattern ]
       \dv[S+] [ pattern ]
           In this group of commands, the letters E, i, m, s, t, and v stand
           for foreign table, index, materialized view, sequence, table, and
           view, respectively. You can specify any or all of these letters, in
           any order, to obtain a listing of objects of these types. For
           example, \dit lists indexes and tables. If + is appended to the
           command name, each object is listed with its physical size on disk
           and its associated description, if any. If pattern is specified,
           only objects whose names match the pattern are listed. By default,
           only user-created objects are shown; supply a pattern or the S
           modifier to include system objects.

       \des[+] [ pattern ]
           Lists foreign servers (mnemonic: "external servers"). If pattern is
           specified, only those servers whose name matches the pattern are
           listed. If the form \des+ is used, a full description of each
           server is shown, including the server's ACL, type, version,
           options, and description.

       \det[+] [ pattern ]
           Lists foreign tables (mnemonic: "external tables"). If pattern is
           specified, only entries whose table name or schema name matches the
           pattern are listed. If the form \det+ is used, generic options and
           the foreign table description are also displayed.

       \deu[+] [ pattern ]
           Lists user mappings (mnemonic: "external users"). If pattern is
           specified, only those mappings whose user names match the pattern
           are listed. If the form \deu+ is used, additional information about
           each mapping is shown.

               Caution
               \deu+ might also display the user name and password of the
               remote user, so care should be taken not to disclose them.

       \dew[+] [ pattern ]
           Lists foreign-data wrappers (mnemonic: "external wrappers"). If
           pattern is specified, only those foreign-data wrappers whose name
           matches the pattern are listed. If the form \dew+ is used, the ACL,
           options, and description of the foreign-data wrapper are also
           shown.

       \df[antwS+] [ pattern ]
           Lists functions, together with their arguments, return types, and
           function types, which are classified as "agg" (aggregate),
           "normal", "trigger", or "window". To display only functions of
           specific type(s), add the corresponding letters a, n, t, or w to
           the command. If pattern is specified, only functions whose names
           match the pattern are shown. By default, only user-created objects
           are shown; supply a pattern or the S modifier to include system
           objects. If the form \df+ is used, additional information about
           each function is shown, including security classification,
           volatility, owner, language, source code and description.

               Tip
               To look up functions taking arguments or returning values of a
               specific type, use your pager's search capability to scroll
               through the \df output.

       \dF[+] [ pattern ]
           Lists text search configurations. If pattern is specified, only
           configurations whose names match the pattern are shown. If the form
           \dF+ is used, a full description of each configuration is shown,
           including the underlying text search parser and the dictionary list
           for each parser token type.

       \dFd[+] [ pattern ]
           Lists text search dictionaries. If pattern is specified, only
           dictionaries whose names match the pattern are shown. If the form
           \dFd+ is used, additional information is shown about each selected
           dictionary, including the underlying text search template and the
           option values.

       \dFp[+] [ pattern ]
           Lists text search parsers. If pattern is specified, only parsers
           whose names match the pattern are shown. If the form \dFp+ is used,
           a full description of each parser is shown, including the
           underlying functions and the list of recognized token types.

       \dFt[+] [ pattern ]
           Lists text search templates. If pattern is specified, only
           templates whose names match the pattern are shown. If the form
           \dFt+ is used, additional information is shown about each template,
           including the underlying function names.

       \dg[+] [ pattern ]
           Lists database roles. (Since the concepts of "users" and "groups"
           have been unified into "roles", this command is now equivalent to
           \du.) If pattern is specified, only those roles whose names match
           the pattern are listed. If the form \dg+ is used, additional
           information is shown about each role; currently this adds the
           comment for each role.

       \dl
           This is an alias for \lo_list, which shows a list of large objects.

       \dL[S+] [ pattern ]
           Lists procedural languages. If pattern is specified, only languages
           whose names match the pattern are listed. By default, only
           user-created languages are shown; supply the S modifier to include
           system objects. If + is appended to the command name, each language
           is listed with its call handler, validator, access privileges, and
           whether it is a system object.

       \dn[S+] [ pattern ]
           Lists schemas (namespaces). If pattern is specified, only schemas
           whose names match the pattern are listed. By default, only
           user-created objects are shown; supply a pattern or the S modifier
           to include system objects. If + is appended to the command name,
           each object is listed with its associated permissions and
           description, if any.

       \do[S+] [ pattern ]
           Lists operators with their operand and result types. If pattern is
           specified, only operators whose names match the pattern are listed.
           By default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a pattern
           or the S modifier to include system objects. If + is appended to
           the command name, additional information about each operator is
           shown, currently just the name of the underlying function.

       \dO[S+] [ pattern ]
           Lists collations. If pattern is specified, only collations whose
           names match the pattern are listed. By default, only user-created
           objects are shown; supply a pattern or the S modifier to include
           system objects. If + is appended to the command name, each
           collation is listed with its associated description, if any. Note
           that only collations usable with the current database's encoding
           are shown, so the results may vary in different databases of the
           same installation.

       \dp [ pattern ]
           Lists tables, views and sequences with their associated access
           privileges. If pattern is specified, only tables, views and
           sequences whose names match the pattern are listed.

           The GRANT(7) and REVOKE(7) commands are used to set access
           privileges. The meaning of the privilege display is explained under
           GRANT(7).

       \drds [ role-pattern [ database-pattern ] ]
           Lists defined configuration settings. These settings can be
           role-specific, database-specific, or both.  role-pattern and
           database-pattern are used to select specific roles and databases to
           list, respectively. If omitted, or if * is specified, all settings
           are listed, including those not role-specific or database-specific,
           respectively.

           The ALTER ROLE (ALTER_ROLE(7)) and ALTER DATABASE
           (ALTER_DATABASE(7)) commands are used to define per-role and
           per-database configuration settings.

