PSQL(1)

Bestie, welcome to PSQL(1) — the PostgreSQL 13.23 Documentation page. It is giving terminal icon energy, and we are about to go through every flag together, no cap 💅✨

💖 NAME 💖

psql — PostgreSQL interactive terminal. That is the whole name, and it ate. 🎀

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

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

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

psql is a terminal-based front-end to PostgreSQL, okay? It lets you type queries interactively, issue them to PostgreSQL, and see the query results. Alternatively, input can be from a file or from command line arguments. On top of that, psql provides a number of meta-commands and various shell-like features to facilitate writing scripts and automating a wide variety of tasks. It is literally the main character of your terminal. 👑

🌈 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 aligned. This is equivalent to \pset format unaligned.
• -b, --echo-errors — Print failed SQL commands to standard error output. This is equivalent to setting the variable ECHO to errors.
• -c command, --command=command — Specifies that psql is to execute the given command string, command. This option can be repeated and combined in any order with the -f option. When either -c or -f is specified, psql does not read commands from standard input; instead it terminates after processing all the -c and -f options in sequence.

command must be either a command string that is completely parsable by the server — i.e., it contains no psql-specific features — or a single backslash command. So you cannot mix SQL and psql meta-commands within a -c option. To achieve that, you could use repeated -c options or pipe the string into psql, for example:

psql -c '\x' -c 'SELECT * FROM foo;'

or

echo '\x \\ SELECT * FROM foo;' | psql

\\ is the separator meta-command.

Each SQL command string passed to -c is sent to the server as a single request. Because of this, the server executes it as a single transaction even if the string contains multiple SQL commands, unless there are explicit BEGIN/COMMIT commands included in the string to divide it into multiple transactions. See Section 52.2.2.1 for more details about how the server handles multi-query strings. Also, psql only prints the result of the last SQL command in the string. This is different from the behavior when the same string is read from a file or fed to psql's standard input, because then psql sends each SQL command separately.

Because of this behavior, putting more than one SQL command in a single -c string often has unexpected results. It is better to use repeated -c commands or feed multiple commands to psql's standard input, either using echo as illustrated above, or via a shell here-document, for example:

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

• --csv — Switches to CSV (Comma-Separated Values) output mode. This is equivalent to \pset format csv.
• -d dbname, --dbname=dbname — Specifies the name of the database to connect to. This is equivalent to specifying dbname as the first non-option argument on the command line. The dbname can be a connection string. If so, connection string parameters will override any conflicting command line options.
• -e, --echo-queries — Copy all SQL commands sent to the server to standard output as well. This is equivalent to setting the variable ECHO to queries.
• -E, --echo-hidden — Echo the actual queries generated by \d and other backslash commands. You can use this to study psql's internal operations. This is equivalent to setting the variable ECHO_HIDDEN to on.
• -f filename, --file=filename — Read commands from the file filename, rather than standard input. This option can be repeated and combined in any order with the -c option. When either -c or -f is specified, psql does not read commands from standard input; instead it terminates after processing all the -c and -f options in sequence. Except for that, this option is largely equivalent to the meta-command \i.

If filename is - (hyphen), then standard input is read until an EOF indication or \q meta-command. This can be used to intersperse interactive input with input from files. Note however that Readline is not used in this case, much as if -n had been specified.

Using this option is subtly different from writing psql < 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 — Switches to HTML output mode. This is equivalent to \pset format html or the \H command.
• -l, --list — List all available databases, then exit. Other non-connection options are ignored. This is similar to the meta-command \list.

When this option is used, psql will connect to the database postgres, unless a different database is named on the command line (option -d or non-option argument, possibly via a service entry, but not via an environment variable).

• -L filename, --log-file=filename — Write all query output into file filename, in addition to the normal output destination.
• -n, --no-readline — Do not use Readline for line editing and do not use the command history. 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 \pset recordsep.
• -s, --single-step — Run in single-step mode. That means the user is prompted before each command is sent to the server, with the option to cancel execution as well. Use this to debug scripts.
• -S, --single-line — Runs in single-line mode where a newline terminates an SQL command, as a semicolon does.

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 \t or \pset tuples_only.
• -T table_options, --table-attr=table_options — Specifies options to be placed within the HTML table tag. See \pset tableattr for details.
• -U username, --username=username — Connect to the database as the user username instead of the default. You must have permission to do so, of course.
• -v assignment, --set=assignment, --variable=assignment — Perform a variable assignment, like the \set meta-command. Note that you must separate name and value, if any, by an equal sign on the command line. To unset a variable, leave off the equal sign. To set a variable with an empty value, use the equal sign but leave off the value. These assignments are done during command line processing, so variables that reflect connection state will get overwritten later.
• -V, --version — Print the psql version and exit.
• -w, --no-password — Never issue a password prompt. If the server requires password authentication and a password is not available from other sources such as a .pgpass file, the connection attempt will fail. This option can be useful in batch jobs and scripts where no user is present to enter a password.

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

• -W, --password — Force psql to prompt for a password before connecting to a database, even if the password will not be used.

If the server requires password authentication and a password is not available from other sources such as a .pgpass file, psql will prompt for a password in any case. However, psql will waste a connection attempt finding out that the server wants a password. In some cases it is worth typing -W to avoid the extra connection attempt.

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

• -x, --expanded — Turn on the expanded table formatting mode. This is equivalent to \x or \pset expanded.
• -X, --no-psqlrc — Do not read the start-up file — neither the system-wide psqlrc file nor the user's ~/.psqlrc file.
• -z, --field-separator-zero — Set the field separator for unaligned output to a zero byte. This is equivalent to \pset fieldsep_zero.
• -0, --record-separator-zero — sets the record separator for unaligned output to a zero byte ✨ like, a literal 0x00. Super handy when you're piping stuff into other tools — the manpage's own example is xargs -0. This is exactly the same thing as running \pset recordsep_zero, no cap 🫶
• -1, --single-transaction — ngl this one's a little picky: it only works if you also pass one or more -c and/or -f options. What it does is make psql fire off a BEGIN command before the first of those options and a COMMIT command after the last one, so literally all your commands get wrapped up into one single transaction 💅 The whole point? Either every single command goes through successfully, or nothing changes at all. Iconic safety vibes.

⚠️ Bestie, listen — if the commands themselves contain BEGIN, COMMIT, or ROLLBACK, this option straight up will not have the effects you want. And if even one individual command can't be executed inside a transaction block, turning this on makes the entire transaction fail. So know your commands before you commit 💀

• -?, --help[=topic] — shows help about psql and then exits 🎀 The topic parameter is optional and defaults to options, and it picks which slice of psql gets explained to you:
  • commands — walks you through psql's backslash commands
  • options — covers the command-line options you can pass to psql
  • variables — shows help about psql configuration variables

---

💖 EXIT STATUS 💖

psql hands a number back to the shell when it's done, and the number is giving very specific energy:

• 0 — it finished normally, everything slayed ✅
• 1 — a fatal error of its own happened (like, out of memory, or file not found 😭)
• 2 — the connection to the server went bad and the session wasn't interactive
• 3 — an error occurred in a script and the variable ON_ERROR_STOP was set

🌈 USAGE 🌈

Connecting to a Database

So psql is a regular PostgreSQL client application — nothing weird, nothing extra 🦋 To connect to a database you need to know four things: 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 through command-line options, specifically -d, -h, -p, and -U respectively 💅 And here's a cute little detail: if it finds an argument that doesn't belong to any option, it interprets that as the database name (or the user name, if the database name is already given). Sneaky but useful.

