PSQL(1)			PostgreSQL 9.2.24 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, "Database Connection Control Functions",
	   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 until an EOF
	   indication or \q meta-command. Note however that Readline is not
	   used in this case (much as if -n had been specified).

	   Using this option is subtly different from writing psql < 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 HTMLtable 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 with the -f option, 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, "Database Connection Control
       Functions", 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 at least one of standard input or 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 (9.2.24)
	   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).

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

	   Where the command omits database name, user, host, or port, the new
	   connection can reuse values from the previous connection. By
	   default, values from the previous connection are reused except when
	   processing a conninfo string. Passing a first argument of
	   -reuse-previous=on or -reuse-previous=off overrides that default.
	   When the command neither specifies nor reuses a particular
	   parameter, the libpq default is used. Specifying any of dbname,
	   username, host or port as - is equivalent to omitting that
	   parameter.

	   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 | stdin | stdout | pstdin | pstdout } [ with ] [ binary ] [
       oids ] [ delimiter [ as ] 'character' ] [ null [ as ] 'string' ] [ csv
       [ header ] [ quote [ as ] 'character' ] [ escape [ as ] 'character' ] [
       force quote column_list | * ] [ force not null column_list ] ]
	   Performs a frontend (client) copy. This is an operation that runs
	   an SQLCOPY(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.

	   The syntax of the command is similar to that of the SQLCOPY(7)
	   command. Note that, because of this, special parsing rules apply to
	   the \copy command. In particular, the variable substitution rules
	   and backslash escapes do not apply.

	   \copy ... from stdin | to stdout reads/writes based on the command
	   input and output respectively. All rows are read from the same
	   source that issued the command, continuing until \.	is read or the
	   stream reaches EOF. Output is sent to the same place as command
	   output. To read/write from psql's standard input or output, use
	   pstdin or pstdout. This option is useful for populating tables
	   in-line within a SQL script file.

	       Tip
	       This operation is not as efficient as the SQLCOPY 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.

	   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 ], \ds[S+] [ pattern ], \dt[S+]
       [ pattern ], \dv[S+] [ pattern ]
	   In this group of commands, the letters E, i, s, t, and v stand for
	   foreign table, index, 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. If the form \df+ is used, additional
	   information about each function, including volatility, language,
	   source code and description, is shown. By default, only
	   user-created objects are shown; supply a pattern or the S modifier
	   to include system objects.

	       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 return 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.

       \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.

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

       \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.

	   If filename is - (hyphen), then standard input is read until an EOF
	   indication or \q meta-command. This can be used to intersperse
	   interactive input with input from files. Note that Readline
	   behavior will be used only if it is active at the outermost level.

	       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), \l+ (or \list+)
	   List the names, owners, character set encodings, and access
	   privileges of all the databases in the server. 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 OIDloid 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 OIDloid 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.

	   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.

	   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, 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, 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 so dramatic in HTML, but in LaTeX you must have a
	       complete document wrapper.)

	   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)
	       Specifies attributes to be placed inside the HTMLtable tag in
	       html output format. 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.

	   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.

	       Note
	       It is an error to call \pset without any arguments. In the
	       future this case might show the current status of all printing
	       options.

       \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.

       \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.

       \?
	   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 entry, for example because the command was
	   not terminated with a semicolon or a quote was not closed. Prompt 3
	   is issued when you are running an SQLCOPY FROM STDIN command and
	   you need to type in a row value on the terminal.

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

	   %M
	       The full host name (with domain name) of the database server,
	       or [local] if the connection is over a Unix domain socket, or
	       [local:/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, or !  if
	       the session is disconnected from the database (which can happen
	       if \connect fails). In prompt 2 %R is replaced by a character
	       that depends on why psql expects more input: - if the command
	       simply wasn't terminated yet, but * if there is an unfinished
	       /* ... */ comment, a single quote if there is an unfinished
	       quoted string, a double quote if there is an unfinished quoted
	       identifier, a dollar sign if there is an unfinished
	       dollar-quoted string, or ( if there is an unmatched left
	       parenthesis. In prompt 3 %R doesn't produce anything.

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

	   %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. 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. Use of the pager can be disabled by setting
	   PAGER to empty, or by using pager-related options of 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 is only guaranteed to work smoothly with servers of the same
	   version. That does not mean other combinations will fail outright,
	   but subtle and not-so-subtle problems might come up. 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.

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 9.2.24		  2017-11-06			       PSQL(1)