       \dT[S+] [ pattern ]
           Lists data types. If pattern is specified, only types whose names
           match the pattern are listed. If + is appended to the command name,
           each type is listed with its internal name and size, its allowed
           values if it is an enum type, and its associated permissions. By
           default, only user-created objects are shown; supply a pattern or
           the S modifier to include system objects.

       \du[+] [ pattern ]
           Lists database roles. (Since the concepts of "users" and "groups"
           have been unified into "roles", this command is now equivalent to
           \dg.) If pattern is specified, only those roles whose names match
           the pattern are listed. If the form \du+ is used, additional
           information is shown about each role; currently this adds the
           comment for each role.

       \dx[+] [ pattern ]
           Lists installed extensions. If pattern is specified, only those
           extensions whose names match the pattern are listed. If the form
           \dx+ is used, all the objects belonging to each matching extension
           are listed.

       \dy[+] [ pattern ]
           Lists event triggers. If pattern is specified, only those event
           triggers whose names match the pattern are listed. If + is appended
           to the command name, each object is listed with its associated
           description.

       \e or \edit [ filename ] [ line_number ]
           If filename is specified, the file is edited; after the editor
           exits, its content is copied back to the query buffer. If no
           filename is given, the current query buffer is copied to a
           temporary file which is then edited in the same fashion.

           The new query buffer is then re-parsed according to the normal
           rules of psql, where the whole buffer is treated as a single line.
           (Thus you cannot make scripts this way. Use \i for that.) This
           means that if the query ends with (or contains) a semicolon, it is
           immediately executed. Otherwise it will merely wait in the query
           buffer; type semicolon or \g to send it, or \r to cancel.

           If a line number is specified, psql will position the cursor on the
           specified line of the file or query buffer. Note that if a single
           all-digits argument is given, psql assumes it is a line number, not
           a file name.

               Tip
               See under ENVIRONMENT for how to configure and customize your
               editor.

       \echo text [ ... ]
           Prints the arguments to the standard output, separated by one space
           and followed by a newline. This can be useful to intersperse
           information in the output of scripts. For example:

               => \echo `date`
               Tue Oct 26 21:40:57 CEST 1999

           If the first argument is an unquoted -n the trailing newline is not
           written.

               Tip
               If you use the \o command to redirect your query output you
               might wish to use \qecho instead of this command.

       \ef [ function_description [ line_number ] ]
           This command fetches and edits the definition of the named
           function, in the form of a CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION command.
           Editing is done in the same way as for \edit. After the editor
           exits, the updated command waits in the query buffer; type
           semicolon or \g to send it, or \r to cancel.

           The target function can be specified by name alone, or by name and
           arguments, for example foo(integer, text). The argument types must
           be given if there is more than one function of the same name.

           If no function is specified, a blank CREATE FUNCTION template is
           presented for editing.

           If a line number is specified, psql will position the cursor on the
           specified line of the function body. (Note that the function body
           typically does not begin on the first line of the file.)

               Tip
               See under ENVIRONMENT for how to configure and customize your
               editor.

       \encoding [ encoding ]
           Sets the client character set encoding. Without an argument, this
           command shows the current encoding.

       \f [ string ]
           Sets the field separator for unaligned query output. The default is
           the vertical bar (|). See also \pset for a generic way of setting
           output options.

       \g [ filename ]
       \g [ |command ]
           Sends the current query input buffer to the server, and optionally
           stores the query's output in filename or pipes the output to the
           shell command command. The file or command is written to only if
           the query successfully returns zero or more tuples, not if the
           query fails or is a non-data-returning SQL command.

           A bare \g is essentially equivalent to a semicolon. A \g with
           argument is a "one-shot" alternative to the \o command.

       \gset [ prefix ]
           Sends the current query input buffer to the server and stores the
           query's output into psql variables (see Variables). The query to be
           executed must return exactly one row. Each column of the row is
           stored into a separate variable, named the same as the column. For
           example:

               => SELECT 'hello' AS var1, 10 AS var2
               -> \gset
               => \echo :var1 :var2
               hello 10

           If you specify a prefix, that string is prepended to the query's
           column names to create the variable names to use:

               => SELECT 'hello' AS var1, 10 AS var2
               -> \gset result_
               => \echo :result_var1 :result_var2
               hello 10

           If a column result is NULL, the corresponding variable is unset
           rather than being set.

           If the query fails or does not return one row, no variables are
           changed.

       \h or \help [ command ]
           Gives syntax help on the specified SQL command. If command is not
           specified, then psql will list all the commands for which syntax
           help is available. If command is an asterisk (*), then syntax help
           on all SQL commands is shown.

               Note
               To simplify typing, commands that consists of several words do
               not have to be quoted. Thus it is fine to type \help alter
               table.

       \H or \html
           Turns on HTML query output format. If the HTML format is already
           on, it is switched back to the default aligned text format. This
           command is for compatibility and convenience, but see \pset about
           setting other output options.

       \i or \include filename
           Reads input from the file filename and executes it as though it had
           been typed on the keyboard.

               Note
               If you want to see the lines on the screen as they are read you
               must set the variable ECHO to all.

       \ir or \include_relative filename
           The \ir command is similar to \i, but resolves relative file names
           differently. When executing in interactive mode, the two commands
           behave identically. However, when invoked from a script, \ir
           interprets file names relative to the directory in which the script
           is located, rather than the current working directory.

       \l[+] or \list[+] [ pattern ]
           List the databases in the server and show their names, owners,
           character set encodings, and access privileges. If pattern is
           specified, only databases whose names match the pattern are listed.
           If + is appended to the command name, database sizes, default
           tablespaces, and descriptions are also displayed. (Size information
           is only available for databases that the current user can connect
           to.)

       \lo_export loid filename
           Reads the large object with OID loid from the database and writes
           it to filename. Note that this is subtly different from the server
           function lo_export, which acts with the permissions of the user
           that the database server runs as and on the server's file system.