Not all of these options are required though — there are useful defaults 🌸

• Omit the host name and 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 won't have to specify the port in most cases.
• The default user name is your operating-system user name, and so is the default database name.

🚨 But bestie — you cannot just connect to any database under any user name. Your database administrator should have informed you about your access rights. That's a them-thing, not a you-thing 🙈

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 33.14.) It's also convenient to have a ~/.pgpass file so you don't have to type in passwords regularly — see Section 33.15 for more info 🎀

There's also an alternative way to specify connection parameters: a conninfo string or a URI, which gets used instead of a database name. This mechanism gives you very wide control over the connection, fr fr. 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 33.17 👑 See Section 33.1.2 for more information on all the available connection options.

If the connection could not be made for any reason (like, insufficient privileges, server not running on the targeted host, etc.), psql will return an error and terminate 😭 No half-connected situations here.

And one more little gem: if both standard input and standard output are a terminal, then psql sets the client encoding to "auto", which detects the appropriate client encoding from the locale settings (that's the LC_CTYPE environment variable on Unix systems) 🌸 If that doesn't work out as expected, the client encoding can be overridden using the environment variable PGCLIENTENCODING.

Entering SQL Commands

In normal operation, psql gives you a prompt with the name of the database you're currently connected to, followed by the string =>. Like so:

$ psql testdb
psql (13.23)
Type "help" for help.

testdb=>

At the prompt, you type in SQL commands 💅 Ordinarily, input lines get sent to the server when a command-terminating semicolon is reached. An end of line does not terminate a command — so no panicking when you hit enter and nothing happens, ok? That's literally the design. Commands can be spread over several lines for clarity 🧚 If the command was sent and executed without error, the results are displayed on your screen.

🚨 Real talk security moment: if untrusted users have access to a database that has not adopted a secure schema usage pattern, begin your session by removing publicly-writable schemas from search_path. You can add options=-csearch_path= to the connection string, or issue SELECT pg_catalog.set_config('search_path', '', false) before other SQL commands. And this consideration is not specific to psql — it applies to every interface for executing arbitrary SQL commands. Periodt.

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

And a small parsing note: while C-style block comments are passed to the server for processing and removal, SQL-standard comments are removed by psql itself. iykyk.

Meta-Commands

Okay so this is the fun part 💖 Anything you enter in psql that begins with an unquoted backslash is a psql meta-command — meaning psql itself processes it, not the server. These commands are what make psql genuinely useful for administration or scripting. They're often called slash or backslash commands 🎀

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

Quoting, because of course there are rules:

• To include whitespace in an argument, 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 💅

Variables get interpolated:

If an unquoted colon (:) followed by a psql variable name appears within an argument, it's replaced by the variable's value, as described in SQL Interpolation below 👑 The forms :'variable_name' and :"variable_name" described there work as well. And the :{?variable_name} syntax lets you test whether a variable is defined — it gets substituted by TRUE or FALSE. Escaping the colon with a backslash protects it from substitution, sneaky but slay.

Backquotes = shell time:

Within an argument, text enclosed in backquotes (`) is taken as a command line that gets passed to the shell 🦋 The output of that command (with any trailing newline removed) replaces the backquoted text. Inside the text enclosed in backquotes, no special quoting or other processing occurs, except that appearances of :variable_name — where variable_name is a psql variable name — are replaced by the variable's value. Also, appearances of :'variable_name' are replaced by the variable's value suitably quoted to become a single shell command argument. (That latter form is almost always preferable, unless you are very sure of what is in the variable 😭.) And because carriage return and line feed characters cannot be safely quoted on all platforms, the :'variable_name' form prints an error message and does not substitute the variable value when such characters appear in the value.

SQL identifiers as arguments:

Some commands take an SQL identifier (like a table name) as their argument, and those follow the syntax rules of SQL: unquoted letters are forced to lowercase, while double quotes (") protect letters from case conversion and allow whitespace to be incorporated 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.

Where parsing stops:

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 — cute! But in any case, the arguments of a meta-command cannot continue beyond the end of the line. That's the hard limit, no exceptions 💀

The query buffer:

Many of the meta-commands act on the current query buffer 🌸 This is simply a buffer holding whatever SQL command text has been typed but not yet sent to the server for execution. It includes previous input lines as well as any text appearing before the meta-command on the same line. Very "we remember everything" of it.

The following meta-commands are defined:

\a

If the current table output format is unaligned, it gets switched to aligned ✨ If it is not unaligned, it gets set to unaligned. Yep — it just toggles, bestie. 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 (one or more of database name, user, host, and port), or using a conninfo connection string as detailed in Section 33.1.1. If no arguments are given, a new connection is made using the same parameters as before — like, it just re-does the thing you were already doing 🔁

Specifying any of dbname, username, host or port as - is equivalent to omitting that parameter 🎀

The new connection can re-use connection parameters from the previous connection — and not only database name, user, host, and port, but other settings such as sslmode too. By default, parameters are re-used in the positional syntax, but not when a conninfo string is given. Passing a first argument of -reuse-previous=on or -reuse-previous=off overrides that default 👑

If parameters are re-used, then any parameter not explicitly specified as a positional parameter or in the conninfo string is taken from the existing connection's parameters. Two spicy exceptions though:

• If the host setting is changed from its previous value using the positional syntax, any hostaddr setting present in the existing connection's parameters is dropped.
• Any password used for the existing connection will be re-used only if the user, host, and port settings are not changed 🙈

And when the command neither specifies nor reuses a particular parameter? The libpq default is used. Simple as that 💜

If the new connection actually goes through, the old one gets closed, no drama. But if it fails (wrong user name, access denied, whatever), then: in interactive mode, your previous connection stays put so you're not stranded 🫶 — but if you're running a non-interactive script, processing stops immediately with an error. That whole distinction is a deliberate vibe: convenience against typos on one hand, and a safety mechanism so scripts don't accidentally act on the wrong database on the other. Bestie, respect the design.

Examples, serve them up:

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

---

\C [ title ]

Sets the title of any tables being printed as the result of a query — or unsets any such title if you give it nothing. It's literally equivalent to \pset title title. Fun lore drop: the name comes from "caption", because back in the day it was only used to set the caption in an HTML table. Vintage 💅

\cd [ directory ]

Changes the current working directory to directory. No argument? Then it's off to the current user's home directory, home sweet home 🏠

Tip — wanna see where you even are? Run \! pwd. Yes, that's an escape into the shell, and yes, it slays.

\conninfo

Outputs info about the current database connection. That's it, that's the whole gig. Quick little vibe check on where you're connected ✨

\copy

\copy { table [ ( column_list ) ] } from { 'filename' | program 'command' | stdin | pstdin } [ [ with ] ( option [, ...] ) ] [ where condition ]
\copy { table [ ( column_list ) ] | ( query ) } to { 'filename' | program 'command' | stdout | pstdout } [ [ with ] ( option [, ...] ) ]

Performs a frontend (client) copy — aka the operation runs an SQL COPY(7) command, but instead of the server reading or writing the file, psql does the reading/writing and routes data between the server and your local filesystem 🧚 This means file accessibility and privileges are those of the local user, not the server — and no SQL superuser privileges are required. We love accessible 💖

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: execution privileges are those of the local user, not the server, and no SQL superuser privileges are required. Same energy, different pipe.