               Tip
               Use \lo_list to find out the large object's OID.

       \lo_import filename [ comment ]
           Stores the file into a PostgreSQL large object. Optionally, it
           associates the given comment with the object. Example:

               foo=> \lo_import '/home/peter/pictures/photo.xcf' 'a picture of me'
               lo_import 152801

           The response indicates that the large object received object ID
           152801, which can be used to access the newly-created large object
           in the future. For the sake of readability, it is recommended to
           always associate a human-readable comment with every object. Both
           OIDs and comments can be viewed with the \lo_list command.

           Note that this command is subtly different from the server-side
           lo_import because it acts as the local user on the local file
           system, rather than the server's user and file system.

       \lo_list
           Shows a list of all PostgreSQL large objects currently stored in
           the database, along with any comments provided for them.

       \lo_unlink loid
           Deletes the large object with OID loid from the database.

               Tip
               Use \lo_list to find out the large object's OID.

       \o or \out [ filename ]
       \o or \out [ |command ]
           Arranges to save future query results to the file filename or pipe
           future results to the shell command command. If no argument is
           specified, the query output is reset to the standard output.

           "Query results" includes all tables, command responses, and notices
           obtained from the database server, as well as output of various
           backslash commands that query the database (such as \d), but not
           error messages.

               Tip
               To intersperse text output in between query results, use
               \qecho.

       \p or \print
           Print the current query buffer to the standard output.

       \password [ username ]
           Changes the password of the specified user (by default, the current
           user). This command prompts for the new password, encrypts it, and
           sends it to the server as an ALTER ROLE command. This makes sure
           that the new password does not appear in cleartext in the command
           history, the server log, or elsewhere.

       \prompt [ text ] name
           Prompts the user to supply text, which is assigned to the variable
           name. An optional prompt string, text, can be specified. (For
           multiword prompts, surround the text with single quotes.)

           By default, \prompt uses the terminal for input and output.
           However, if the -f command line switch was used, \prompt uses
           standard input and standard output.

       \pset [ option [ value ] ]
           This command sets options affecting the output of query result
           tables.  option indicates which option is to be set. The semantics
           of value vary depending on the selected option. For some options,
           omitting value causes the option to be toggled or unset, as
           described under the particular option. If no such behavior is
           mentioned, then omitting value just results in the current setting
           being displayed.


           \pset without any arguments displays the current status of all
           printing options.

           Adjustable printing options are:

           border
               The value must be a number. In general, the higher the number
               the more borders and lines the tables will have, but this
               depends on the particular format. In HTML format, this will
               translate directly into the border=...  attribute; in the other
               formats only values 0 (no border), 1 (internal dividing lines),
               and 2 (table frame) make sense.  latex and latex-longtable also
               support a border value of 3 which adds a dividing line between
               each row.

           columns
               Sets the target width for the wrapped format, and also the
               width limit for determining whether output is wide enough to
               require the pager or switch to the vertical display in expanded
               auto mode. Zero (the default) causes the target width to be
               controlled by the environment variable COLUMNS, or the detected
               screen width if COLUMNS is not set. In addition, if columns is
               zero then the wrapped format only affects screen output. If
               columns is nonzero then file and pipe output is wrapped to that
               width as well.

           expanded (or x)
               If value is specified it must be either on or off, which will
               enable or disable expanded mode, or auto. If value is omitted
               the command toggles between the on and off settings. When
               expanded mode is enabled, query results are displayed in two
               columns, with the column name on the left and the data on the
               right. This mode is useful if the data wouldn't fit on the
               screen in the normal "horizontal" mode. In the auto setting,
               the expanded mode is used whenever the query output is wider
               than the screen, otherwise the regular mode is used. The auto
               setting is only effective in the aligned and wrapped formats.
               In other formats, it always behaves as if the expanded mode is
               off.

           fieldsep
               Specifies the field separator to be used in unaligned output
               format. That way one can create, for example, tab- or
               comma-separated output, which other programs might prefer. To
               set a tab as field separator, type \pset fieldsep '\t'. The
               default field separator is '|' (a vertical bar).

           fieldsep_zero
               Sets the field separator to use in unaligned output format to a
               zero byte.

           footer
               If value is specified it must be either on or off which will
               enable or disable display of the table footer (the (n rows)
               count). If value is omitted the command toggles footer display
               on or off.

           format
               Sets the output format to one of unaligned, aligned, wrapped,
               html, latex (uses tabular), latex-longtable, or troff-ms.
               Unique abbreviations are allowed. (That would mean one letter
               is enough.)

               unaligned format writes all columns of a row on one line,
               separated by the currently active field separator. This is
               useful for creating output that might be intended to be read in
               by other programs (for example, tab-separated or
               comma-separated format).

               aligned format is the standard, human-readable, nicely
               formatted text output; this is the default.

               wrapped format is like aligned but wraps wide data values
               across lines to make the output fit in the target column width.
               The target width is determined as described under the columns
               option. Note that psql will not attempt to wrap column header
               titles; therefore, wrapped format behaves the same as aligned
               if the total width needed for column headers exceeds the
               target.

               The html, latex, latex-longtable, and troff-ms formats put out
               tables that are intended to be included in documents using the
               respective mark-up language. They are not complete documents!
               This might not be necessary in HTML, but in LaTeX you must have
               a complete document wrapper.  latex-longtable also requires the
               LaTeX longtable and booktabs packages.

           linestyle
               Sets the border line drawing style to one of ascii, old-ascii
               or unicode. Unique abbreviations are allowed. (That would mean
               one letter is enough.) The default setting is ascii. This
               option only affects the aligned and wrapped output formats.

               ascii style uses plain ASCII characters. Newlines in data are
               shown using a + symbol in the right-hand margin. When the
               wrapped format wraps data from one line to the next without a
               newline character, a dot (.) is shown in the right-hand margin
               of the first line, and again in the left-hand margin of the
               following line.

               old-ascii style uses plain ASCII characters, using the
               formatting style used in PostgreSQL 8.4 and earlier. Newlines
               in data are shown using a : symbol in place of the left-hand
               column separator. When the data is wrapped from one line to the
               next without a newline character, a ; symbol is used in place
               of the left-hand column separator.

               unicode style uses Unicode box-drawing characters. Newlines in
               data are shown using a carriage return symbol in the right-hand
               margin. When the data is wrapped from one line to the next
               without a newline character, an ellipsis symbol is shown in the
               right-hand margin of the first line, and again in the left-hand
               margin of the following line.

               When the border setting is greater than zero, this option also
               determines the characters with which the border lines are
               drawn. Plain ASCII characters work everywhere, but Unicode
               characters look nicer on displays that recognize them.

           null
               Sets the string to be printed in place of a null value. The
               default is to print nothing, which can easily be mistaken for
               an empty string. For example, one might prefer \pset null
               '(null)'.

           numericlocale
               If value is specified it must be either on or off which will
               enable or disable display of a locale-specific character to
               separate groups of digits to the left of the decimal marker. If
               value is omitted the command toggles between regular and
               locale-specific numeric output.

           pager
               Controls use of a pager program for query and psql help output.
               If the environment variable PAGER is set, the output is piped
               to the specified program. Otherwise a platform-dependent
               default (such as more) is used.

               When the pager option is off, the pager program is not used.
               When the pager option is on, the pager is used when
               appropriate, i.e., when the output is to a terminal and will
               not fit on the screen. The pager option can also be set to
               always, which causes the pager to be used for all terminal
               output regardless of whether it fits on the screen.  \pset
               pager without a value toggles pager use on and off.

           recordsep
               Specifies the record (line) separator to use in unaligned
               output format. The default is a newline character.

           recordsep_zero
               Sets the record separator to use in unaligned output format to
               a zero byte.

           tableattr (or T)
               In HTML format, this specifies attributes to be placed inside
               the table tag. This could for example be cellpadding or
               bgcolor. Note that you probably don't want to specify border
               here, as that is already taken care of by \pset border. If no
               value is given, the table attributes are unset.

               In latex-longtable format, this controls the proportional width
               of each column containing a left-aligned data type. It is
               specified as a whitespace-separated list of values, e.g.  '0.2
               0.2 0.6'. Unspecified output columns use the last specified
               value.

           title
               Sets the table title for any subsequently printed tables. This
               can be used to give your output descriptive tags. If no value
               is given, the title is unset.

           tuples_only (or t)
               If value is specified it must be either on or off which will
               enable or disable tuples-only mode. If value is omitted the
               command toggles between regular and tuples-only output. Regular
               output includes extra information such as column headers,
               titles, and various footers. In tuples-only mode, only actual
               table data is shown.

           Illustrations of how these different formats look can be seen in
           the EXAMPLES section.

               Tip
               There are various shortcut commands for \pset. See \a, \C, \H,
               \t, \T, and \x.

       \q or \quit
           Quits the psql program. In a script file, only execution of that
           script is terminated.

       \qecho text [ ... ]
           This command is identical to \echo except that the output will be
           written to the query output channel, as set by \o.

       \r or \reset
           Resets (clears) the query buffer.

       \s [ filename ]
           Print psql's command line history to filename. If filename is
           omitted, the history is written to the standard output (using the
           pager if appropriate). This command is not available if psql was
           built without Readline support.

       \set [ name [ value [ ... ] ] ]
           Sets the psql variable name to value, or if more than one value is
           given, to the concatenation of all of them. If only one argument is
           given, the variable is set with an empty value. To unset a
           variable, use the \unset command.

           \set without any arguments displays the names and values of all
           currently-set psql variables.

           Valid variable names can contain letters, digits, and underscores.
           See the section Variables below for details. Variable names are
           case-sensitive.

           Although you are welcome to set any variable to anything you want,
           psql treats several variables as special. They are documented in
           the section about variables.

               Note
               This command is unrelated to the SQL command SET(7).

       \setenv name [ value ]
           Sets the environment variable name to value, or if the value is not
           supplied, unsets the environment variable. Example:

               testdb=> \setenv PAGER less
               testdb=> \setenv LESS -imx4F

       \sf[+] function_description
           This command fetches and shows the definition of the named
           function, in the form of a CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION command. The
           definition is printed to the current query output channel, as set
           by \o.

           The target function can be specified by name alone, or by name and
           arguments, for example foo(integer, text). The argument types must
           be given if there is more than one function of the same name.

           If + is appended to the command name, then the output lines are
           numbered, with the first line of the function body being line 1.

       \t
           Toggles the display of output column name headings and row count
           footer. This command is equivalent to \pset tuples_only and is
           provided for convenience.

       \T table_options
           Specifies attributes to be placed within the table tag in HTML
           output format. This command is equivalent to \pset tableattr
           table_options.

       \timing [ on | off ]
           Without parameter, toggles a display of how long each SQL statement
           takes, in milliseconds. With parameter, sets same.

       \unset name
           Unsets (deletes) the psql variable name.

       \w or \write filename
       \w or \write |command
           Outputs the current query buffer to the file filename or pipes it
           to the shell command command.

       \watch [ seconds ]
           Repeatedly execute the current query buffer (like \g) until
           interrupted or the query fails. Wait the specified number of
           seconds (default 2) between executions.

       \x [ on | off | auto ]
           Sets or toggles expanded table formatting mode. As such it is
           equivalent to \pset expanded.

       \z [ pattern ]
           Lists tables, views and sequences with their associated access
           privileges. If a pattern is specified, only tables, views and
           sequences whose names match the pattern are listed.

           This is an alias for \dp ("display privileges").

       \! [ command ]
           Escapes to a separate shell or executes the shell command command.
           The arguments are not further interpreted; the shell will see them
           as-is. In particular, the variable substitution rules and backslash
           escapes do not apply.