For \copy ... from stdin, data rows are read from the same source that issued the command, continuing until \. is read or the stream hits EOF. This is lowkey perfect for populating tables in-line inside a SQL script file. For \copy ... to stdout, output goes to the same place as psql command output, and the COPY count command status is not printed (because it might get confused with a data row, and honestly? fair). 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 is similar to the SQL COPY(7) command. All options other than the data source/destination are as specified for COPY(7). Because of that, special parsing rules apply to the \copy meta-command: unlike most other meta-commands, the entire remainder of the line is always taken to be the arguments of \copy, and neither variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in the arguments. No cap, it just eats the line 🍓

Tip — another way to get the same result as \copy ... to is to use the SQL COPY ... TO STDOUT command and terminate it with \g filename or \g |program. Unlike \copy, this method lets the command span multiple lines, and variable interpolation and backquote expansion can be used. Glow up ✨

Tip — these operations are not as efficient as the SQL COPY command with a file or program data source/destination, because all data has to pass through the client/server connection 😭 For large amounts of data, the SQL command might be preferable. Also, because of this pass-through method, \copy ... from in CSV mode will erroneously treat a \. data value alone on a line as an end-of-input marker. Yep, that's a real gotcha, write it down.

\copyright

Shows the copyright and distribution terms of PostgreSQL 📜 Legal era, honestly iconic.

\crosstabview [ colV [ colH [ colD [ sortcolH ] ] ] ]

Executes the current query buffer (like \g) and shows the results in a crosstab grid 🌈 The query must return at least three columns. The output column identified by colV becomes a vertical header, and the output column identified by colH becomes a horizontal header. colD identifies the output column to display within the grid. sortcolH identifies an optional sort column for the horizontal header.

Each column specification can be a column number (starting at 1) or a column name. The usual SQL case folding and quoting rules apply to column names. If omitted, colV is taken as column 1 and colH as column 2. colH must differ from colV. If colD is not specified, then there must be exactly three columns in the query result, and the column that is neither colV nor colH is taken to be colD.

The vertical header, displayed as the leftmost column, contains the values found in column colV, in the same order as in the query results, but with duplicates removed. Clean.

The horizontal header, displayed as the first row, contains the values found in column colH, with duplicates removed. By default these appear in the same order as in the query results. But if the optional sortcolH argument is given, it identifies a column whose values must be integer numbers, and the values from colH will appear in the horizontal header sorted according to the corresponding sortcolH values. Sorted, slayed, systematic 👑

Inside the crosstab grid, for each distinct value x of colH and each distinct value y of colV, the cell located at the intersection (x,y) contains the value of the colD column in the query result row for which the value of colH is x and the value of colV is y. If there is no such row, the cell is empty. If there are multiple such rows, an error is reported. One row or bust 💀

\d[S+] [ pattern ]

For each relation (table, view, materialized view, index, sequence, or foreign table) or composite type matching the pattern, show all columns, their types, the tablespace (if not the default) and any special attributes such as NOT NULL or defaults. Associated indexes, constraints, rules, and triggers are also shown. For foreign tables, the associated foreign server is shown as well. (And if you're wondering what "matching the pattern" even means, it's defined in Patterns below, iykyk.)

For some types of relation, \d shows extra info for each column: column values for sequences, indexed expressions for indexes, and foreign data wrapper options for foreign tables 🦋

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

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's equivalent to \dtvmsE, which will show a list of all visible tables, views, materialized views, sequences and foreign tables. This is purely a convenience measure. Not me memorising \dtvmsE… actually yes, me.

\da[S] [ pattern ]

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

\dA[+] [ pattern ]

Lists access methods. If pattern is specified, only access methods whose names match the pattern are shown. If + is appended to the command name, each access method is listed with its associated handler function and description. Extra credit mode ✨

\dAc[+] [access-method-pattern [input-type-pattern]]

Lists operator classes (see Section 37.16.1). If access-method-pattern is specified, only operator classes associated with access methods whose names match that pattern are listed. If input-type-pattern is specified, only operator classes associated with input types whose names match that pattern are listed. If + is appended to the command name, each operator class is listed with its associated operator family and owner.

\dAf[+] [access-method-pattern [input-type-pattern]]

Lists operator families (see Section 37.16.5). If access-method-pattern is specified, only operator families associated with access methods whose names match that pattern are listed. If input-type-pattern is specified, only operator families associated with input types whose names match that pattern are listed. If + is appended to the command name, each operator family is listed with its owner.

\dAo[+] [access-method-pattern [operator-family-pattern]]

Lists operators associated with operator families (see Section 37.16.2). If access-method-pattern is specified, only members of operator families associated with access methods whose names match that pattern are listed. If operator-family-pattern is specified, only members of operator families whose names match that pattern are listed. If + is appended to the command name, each operator is listed with its sort operator family (if it's an ordering operator).

\dAp[+] [access-method-pattern [operator-family-pattern]]

Lists support functions associated with operator families (see Section 37.16.3). If access-method-pattern is specified, only functions of operator families associated with access methods whose names match that pattern are listed. If operator-family-pattern is specified, only functions of operator families whose names match that pattern are listed. If + is appended to the command name, functions are displayed verbosely, with their actual parameter lists. Verbose is a personality 🫶

\db[+] [ pattern ]

Lists tablespaces. If pattern is specified, only tablespaces whose names match the pattern are shown. If + is appended to the command name, each tablespace is listed with its associated options, on-disk size, permissions and description. The full glow-up, every time 💖

\dc[S+] [ pattern ]

Lists all the conversions between character-set encodings 💖. Drop a pattern and it'll only show you conversions whose names match it. Default vibe: only user-created objects show up — so either pass a pattern or tack on the S modifier to peek at the system objects too. And if you append + to the command name, every object comes with its associated description attached 🎀.

\dC[+] [ pattern ]

Type casts, bestie 🦋. With a pattern, only casts whose source or target types match it get listed. Slap + on the end and each object shows up with its associated description. (No S here, that's not a typo, it's just built different.)

\dd[S] [ pattern ]

This one shows you the descriptions of objects of type constraint, operator class, operator family, rule, and trigger 👑. Every other comment? You gotta view those through the respective backslash commands for those object types, iykyk.

\dd displays descriptions for objects matching pattern, or of visible objects of the appropriate type if you give it no argument. But either way — plot twist — only objects that have a description are listed 💀. By default only user-created objects are shown, so pass a pattern or the S modifier to include system objects.

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

\dD[S+] [ pattern ]

Lists domains 🌸. Got a pattern? Only domains whose names match it show up. Default is user-created objects only; supply a pattern or the S modifier to bring system objects into the mix. Append + to the command name and each object gets listed with its associated permissions and description 🫶.

\ddp [ pattern ]

Lists default access privilege settings 💅. You get an entry for each role (and schema, if applicable) where the default privilege settings have been changed away from the built-in defaults. With a pattern, only entries whose role name or schema name matches get listed.

The ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES (ALTER_DEFAULT_PRIVILEGES(7)) command is what you use to set default access privileges, and the meaning of the privilege display is explained in Section 5.7 📖.

\dE[S+] [ pattern ] / \di[S+] [ pattern ] / \dm[S+] [ pattern ] / \ds[S+] [ pattern ] / \dt[S+] [ pattern ] / \dv[S+] [ pattern ]

Group chat time 🎀 — in this little squad, 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 get a listing of objects of those types. Like, \dti lists tables and indexes — iconic.

Append + to the command name and each object comes with its persistence status (permanent, temporary, or unlogged), physical size on disk, and associated description if any 🔥. With a pattern, only objects whose names match are listed. By default only user-created objects show; supply a pattern or the S modifier to include system objects.

\des[+] [ pattern ]

Lists foreign servers — the mnemonic is "external servers" 🌈. Pass a pattern and only those servers whose name matches get listed. If you use the \des+ form, you get a full description of each server: its access privileges, type, version, options, and description 👑.

\det[+] [ pattern ]

Lists foreign tables (mnemonic: "external tables") 🦋. With a pattern, only entries whose table name or schema name matches are listed. The \det+ form also displays generic options and the foreign table description ✨.

\deu[+] [ pattern ]

Lists user mappings (mnemonic: "external users") 💜. With a pattern, only those mappings whose user names match get listed. The \deu+ form shows additional information about each mapping.

⚠️ Caution: \deu+ might also display the user name and password of the remote user, so be careful and don't go disclosing them 😭. Fr fr, keep that on lock.

\dew[+] [ pattern ]

Lists foreign-data wrappers (mnemonic: "external wrappers") 🧚. With a pattern, only those foreign-data wrappers whose name matches get listed. The \dew+ form also shows the access privileges, options, and description of the foreign-data wrapper 💖.

\df[anptwS+] [ pattern ]

Lists functions alongside their result data types, argument data types, and function types — which get classified as "agg" (aggregate), "normal", "procedure", "trigger", or "window" ⭐. Wanna see only specific type(s)? Add the corresponding letters a, n, p, t, or w to the command. With a pattern, only functions whose names match are shown. Default is user-created objects only; supply a pattern or the S modifier to include system objects.

The \df+ form is the deluxe version — additional info on each function including volatility, parallel safety, owner, security classification, access privileges, language, source code and description 👑.

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

\dF[+] [ pattern ]

Lists text search configurations 🌸. With a pattern, only configurations whose names match are shown. The \dF+ form shows a full description of each configuration, including the underlying text search parser and the dictionary list for each parser token type ✨.

\dFd[+] [ pattern ]

Lists text search dictionaries 🎀. With a pattern, only dictionaries whose names match are shown. The \dFd+ form shows additional information about each selected dictionary, including the underlying text search template and the option values 💅.

\dFp[+] [ pattern ]

Lists text search parsers 🦋. With a pattern, only parsers whose names match are shown. The \dFp+ form gives a full description of each parser, including the underlying functions and the list of recognized token types.

\dFt[+] [ pattern ]

Lists text search templates 🌈. With a pattern, only templates whose names match are shown. The \dFt+ form shows additional information about each template, including the underlying function names 💖.

\dg[S+] [ pattern ]

Lists database roles 👑. Here's the lore: since the concepts of "users" and "groups" have been unified into "roles", this command is now equivalent to \du. By default only user-created roles are shown — supply the S modifier to include system roles. With a pattern, only those roles whose names match are listed. The \dg+ form shows additional information 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 🐘. Short, sweet, slays.

\dL[S+] [ pattern ]

Lists procedural languages 💜. With a pattern, only languages whose names match are listed. Default is user-created languages only; supply the S modifier to include system objects. Append + to the command name and each language gets listed with its call handler, validator, access privileges, and whether it is a system object ✨.

\dn[S+] [ pattern ]

Lists schemas (namespaces) 🎀. With a pattern, only schemas whose names match are listed. Default: user-created objects only; supply a pattern or the S modifier to include system objects. Append + and each object is listed with its associated permissions and description, if any 🫶.

\do[S+] [ pattern ]

Lists operators with their operand and result types 🔥. With a pattern, only operators whose names match are listed. Default is user-created objects only; supply a pattern or the S modifier to include system objects. Append + for additional information about each operator — currently just the name of the underlying function.

\dO[S+] [ pattern ]

Lists collations 🌸. With a pattern, only collations whose names match are listed. Default is user-created objects only; supply a pattern or the S modifier to include system objects. Append + and each collation is listed with its associated description, if any.

Heads up bestie: 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 💅. With a pattern, only tables, views and sequences whose names match are listed.

The GRANT(7) and REVOKE(7) commands are what you use to set access privileges, and the meaning of the privilege display is explained in Section 5.7 📖.

\dP[itn+] [ pattern ]

Lists partitioned relations 🧚. With a pattern, only entries whose name matches are listed. The modifiers t (tables) and i (indexes) can be appended to the command to filter the kind of relations you're listing. By default, partitioned tables and indexes are listed.

If you use the modifier n ("nested"), or you specify a pattern, then non-root partitioned relations are included, and a column shows up displaying the parent of each partitioned relation 👑.

Append + to the command name and the sum of the sizes of each relation's partitions is also displayed, along with the relation's description. Combine n with + and you get two sizes: one including the total size of directly-attached leaf partitions, and another showing the total size of all partitions, including indirectly attached sub-partitions 🔥.

\drds [ role-pattern [ database-pattern ] ]

Lists defined configuration settings ✨. These settings can be role-specific, database-specific, or both — the duality of it all. 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 the ones that set up per-role and per-database config settings. Like, that's where those live, bestie, not here 💅

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\dRp[+] [ pattern ]

Lists replication publications 📢. Give it a pattern and it only shows the publications whose names match — no pattern, no filtering. Slap a + on the end of the command name and it also shows you the tables hanging out with each publication. Show-off behavior, honestly iconic.

\dRs[+] [ pattern ]

Lists replication subscriptions 📬. Same deal: pattern means only subscriptions with matching names come through. Add + and you get extra properties of the subscriptions too. More info, same vibe.

\dT[S+] [ pattern ]

Lists data types 🧬. With a pattern, only types whose names match get listed. Add + and each type shows up with its internal name and size, its allowed values if it's an enum type, and its associated permissions. Default behavior: user-created objects only — so if you want system objects too, either hand it a pattern or pass the S modifier. That S is doing a lot of work, fr.

\du[S+] [ pattern ]

Lists database roles 👑. (Quick lore drop: the whole "users" vs. "groups" thing got unified into "roles", so this command is now literally equivalent to \dg.) Default: only user-created roles show up — supply the S modifier to drag system roles into the light. With a pattern, only roles whose names match are listed. And if you use the form \du+, you get additional info about each role; as of right now that means it adds the comment for each role. Cute little bonus 💖

\dx[+] [ pattern ]

Lists installed extensions 🧩. pattern = only extensions with matching names. Use the form \dx+ and it lists all the objects that belong to each matching extension. Very "and here's everything she owns" of it.