       \?
           Shows help information about the backslash commands.

       Patterns
           The various \d commands accept a pattern parameter to specify the
           object name(s) to be displayed. In the simplest case, a pattern is
           just the exact name of the object. The characters within a pattern
           are normally folded to lower case, just as in SQL names; for
           example, \dt FOO will display the table named foo. As in SQL names,
           placing double quotes around a pattern stops folding to lower case.
           Should you need to include an actual double quote character in a
           pattern, write it as a pair of double quotes within a double-quote
           sequence; again this is in accord with the rules for SQL quoted
           identifiers. For example, \dt "FOO""BAR" will display the table
           named FOO"BAR (not foo"bar). Unlike the normal rules for SQL names,
           you can put double quotes around just part of a pattern, for
           instance \dt FOO"FOO"BAR will display the table named fooFOObar.

           Whenever the pattern parameter is omitted completely, the \d
           commands display all objects that are visible in the current schema
           search path -- this is equivalent to using * as the pattern. (An
           object is said to be visible if its containing schema is in the
           search path and no object of the same kind and name appears earlier
           in the search path. This is equivalent to the statement that the
           object can be referenced by name without explicit schema
           qualification.) To see all objects in the database regardless of
           visibility, use *.*  as the pattern.

           Within a pattern, * matches any sequence of characters (including
           no characters) and ?  matches any single character. (This notation
           is comparable to Unix shell file name patterns.) For example, \dt
           int* displays tables whose names begin with int. But within double
           quotes, * and ?  lose these special meanings and are just matched
           literally.

           A pattern that contains a dot (.) is interpreted as a schema name
           pattern followed by an object name pattern. For example, \dt
           foo*.*bar* displays all tables whose table name includes bar that
           are in schemas whose schema name starts with foo. When no dot
           appears, then the pattern matches only objects that are visible in
           the current schema search path. Again, a dot within double quotes
           loses its special meaning and is matched literally.

           Advanced users can use regular-expression notations such as
           character classes, for example [0-9] to match any digit. All
           regular expression special characters work as specified in Section
           9.7.3, "POSIX Regular Expressions", in the documentation, except
           for .  which is taken as a separator as mentioned above, * which is
           translated to the regular-expression notation .*, ?  which is
           translated to ., and $ which is matched literally. You can emulate
           these pattern characters at need by writing ?  for ., (R+|) for R*,
           or (R|) for R?.  $ is not needed as a regular-expression character
           since the pattern must match the whole name, unlike the usual
           interpretation of regular expressions (in other words, $ is
           automatically appended to your pattern). Write * at the beginning
           and/or end if you don't wish the pattern to be anchored. Note that
           within double quotes, all regular expression special characters
           lose their special meanings and are matched literally. Also, the
           regular expression special characters are matched literally in
           operator name patterns (i.e., the argument of \do).

   Advanced Features
       Variables
           psql provides variable substitution features similar to common Unix
           command shells. Variables are simply name/value pairs, where the
           value can be any string of any length. The name must consist of
           letters (including non-Latin letters), digits, and underscores.

           To set a variable, use the psql meta-command \set. For example,

               testdb=> \set foo bar

           sets the variable foo to the value bar. To retrieve the content of
           the variable, precede the name with a colon, for example:

               testdb=> \echo :foo
               bar

           This works in both regular SQL commands and meta-commands; there is
           more detail in SQL Interpolation, below.

           If you call \set without a second argument, the variable is set,
           with an empty string as value. To unset (i.e., delete) a variable,
           use the command \unset. To show the values of all variables, call
           \set without any argument.

               Note
               The arguments of \set are subject to the same substitution
               rules as with other commands. Thus you can construct
               interesting references such as \set :foo 'something' and get
               "soft links" or "variable variables" of Perl or PHP fame,
               respectively. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), there is no way
               to do anything useful with these constructs. On the other hand,
               \set bar :foo is a perfectly valid way to copy a variable.

           A number of these variables are treated specially by psql. They
           represent certain option settings that can be changed at run time
           by altering the value of the variable, or in some cases represent
           changeable state of psql. Although you can use these variables for
           other purposes, this is not recommended, as the program behavior
           might grow really strange really quickly. By convention, all
           specially treated variables' names consist of all upper-case ASCII
           letters (and possibly digits and underscores). To ensure maximum
           compatibility in the future, avoid using such variable names for
           your own purposes. A list of all specially treated variables
           follows.

           AUTOCOMMIT
               When on (the default), each SQL command is automatically
               committed upon successful completion. To postpone commit in
               this mode, you must enter a BEGIN or START TRANSACTION SQL
               command. When off or unset, SQL commands are not committed
               until you explicitly issue COMMIT or END. The autocommit-off
               mode works by issuing an implicit BEGIN for you, just before
               any command that is not already in a transaction block and is
               not itself a BEGIN or other transaction-control command, nor a
               command that cannot be executed inside a transaction block
               (such as VACUUM).

                   Note
                   In autocommit-off mode, you must explicitly abandon any
                   failed transaction by entering ABORT or ROLLBACK. Also keep
                   in mind that if you exit the session without committing,
                   your work will be lost.

                   Note
                   The autocommit-on mode is PostgreSQL's traditional
                   behavior, but autocommit-off is closer to the SQL spec. If
                   you prefer autocommit-off, you might wish to set it in the
                   system-wide psqlrc file or your ~/.psqlrc file.

           COMP_KEYWORD_CASE
               Determines which letter case to use when completing an SQL key
               word. If set to lower or upper, the completed word will be in
               lower or upper case, respectively. If set to preserve-lower or
               preserve-upper (the default), the completed word will be in the
               case of the word already entered, but words being completed
               without anything entered will be in lower or upper case,
               respectively.

           DBNAME
               The name of the database you are currently connected to. This
               is set every time you connect to a database (including program
               start-up), but can be unset.

           ECHO
               If set to all, all nonempty input lines are printed to standard
               output as they are read. (This does not apply to lines read
               interactively.) To select this behavior on program start-up,
               use the switch -a. If set to queries, psql prints each query to
               standard output as it is sent to the server. The switch for
               this is -e.

           ECHO_HIDDEN
               When this variable is set to on and a backslash command queries
               the database, the query is first shown. This feature helps you
               to study PostgreSQL internals and provide similar functionality
               in your own programs. (To select this behavior on program
               start-up, use the switch -E.) If you set the variable to the
               value noexec, the queries are just shown but are not actually
               sent to the server and executed.

           ENCODING
               The current client character set encoding.

           FETCH_COUNT
               If this variable is set to an integer value > 0, the results of
               SELECT queries are fetched and displayed in groups of that many
               rows, rather than the default behavior of collecting the entire
               result set before display. Therefore only a limited amount of
               memory is used, regardless of the size of the result set.
               Settings of 100 to 1000 are commonly used when enabling this
               feature. Keep in mind that when using this feature, a query
               might fail after having already displayed some rows.

                   Tip
                   Although you can use any output format with this feature,
                   the default aligned format tends to look bad because each
                   group of FETCH_COUNT rows will be formatted separately,
                   leading to varying column widths across the row groups. The
                   other output formats work better.

           HISTCONTROL
               If this variable is set to ignorespace, lines which begin with
               a space are not entered into the history list. If set to a
               value of ignoredups, lines matching the previous history line
               are not entered. A value of ignoreboth combines the two
               options. If unset, or if set to any other value than those
               above, all lines read in interactive mode are saved on the
               history list.

                   Note
                   This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from Bash.

           HISTFILE
               The file name that will be used to store the history list. The
               default value is ~/.psql_history. For example, putting:

                   \set HISTFILE ~/.psql_history- :DBNAME

               in ~/.psqlrc will cause psql to maintain a separate history for
               each database.

                   Note
                   This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from Bash.

           HISTSIZE
               The number of commands to store in the command history. The
               default value is 500.

                   Note
                   This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from Bash.

           HOST
               The database server host you are currently connected to. This
               is set every time you connect to a database (including program
               start-up), but can be unset.

           IGNOREEOF
               If unset, sending an EOF character (usually Control+D) to an
               interactive session of psql will terminate the application. If
               set to a numeric value, that many EOF characters are ignored
               before the application terminates. If the variable is set but
               has no numeric value, the default is 10.

                   Note
                   This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from Bash.

           LASTOID
               The value of the last affected OID, as returned from an INSERT
               or \lo_import command. This variable is only guaranteed to be
               valid until after the result of the next SQL command has been
               displayed.

           ON_ERROR_ROLLBACK
               When set to on, if a statement in a transaction block generates
               an error, the error is ignored and the transaction continues.
               When set to interactive, such errors are only ignored in
               interactive sessions, and not when reading script files. When
               unset or set to off, a statement in a transaction block that
               generates an error aborts the entire transaction. The error
               rollback mode works by issuing an implicit SAVEPOINT for you,
               just before each command that is in a transaction block, and
               then rolling back to the savepoint if the command fails.

           ON_ERROR_STOP
               By default, command processing continues after an error. When
               this variable is set to on, processing will instead stop
               immediately. In interactive mode, psql will return to the
               command prompt; otherwise, psql will exit, returning error code
               3 to distinguish this case from fatal error conditions, which
               are reported using error code 1. In either case, any currently
               running scripts (the top-level script, if any, and any other
               scripts which it may have in invoked) will be terminated
               immediately. If the top-level command string contained multiple
               SQL commands, processing will stop with the current command.

           PORT
               The database server port to which you are currently connected.
               This is set every time you connect to a database (including
               program start-up), but can be unset.

           PROMPT1
           PROMPT2
           PROMPT3
               These specify what the prompts psql issues should look like.
               See Prompting below.

           QUIET
               Setting this variable to on is equivalent to the command line
               option -q. It is probably not too useful in interactive mode.

           SINGLELINE
               Setting this variable to on is equivalent to the command line
               option -S.

           SINGLESTEP
               Setting this variable to on is equivalent to the command line
               option -s.

           USER
               The database user you are currently connected as. This is set
               every time you connect to a database (including program
               start-up), but can be unset.

           VERBOSITY
               This variable can be set to the values default, verbose, or
               terse to control the verbosity of error reports.

       SQL Interpolation
           A key feature of psql variables is that you can substitute
           ("interpolate") them into regular SQL statements, as well as the
           arguments of meta-commands. Furthermore, psql provides facilities
           for ensuring that variable values used as SQL literals and
           identifiers are properly quoted. The syntax for interpolating a
           value without any quoting is to prepend the variable name with a
           colon (:). For example,

               testdb=> \set foo 'my_table'
               testdb=> SELECT * FROM :foo;

           would query the table my_table. Note that this may be unsafe: the
           value of the variable is copied literally, so it can contain
           unbalanced quotes, or even backslash commands. You must make sure
           that it makes sense where you put it.

           When a value is to be used as an SQL literal or identifier, it is
           safest to arrange for it to be quoted. To quote the value of a
           variable as an SQL literal, write a colon followed by the variable
           name in single quotes. To quote the value as an SQL identifier,
           write a colon followed by the variable name in double quotes. These
           constructs deal correctly with quotes and other special characters
           embedded within the variable value. The previous example would be
           more safely written this way:

               testdb=> \set foo 'my_table'
               testdb=> SELECT * FROM :"foo";

           Variable interpolation will not be performed within quoted SQL
           literals and identifiers. Therefore, a construction such as ':foo'
           doesn't work to produce a quoted literal from a variable's value
           (and it would be unsafe if it did work, since it wouldn't correctly
           handle quotes embedded in the value).