\dy[+] [ pattern ]

Lists event triggers ⚡. pattern narrows it to matching names. Append + to the command name and each object is listed with its associated description. Chef's kiss.

\e or \edit [ filename ] [ line_number ]

The editor command ✍️. If you give it a filename, that file gets edited — and after the editor exits, the file's content is copied into the current query buffer. If you don't give a filename, the current query buffer gets copied to a temporary file, which is then edited in the exact same fashion. OR — plot twist — if the current query buffer is empty, the most recently executed query is copied to a temporary file and edited the same way. Recycling, but make it useful 🫶

Then the new contents of the query buffer get re-parsed according to the normal rules of psql, treating the whole buffer as a single line. Any complete queries are executed immediately — meaning if the query buffer contains or ends with a semicolon, everything up to that point runs and gets removed from the query buffer. Whatever's left in the buffer gets redisplayed. Type semicolon or \g to send it, or \r to cancel it by clearing the query buffer. Your call 💅

Treating the buffer as a single line mainly messes with meta-commands: whatever sits in the buffer after a meta-command is taken as argument(s) to that meta-command, even if it spans multiple lines. Which means — and this is the important part — you cannot make meta-command-using scripts this way. Use \i for that. Periodt.

If you specify a line_number, psql positions the cursor on that specified line of the file or query buffer. ⚠️ Note: if a single all-digits argument is given, psql assumes it's a line number, not a file name. Sneaky little thing.

Tip — See Environment, below, for how to configure and customize your editor. Go make it yours 🎀

\echo text [ ... ]

Prints the evaluated arguments to standard output, separated by spaces and followed by a newline 🌈. Genuinely useful for interspersing information in the output of your scripts. Like so:

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

If the first argument is an unquoted -n, the trailing newline is not written (and neither is that first argument). Little stealth mode 🌸

Tip — If you're using the \o command to redirect your query output, you might wanna reach for \qecho instead of this one. See also \warn. Both very much worth knowing 💜

\ef [ function_description [ line_number ] ]

This one fetches and edits the definition of the named function or procedure, in the form of a CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION or CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE command 🔧. Editing happens the same way as for \edit. After the editor exits, the updated command is executed immediately if you added a semicolon to it. Otherwise it gets redisplayed — type semicolon or \g to send it, or \r to cancel. No semicolon, no execution, no exceptions.

The target function can be specified by name alone, or by name plus arguments, for example foo(integer, text). You must give the argument types if there's more than one function with the same name — otherwise she won't know which one you mean, and honestly fair 🙈

If no function is specified, a blank CREATE FUNCTION template is presented for editing. Fresh canvas, bestie ✨

If a line_number is specified, psql positions the cursor on that specified line of the function body. (Heads up: the function body typically does not begin on the first line of the file. Don't come for me, that's just how it is.)

Unlike most other meta-commands, the entire remainder of the line is always taken to be the argument(s) of \ef, and neither variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in the arguments. Full stop.

Tip — See Environment, below, for how to configure and customize your editor. Same tip, different command, still slaps 💖

\encoding [ encoding ]

Sets the client character set encoding 🔤. No argument? Then it just shows you the current encoding. Polite of her.

\errverbose

Repeats the most recent server error message at maximum verbosity 😭 — as though VERBOSITY were set to verbose and SHOW_CONTEXT were set to always. When you need the whole entire story, no details spared.

\ev [ view_name [ line_number ] ]

Fetches and edits the definition of the named view 🪞, in the form of a CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW command. Editing is done the same way as for \edit. After the editor exits, the updated command executes immediately if you added a semicolon to it. Otherwise it's redisplayed — type semicolon or \g to send it, or \r to cancel. Same rules, view edition 💅

No view specified? A blank CREATE VIEW template is presented for editing. Have fun with it 🎀

Give it a line_number and psql positions the cursor on that specified line of the view definition.

And again, unlike most other meta-commands, the entire remainder of the line is always taken to be the argument(s) of \ev, and neither variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in the arguments. Consistency! We love her.

\f [ string ]

Sets the field separator for unaligned query output 🧵. The default is the vertical bar (|). It's equivalent to \pset fieldsep. Short, sweet, does exactly what it says.

\g [ (option=value [...]) ] [ filename ]

\g [ (option=value [...]) ] [ |command ]

Sends the current query buffer to the server for execution 🚀 — the classic.

If parentheses appear after \g, they surround a space-separated list of option=value formatting-option clauses. Those get interpreted the same way as \pset option value commands, but they only take effect for the duration of this query. One-shot glow-up, then back to normal ✨ In this list, spaces are not allowed around = signs, but are required between option clauses. If =value is omitted, the named option is changed the same way as for \pset option with no explicit value.

If a filename or |command argument is given, the query's output is written to the named file or piped to the given shell command instead of being displayed as usual 📤. Important: the file or command is written to only if the query successfully returns zero or more tuples — not if the query fails, and not if it's a non-data-returning SQL command. No data, no file, no cap.

If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently sent query is re-executed instead. Except for that behavior, \g with no arguments is essentially equivalent to a semicolon. With arguments, \g gives you a "one-shot" alternative to the \o command — and additionally allows one-shot adjustments of the output formatting options normally set by \pset. Versatile queen 👑

When the last argument begins with |, the entire remainder of the line is taken to be the command to execute, and neither variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in it. The rest of the line is simply passed literally to the shell. No funny business 🫶

\gdesc

Shows the description of the result of the current query buffer — that is, the column names and data types 👀. The query is not actually executed; however, if it contains some kind of syntax error, that error will be reported in the normal way. So: a peek, not a leap.

If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently sent query is described instead.

\gexec

This one is highkey unhinged in the best way 🔥. It sends the current query buffer to the server, then treats each column of each row of the query's output (if any) as a SQL statement to be executed. So like, you generate SQL with SQL. Meta. For example, to create an index on each column of my_table:

=> SELECT format('create index on my_table(%I)', attname)
-> FROM pg_attribute
-> WHERE attrelid = 'my_table'::regclass AND attnum > 0
-> ORDER BY attnum
-> \gexec
CREATE INDEX
CREATE INDEX
CREATE INDEX
CREATE INDEX

The generated queries are executed in the order in which the rows are returned, and left-to-right within each row if there's more than one column. NULL fields are ignored. The generated queries are sent literally to the server for processing, so they cannot be psql meta-commands and cannot contain psql variable references. If any individual query fails, execution of the remaining queries continues unless ON_ERROR_STOP is set. Execution of each query is subject to ECHO processing. (Setting ECHO to all or queries is often advisable when using \gexec — take the advice, bestie.) Query logging, single-step mode, timing, and other query execution features apply to each generated query as well.

If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently sent query is re-executed instead.

\gset [ prefix ]

Sends the current query buffer to the server and stores the query's output into psql variables 🍓 (see Variables below). The query you execute must return exactly one row — one row only, no more, no less. Each column of that row gets stored into a separate variable, named the same as the column. Example time:

=> 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:

okay so continuing right where we left off with \gset, here’s the lil’ example in action 🫶

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

If a column result is NULL, the matching variable is unset instead of being set — no cap. If the query fails or doesn’t return exactly one row, no variables are changed. And if the current query buffer is empty, the most recently sent query is re-executed instead. periodt 💅

• \gx [ (option=value [...]) ] [ filename ] \gx [ (option=value [...]) ] [ |command ] — this is literally \g’s sibling, except it forces expanded output mode for this query, as if expanded=on were included in the list of \pset options. Also peek at \x ✨
• \h or \help [ command ] — gives syntax help on the specified SQL command. If command is not specified, then psql will list all the commands for which syntax help is available. If command is an asterisk (*), then syntax help on all SQL commands is shown. Unlike most other meta-commands, the entire remainder of the line is always taken to be the argument(s) of \help, and neither variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in the arguments.