           One example use of this mechanism is to copy the contents of a file
           into a table column. First load the file into a variable and then
           interpolate the variable's value as a quoted string:

               testdb=> \set content `cat my_file.txt`
               testdb=> INSERT INTO my_table VALUES (:'content');

           (Note that this still won't work if my_file.txt contains NUL bytes.
           psql does not support embedded NUL bytes in variable values.)

           Since colons can legally appear in SQL commands, an apparent
           attempt at interpolation (that is, :name, :'name', or :"name") is
           not replaced unless the named variable is currently set. In any
           case, you can escape a colon with a backslash to protect it from
           substitution.

           The colon syntax for variables is standard SQL for embedded query
           languages, such as ECPG. The colon syntaxes for array slices and
           type casts are PostgreSQL extensions, which can sometimes conflict
           with the standard usage. The colon-quote syntax for escaping a
           variable's value as an SQL literal or identifier is a psql
           extension.

       Prompting
           The prompts psql issues can be customized to your preference. The
           three variables PROMPT1, PROMPT2, and PROMPT3 contain strings and
           special escape sequences that describe the appearance of the
           prompt. Prompt 1 is the normal prompt that is issued when psql
           requests a new command. Prompt 2 is issued when more input is
           expected during command input because the command was not
           terminated with a semicolon or a quote was not closed. Prompt 3 is
           issued when you run an SQL COPY command and you are expected to
           type in the row values on the terminal.

           The value of the selected prompt variable is printed literally,
           except where a percent sign (%) is encountered. Depending on the
           next character, certain other text is substituted instead. Defined
           substitutions are:

           %M
               The full host name (with domain name) of the database server,
               or [local] if the connection is over a Unix domain socket, or
               [local:/dir/name], if the Unix domain socket is not at the
               compiled in default location.

           %m
               The host name of the database server, truncated at the first
               dot, or [local] if the connection is over a Unix domain socket.

           %>
               The port number at which the database server is listening.

           %n
               The database session user name. (The expansion of this value
               might change during a database session as the result of the
               command SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION.)

           %/
               The name of the current database.

           %~
               Like %/, but the output is ~ (tilde) if the database is your
               default database.

           %#
               If the session user is a database superuser, then a #,
               otherwise a >. (The expansion of this value might change during
               a database session as the result of the command SET SESSION
               AUTHORIZATION.)

           %R
               In prompt 1 normally =, but ^ if in single-line mode, and !  if
               the session is disconnected from the database (which can happen
               if \connect fails). In prompt 2 the sequence is replaced by -,
               *, a single quote, a double quote, or a dollar sign, depending
               on whether psql expects more input because the command wasn't
               terminated yet, because you are inside a /* ... */ comment, or
               because you are inside a quoted or dollar-escaped string. In
               prompt 3 the sequence doesn't produce anything.

           %x
               Transaction status: an empty string when not in a transaction
               block, or * when in a transaction block, or !  when in a failed
               transaction block, or ?  when the transaction state is
               indeterminate (for example, because there is no connection).

           %digits
               The character with the indicated octal code is substituted.

           %:name:
               The value of the psql variable name. See the section Variables
               for details.

           %`command`
               The output of command, similar to ordinary "back-tick"
               substitution.

           %[ ... %]
               Prompts can contain terminal control characters which, for
               example, change the color, background, or style of the prompt
               text, or change the title of the terminal window. In order for
               the line editing features of Readline to work properly, these
               non-printing control characters must be designated as invisible
               by surrounding them with %[ and %]. Multiple pairs of these can
               occur within the prompt. For example:

                   testdb=> \set PROMPT1 '%[%033[1;33;40m%]%n@%/%R%[%033[0m%]%# '

               results in a boldfaced (1;) yellow-on-black (33;40) prompt on
               VT100-compatible, color-capable terminals.
           To insert a percent sign into your prompt, write %%. The default
           prompts are '%/%R%# ' for prompts 1 and 2, and '>> ' for prompt 3.

               Note
               This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from tcsh.

       Command-Line Editing
           psql supports the Readline library for convenient line editing and
           retrieval. The command history is automatically saved when psql
           exits and is reloaded when psql starts up. Tab-completion is also
           supported, although the completion logic makes no claim to be an
           SQL parser. The queries generated by tab-completion can also
           interfere with other SQL commands, e.g.  SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION
           LEVEL. If for some reason you do not like the tab completion, you
           can turn it off by putting this in a file named .inputrc in your
           home directory:

               $if psql
               set disable-completion on
               $endif

           (This is not a psql but a Readline feature. Read its documentation
           for further details.)

ENVIRONMENT
       COLUMNS
           If \pset columns is zero, controls the width for the wrapped format
           and width for determining if wide output requires the pager or
           should be switched to the vertical format in expanded auto mode.

       PAGER
           If the query results do not fit on the screen, they are piped
           through this command. Typical values are more or less. The default
           is platform-dependent. The use of the pager can be disabled by
           using the \pset command.

       PGDATABASE
       PGHOST
       PGPORT
       PGUSER
           Default connection parameters (see Section 31.14, "Environment
           Variables", in the documentation).

       PSQL_EDITOR
       EDITOR
       VISUAL
           Editor used by the \e and \ef commands. The variables are examined
           in the order listed; the first that is set is used.

           The built-in default editors are vi on Unix systems and notepad.exe
           on Windows systems.

       PSQL_EDITOR_LINENUMBER_ARG
           When \e or \ef is used with a line number argument, this variable
           specifies the command-line argument used to pass the starting line
           number to the user's editor. For editors such as Emacs or vi, this
           is a plus sign. Include a trailing space in the value of the
           variable if there needs to be space between the option name and the
           line number. Examples:

               PSQL_EDITOR_LINENUMBER_ARG='+'
               PSQL_EDITOR_LINENUMBER_ARG='--line '

           The default is + on Unix systems (corresponding to the default
           editor vi, and useful for many other common editors); but there is
           no default on Windows systems.