Note: To simplify typing, commands that consist 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. 💖

• \if expression \elif expression \else \endif — this group of commands implements nestable conditional blocks. A conditional block must begin with an \if and end with an \endif. In between there may be any number of \elif clauses, which may optionally be followed by a single \else clause. Ordinary queries and other types of backslash commands may (and usually do) appear between the commands forming a conditional block. 🦋

The \if and \elif commands read their argument(s) and evaluate them as a boolean expression. If the expression yields true then processing continues normally; otherwise, lines are skipped until a matching \elif, \else, or \endif is reached. Once an \if or \elif test has succeeded, the arguments of later \elif commands in the same block are not evaluated but are treated as false. Lines following an \else are processed only if no earlier matching \if or \elif succeeded.

The expression argument of an \if or \elif command is subject to variable interpolation and backquote expansion, just like any other backslash command argument. After that it is evaluated like the value of an on/off option variable. So a valid value is any unambiguous case-insensitive match for one of: true, false, 1, 0, on, off, yes, no. For example, t, T, and tR will all be considered to be true. Expressions that do not properly evaluate to true or false will generate a warning and be treated as false. 😭

Lines being skipped are parsed normally to identify queries and backslash commands, but queries are not sent to the server, and backslash commands other than conditionals (\if, \elif, \else, \endif) are ignored. Conditional commands are checked only for valid nesting. Variable references in skipped lines are not expanded, and backquote expansion is not performed either.

All the backslash commands of a given conditional block must appear in the same source file. If EOF is reached on the main input file or an \include-ed file before all local \if-blocks have been closed, then psql will raise an error. 🚨

Here is an example:

-- check for the existence of two separate records in the database and store
-- the results in separate psql variables
SELECT
    EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM customer WHERE customer_id = 123) as is_customer,
    EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM employee WHERE employee_id = 456) as is_employee
\gset
\if :is_customer
    SELECT * FROM customer WHERE customer_id = 123;
\elif :is_employee
    \echo 'is not a customer but is an employee'
    SELECT * FROM employee WHERE employee_id = 456;
\else
    \if yes
        \echo 'not a customer or employee'
    \else
        \echo 'this will never print'
    \endif
\endif

• \ir or \include_relative filename — the \ir command is similar to \i, but resolves relative file names differently. When executing in interactive mode, the two commands behave identically. However, when invoked from a script, \ir interprets file names relative to the directory in which the script is located, rather than the current working directory. 🧚
• \l[+] or \list[+] [ pattern ] — list the databases in the server and show their names, owners, character set encodings, and access privileges. If pattern is specified, only databases whose names match the pattern are listed. If + is appended to the command name, database sizes, default tablespaces, and descriptions are also displayed. (Size information is only available for databases that the current user can connect to.) 👑
• \lo_export loid filename — reads the large object with OID loid from the database and writes it to filename. Note that this is subtly different from the server function lo_export, which acts with the permissions of the user that the database server runs as and on the server’s file system.

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. If the argument begins with |, then the entire remainder of the line is taken to be the command to execute, and neither variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in it. The rest of the line is simply passed literally to the shell. 🌈

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

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

• \p or \print — print the current query buffer to the standard output. If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently executed query is printed instead. ✨
• \password [ username ] — changes the password of the specified user (by default, the current user). This command prompts for the new password, encrypts it, and sends it to the server as an ALTER ROLE command. This makes sure that the new password does not appear in cleartext in the command history, the server log, or elsewhere. 🔐
• \prompt [ text ] name — prompts the user to supply text, which is assigned to the variable name. An optional prompt string, text, can be specified. (For multiword prompts, surround the text with single quotes.) By default, \prompt uses the terminal for input and output. However, if the -f command line switch was used, \prompt uses standard input and standard output. 💬
• \pset [ option [ value ] ] — this command sets options affecting the output of query result tables. option indicates which option is to be set. The semantics of value vary depending on the selected option. For some options, omitting value causes the option to be toggled or unset, as described under the particular option. If no such behavior is mentioned, then omitting value just results in the current setting being displayed. \pset without any arguments displays the current status of all printing options. 📊

Adjustable printing options are:

• border — the value must be a number. In general, the higher the number the more borders and lines the tables will have, but details depend on the particular format. In HTML format, this will translate directly into the border=... attribute. In most other formats only values 0 (no border), 1 (internal dividing lines), and 2 (table frame) make sense, and values above 2 will be treated the same as border = 2. The latex and latex-longtable formats additionally allow a value of 3 to add dividing lines between data rows. 💅

• columns — sets the target width for the wrapped format, and also the width limit that decides whether the output is wide enough to need the pager, or whether expanded auto mode should flip to vertical display. Zero (the default, bestie) means the target width comes from the COLUMNS environment variable, or from the detected screen width if COLUMNS isn't set. Oh and also: if columns is zero, the wrapped format only affects screen output. If columns is nonzero, then file and pipe output gets wrapped to that width too. ✨
• csv_fieldsep — the field separator for CSV output format. If the separator character shows up inside a field's value, that field gets wrapped in double quotes, following standard CSV rules. Default is a comma. 🍓
• expanded (or x) — if you give a value it has to be on or off (enables/disables expanded mode) or auto. No value? The command just toggles between the on and off settings. When expanded mode is on, query results show up in two columns — column name on the left, data on the right. Super useful when the data just would not fit on screen in the normal "horizontal" mode. 💅 In the auto setting, expanded mode kicks in whenever the query output has more than one column and is wider than the screen; otherwise regular mode is used. Heads up: auto only does anything in the aligned and wrapped formats — in other formats it always acts like expanded mode is off.
• fieldsep — the field separator for the unaligned output format. That's how you make, like, tab-separated output that other programs actually prefer. To set a tab as the separator, type \pset fieldsep '\t'. Default is '|' (a vertical bar).
• fieldsep_zero — sets the unaligned output field separator to a zero byte. 🫶
• footer — if you give a value it must be on or off, which enables or disables display of the table footer (that (n rows) count). No value? It toggles footer display on/off.
• format — sets the output format to one of aligned, asciidoc, csv, html, latex, latex-longtable, troff-ms, unaligned, or wrapped. Unique abbreviations are allowed, iykyk.
  • aligned format is the standard, human-readable, nicely formatted text output — and it's the default. 👑
  • unaligned format writes all columns of a row on one line, separated by the currently active field separator. Great for output meant to be read by other programs (tab-separated, comma-separated, etc.). BUT — the field separator character is not treated specially if it appears in a column's value, so CSV format might be better suited for that kind of thing.
  • csv format writes column values separated by commas, applying the quoting rules described in RFC 4180. This output is compatible with the CSV format of the server's COPY command. A header line with column names is generated unless the tuples_only parameter is on. Titles and footers are not printed. Each row is terminated by the system-dependent end-of-line character — typically a single newline (\n) on Unix-like systems, or a carriage return plus newline sequence (\r\n) on Microsoft Windows. You can pick field separators other than comma with \pset csv_fieldsep.
  • wrapped format is like aligned but wraps wide data values across lines so the output fits in the target column width. The target width is determined as described under the columns option. Note that psql will not try to wrap column header titles — so wrapped behaves exactly like aligned if the total width needed for the column headers exceeds the target. 😭
  • The asciidoc, html, latex, latex-longtable, and troff-ms formats put out tables intended to be included in documents using the respective mark-up language. They are not complete documents! Might not matter for HTML, but in LaTeX you absolutely must have a complete document wrapper. The latex format uses LaTeX's tabular environment. The latex-longtable format requires the LaTeX longtable and booktabs packages.
• linestyle — sets the border line drawing style to one of ascii, old-ascii, or unicode. Unique abbreviations allowed (so like, one letter is enough). Default is ascii. This option only affects the aligned and wrapped output formats. 🎀
  • ascii style uses plain ASCII characters. Newlines in data are shown with 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 (.) appears 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, with the formatting style used in PostgreSQL 8.4 and earlier. Newlines in data are shown with a : symbol in place of the left-hand column separator. When 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 with a carriage return symbol in the right-hand margin. When data is wrapped from one line to the next without a newline character, an ellipsis symbol shows up 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, linestyle also determines the characters used to draw the border lines. Plain ASCII characters work everywhere, but Unicode characters look nicer on displays that recognize them. ✨
• null — sets the string printed in place of a null value. Default is to print nothing, which can easily be mistaken for an empty string. Like, one might prefer \pset null '(null)'. 💀
• numericlocale — if you give a value it must be on or off, which enables or disables display of a locale-specific character separating groups of digits to the left of the decimal marker. No value? It 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 PSQL_PAGER or PAGER is set, output is piped to the specified program. Otherwise a platform-dependent default program (like more) is used.

When the pager option is off, the pager program isn't used. When it's on, the pager is used when appropriate — i.e., when output goes to a terminal and won't fit on the screen. The pager option can also be set to always, which uses the pager for all terminal output regardless of whether it fits. And \pset pager with no value toggles pager use on and off.

• pager_min_lines — if pager_min_lines is set to a number greater than the page height, the pager program won't be called unless there are at least this many lines of output to show. Default setting is 0.
• recordsep — the record (line) separator for unaligned output format. Default is a newline character.
• recordsep_zero — sets the unaligned output record separator to a zero byte. 🦋
• tableattr (or T) — in HTML format, specifies attributes placed inside the table tag. Could be cellpadding or bgcolor, for example. Note that you probably don't want to specify border here, since \pset border already handles that. 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's specified as a whitespace-separated list of values, e.g. '0.2 0.2 0.6'. Unspecified output columns use the last specified value.

• title (or C) — sets the table title for any subsequently printed tables. Great for giving your output descriptive tags. If no value is given, the title is unset. 🌸
• tuples_only (or t) — if you give a value it must be on or off, which enables or disables tuples-only mode. No value? Toggles between regular and tuples-only output. Regular output includes extra info like column headers, titles, and various footers. In tuples-only mode, only the actual table data is shown. 🙈
• unicode_border_linestyle — sets the border drawing style for the unicode line style to one of single or double.
• unicode_column_linestyle — sets the column drawing style for the unicode line style to one of single or double.
• unicode_header_linestyle — sets the header drawing style for the unicode line style to one of single or double.

Illustrations of how these different formats look can be seen in Examples, below. 👀

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

---

• \q or \quit — quits the psql program. In a script file, only execution of that script is terminated. 😌
• \qecho text [ ... ] — literally identical to \echo except the output gets written to the query output channel, as set by \o.
• \r or \reset — resets (clears) the query buffer. Fresh start energy. ✨
• \restrict restrict_key — enters "restricted" mode with the provided key. In this mode, the only allowed meta-command is \unrestrict, to exit restricted mode. The key may contain only alphanumeric characters. 🔒

This one's mostly for plain-text dumps from pg_dump, pg_dumpall, and pg_restore — but honestly it can be handy elsewhere too. ✨

• \s [ filename ] — prints psql's command line history to filename. If you ghost the filename, the history goes to standard output instead (through the pager, if that's appropriate). Heads up: this command simply doesn't exist if psql was built without Readline support. 🫶
• \set [ name [ value [ ... ] ] ] — sets the psql variable name to value. Give it more than one value and it sets the variable to the concatenation of all of them. Give it only one argument and the variable gets set to an empty-string value. Wanna delete a variable entirely? That's \unset's job.

\set with zero arguments shows you the names and values of all currently-set psql variables. 📋

Valid variable names can contain letters, digits, and underscores. See Variables below for the details. Variable names are case-sensitive — yes, case-sensitive, so FOO and foo are different besties.

Some variables are special: they either control psql's behavior or get automatically set to reflect connection state. Those are documented in Variables, below.

💀 Note: this command is completely unrelated to the SQL command SET(7). Do not confuse them, I'm begging.

• \setenv name [ value ] — sets the environment variable name to value. If you don't supply a value, it unsets the environment variable instead. Example:

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

• \sf[+] function_description — fetches and shows the definition of the named function or procedure, formatted as a CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION or CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE command. It gets printed to the current query output channel, whatever \o has set. 🌸

You can name the target function by name alone, or by name plus arguments, like foo(integer, text). You must give the argument types if there's more than one function with the same name.

Slap a + on the command name and the output lines get numbered, with the first line of the function body counting as line 1.

Unlike most other meta-commands, the entire rest of the line is always taken as the argument(s) of \sf, and neither variable interpolation nor backquote expansion happens in those arguments. No cap.

• \sv[+] view_name — fetches and shows the definition of the named view, formatted as a CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW command. Printed to the current query output channel, as set by \o.

Add + to the command name and the output lines are numbered from 1. 🔢

Same deal as \sf: unlike most other meta-commands, the entire remainder of the line is always taken as the argument(s) of \sv, and neither variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in the arguments.

• \t — toggles the display of output column name headings and the row count footer. It's equivalent to \pset tuples_only, just here for the convenience of it. 🎀
• \T table_options — specifies attributes to place inside the table tag in HTML output format. Equivalent to \pset tableattr table_options.
• \timing [ on | off ] — with a parameter, turns the display of how long each SQL statement takes on or off. Without a parameter, it toggles between on and off. The display is in milliseconds; any interval longer than 1 second also gets shown in minutes:seconds format, with hours and days fields added if needed. ⏱️
• \unrestrict restrict_key — exits "restricted" mode (the one where all the other meta-commands are blocked), as long as the key you pass matches the one given to \restrict when restricted mode was entered. 🔓

This command is primarily intended for use in plain-text dumps generated by pg_dump, pg_dumpall, and pg_restore, but it may be useful elsewhere.

• \unset name — unsets (deletes) the psql variable name.

Most variables that control psql's behavior can't be unset; for those, an \unset command is interpreted as setting them to their default values instead. See Variables below.