       PSQL_HISTORY
           Alternative location for the command history file. Tilde (~)
           expansion is performed.

       PSQLRC
           Alternative location of the user's .psqlrc file. Tilde (~)
           expansion is performed.

       SHELL
           Command executed by the \!  command.

       TMPDIR
           Directory for storing temporary files. The default is /tmp.

       This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the
       environment variables supported by libpq (see Section 31.14,
       "Environment Variables", in the documentation).

FILES
       psqlrc and ~/.psqlrc
           Unless it is passed an -X or -c option, psql attempts to read and
           execute commands from the system-wide startup file (psqlrc) and
           then the user's personal startup file (~/.psqlrc), after connecting
           to the database but before accepting normal commands. These files
           can be used to set up the client and/or the server to taste,
           typically with \set and SET commands.

           The system-wide startup file is named psqlrc and is sought in the
           installation's "system configuration" directory, which is most
           reliably identified by running pg_config --sysconfdir. By default
           this directory will be ../etc/ relative to the directory containing
           the PostgreSQL executables. The name of this directory can be set
           explicitly via the PGSYSCONFDIR environment variable.

           The user's personal startup file is named .psqlrc and is sought in
           the invoking user's home directory. On Windows, which lacks such a
           concept, the personal startup file is named
           %APPDATA%\postgresql\psqlrc.conf. The location of the user's
           startup file can be set explicitly via the PSQLRC environment
           variable.

           Both the system-wide startup file and the user's personal startup
           file can be made psql-version-specific by appending a dash and the
           PostgreSQL major or minor release number to the file name, for
           example ~/.psqlrc-9.2 or ~/.psqlrc-9.2.5. The most specific
           version-matching file will be read in preference to a
           non-version-specific file.

       .psql_history
           The command-line history is stored in the file ~/.psql_history, or
           %APPDATA%\postgresql\psql_history on Windows.

           The location of the history file can be set explicitly via the
           PSQL_HISTORY environment variable.

NOTES
       o   In an earlier life psql allowed the first argument of a
           single-letter backslash command to start directly after the
           command, without intervening whitespace. As of PostgreSQL 8.4 this
           is no longer allowed.

       o   psql works best with servers of the same or an older major version.
           Backslash commands are particularly likely to fail if the server is
           of a newer version than psql itself. However, backslash commands of
           the \d family should work with servers of versions back to 7.4,
           though not necessarily with servers newer than psql itself. The
           general functionality of running SQL commands and displaying query
           results should also work with servers of a newer major version, but
           this cannot be guaranteed in all cases.

           If you want to use psql to connect to several servers of different
           major versions, it is recommended that you use the newest version
           of psql. Alternatively, you can keep a copy of psql from each major
           version around and be sure to use the version that matches the
           respective server. But in practice, this additional complication
           should not be necessary.

NOTES FOR WINDOWS USERS
       psql is built as a "console application". Since the Windows console
       windows use a different encoding than the rest of the system, you must
       take special care when using 8-bit characters within psql. If psql
       detects a problematic console code page, it will warn you at startup.
       To change the console code page, two things are necessary:

       o   Set the code page by entering cmd.exe /c chcp 1252. (1252 is a code
           page that is appropriate for German; replace it with your value.)
           If you are using Cygwin, you can put this command in /etc/profile.

       o   Set the console font to Lucida Console, because the raster font
           does not work with the ANSI code page.

EXAMPLES
       The first example shows how to spread a command over several lines of
       input. Notice the changing prompt:

           testdb=> CREATE TABLE my_table (
           testdb(>  first integer not null default 0,
           testdb(>  second text)
           testdb-> ;
           CREATE TABLE

       Now look at the table definition again:

           testdb=> \d my_table
                        Table "my_table"
            Attribute |  Type   |      Modifier
           -----------+---------+--------------------
            first     | integer | not null default 0
            second    | text    |

       Now we change the prompt to something more interesting:

           testdb=> \set PROMPT1 '%n@%m %~%R%# '
           peter@localhost testdb=>

       Let's assume you have filled the table with data and want to take a
       look at it:

           peter@localhost testdb=> SELECT * FROM my_table;
            first | second
           -------+--------
                1 | one
                2 | two
                3 | three
                4 | four
           (4 rows)

       You can display tables in different ways by using the \pset command:

           peter@localhost testdb=> \pset border 2
           Border style is 2.
           peter@localhost testdb=> SELECT * FROM my_table;
           +-------+--------+
           | first | second |
           +-------+--------+
           |     1 | one    |
           |     2 | two    |
           |     3 | three  |
           |     4 | four   |
           +-------+--------+
           (4 rows)

           peter@localhost testdb=> \pset border 0
           Border style is 0.
           peter@localhost testdb=> SELECT * FROM my_table;
           first second
           ----- ------
               1 one
               2 two
               3 three
               4 four
           (4 rows)

           peter@localhost testdb=> \pset border 1
           Border style is 1.
           peter@localhost testdb=> \pset format unaligned
           Output format is unaligned.
           peter@localhost testdb=> \pset fieldsep ","
           Field separator is ",".
           peter@localhost testdb=> \pset tuples_only
           Showing only tuples.
           peter@localhost testdb=> SELECT second, first FROM my_table;
           one,1
           two,2
           three,3
           four,4

       Alternatively, use the short commands:

           peter@localhost testdb=> \a \t \x
           Output format is aligned.
           Tuples only is off.
           Expanded display is on.
           peter@localhost testdb=> SELECT * FROM my_table;
           -[ RECORD 1 ]-
           first  | 1
           second | one
           -[ RECORD 2 ]-
           first  | 2
           second | two
           -[ RECORD 3 ]-
           first  | 3
           second | three
           -[ RECORD 4 ]-
           first  | 4
           second | four




PostgreSQL 9.4.5                     2015                              PSQL(1)