• \w or \write — the two forms:

\w or \write filename
\w or \write |command

Writes the current query buffer to the file filename, or pipes it to the shell command command. If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently executed query gets written instead. 📝

If the argument begins with |, then the entire remainder of the line is taken to be the command to execute, and neither variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed on it. The rest of the line is just passed literally to the shell.

• \warn text [ ... ] — literally identical to \echo, except the output goes to psql's standard error channel instead of standard output. ⚠️
• \watch [ seconds ] — repeatedly executes the current query buffer (the way \g does) until you interrupt it or the query fails. Waits the specified number of seconds between executions (default 2). Each query result is displayed with a header that includes the \pset title string (if there is one), the time as of query start, and the delay interval. 👀

If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently sent query is re-executed instead.

• \x [ on | off | auto ] — sets or toggles expanded table formatting mode. Equivalent to \pset expanded. 🦋
• \z [ pattern ] — lists tables, views and sequences along with their associated access privileges. Specify a pattern and only tables, views and sequences whose names match it get listed.

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

• \! [ command ] — with no argument, escapes to a sub-shell; psql resumes when the sub-shell exits. With an argument, executes the shell command command. 🐚

Unlike most other meta-commands, the entire remainder of the line is always taken to be the argument(s) of \!, and neither variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed in the arguments. The rest of the line is simply passed literally to the shell.

• \? [ topic ] — shows help information. The optional topic parameter (defaulting to commands) selects which part of psql gets explained: commands describes psql's backslash commands; options describes the command-line options you can pass to psql; and variables shows help about psql configuration variables. 💖
• \; — okay so backslash-semicolon is not a meta-command in the same way as everything above it. It just causes a semicolon to be added to the query buffer, with no further processing whatsoever.

Normally, psql dispatches a SQL command to the server the second it hits the command-ending semicolon — even if there's more input left on the current line. So like, entering

select 1; select 2; select 3;

means the three SQL commands each get sent to the server individually, with each one's results displayed before moving on to the next command. But a semicolon entered as \; won't trigger command processing, so the command before it and the command after it effectively get combined and sent to the server in one single request. So for example

select 1\; select 2\; select 3;

results in sending all three SQL commands to the server in a single request, which happens when that non-backslashed semicolon is reached. The server executes a request like that as a single transaction — unless there are explicit BEGIN/COMMIT commands included in the string to divide it into multiple transactions. (See Section 52.2.2.1 for more details about how the server handles multi-query strings.) psql prints only the last query result it receives for each request; in this example, although all three SELECTs are indeed executed, psql only prints the 3. 🔥

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🎀 Patterns 🎀

The various \d commands accept a pattern parameter to specify which object name(s) to display. In the simplest case, a pattern is just the exact name of the object. Characters within a pattern are normally folded to lower case, just like in SQL names — so for example \dt FOO will display the table named foo. And as with SQL names, wrapping a pattern in double quotes stops the 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 inside 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 — which is equivalent to using * as the pattern. (An object is "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. That's equivalent to saying 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 at all) 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 inside double quotes, * and ? lose those special meanings and are just matched literally. ⭐

A pattern containing 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, the pattern matches only objects that are visible in the current schema search path. And again, a dot inside double quotes loses its special meaning and gets matched literally. 🦋

Okay so if you're an advanced user — hi, that's you 💅 — you can absolutely use regular-expression notations, like character classes: [0-9] matches any digit. All regular expression special characters work exactly as specified in Section 9.7.3, with these iconic little exceptions: . is taken as a separator like we mentioned above, * gets translated to the regular-expression notation .*, ? gets translated to ., and $ is matched literally. Need to emulate these pattern characters? No stress, bestie: write ? for ., (R+|) for R*, or (R|) for R?. You don't need $ as a regular-expression character because the pattern must match the whole name, unlike the usual interpretation of regular expressions — in other words, $ is automatically appended to your pattern. If you don't wish the pattern to be anchored, write * at the beginning and/or end. 🫶

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 lowkey 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. Periodt. ✨

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

testdb=> \set foo bar

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

testdb=> \echo :foo
bar

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

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

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. By convention, all specially treated variables' names consist of all upper-case ASCII letters (and possibly digits and underscores). To ensure maximum compatibility in the future, avoid using such variable names for your own purposes.

Variables that control psql's behavior generally cannot be unset or set to invalid values. An \unset command is allowed but is interpreted as setting the variable to its default value. A \set command without a second argument is interpreted as setting the variable to on, for control variables that accept that value, and is rejected for others. Also, control variables that accept the values on and off will also accept other common spellings of Boolean values, such as true and false.

The specially treated variables are:

• AUTOCOMMIT — When it's 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 it's 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 changed or unset.
• ECHO — If set to all, all nonempty input lines are printed to standard output as they are read. (This does not apply to lines read interactively.) To select this behavior on program start-up, use the switch -a. If set to queries, psql prints each query to standard output as it is sent to the server. The switch to select this behavior is -e. If set to errors, then only failed queries are displayed on standard error output. The switch for this behavior is -b. If set to none (the default), then no queries are displayed.
• ECHO_HIDDEN — When this variable is set to on and a backslash command queries the database, the query is first shown. This feature helps you to study PostgreSQL internals and provide similar functionality in your own programs. (To select this behavior on program start-up, use the switch -E.) If you set this variable to the value noexec, the queries are just shown but are not actually sent to the server and executed. The default value is off.
• ENCODING — The current client character set encoding. This is set every time you connect to a database (including program start-up), and when you change the encoding with \encoding, but it can be changed or unset.
• ERROR — true if the last SQL query failed, false if it succeeded. See also SQLSTATE.
• FETCH_COUNT — If this variable is set to an integer value greater than zero, the results of SELECT queries are fetched and displayed in groups of that many rows, rather than the default behavior of collecting the entire result set before display. Therefore only a limited amount of memory is used, regardless of the size of the result set. Settings of 100 to 1000 are commonly used when enabling this feature. Keep in mind that when using this feature, a query might fail after having already displayed some rows. 🔥

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.

• HIDE_TABLEAM — If this variable is set to true, a table's access method details are not displayed. This is mainly useful for regression tests.
• HISTCONTROL — If this variable is set to ignorespace, lines which begin with a space are not entered into the history list. If set to a value of ignoredups, lines matching the previous history line are not entered. A value of ignoreboth combines the two options. If set to none (the default), all lines read in interactive mode are saved on the history list.

Note: This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from Bash.

• HISTFILE — The file name that will be used to store the history list. If unset, the file name is taken from the PSQL_HISTORY environment variable. If that is not set either, the default is ~/.psql_history, or %APPDATA%\postgresql\psql_history on Windows. For example, putting:

\set HISTFILE ~/.psql_history- :DBNAME

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

Note: This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from Bash.

• HISTSIZE — The maximum number of commands to store in the command history (default 500). If set to a negative value, no limit is applied.

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 changed or unset.
• IGNOREEOF — If set to 1 or less, sending an EOF character (usually Ctrl+D) to an interactive session of psql will terminate the application. If set to a larger numeric value, that many consecutive EOF characters must be typed to make an interactive session terminate. If the variable is set to a non-numeric value, it is interpreted as 10. The default is 0.

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. PostgreSQL servers since version 12 do not support OID system columns anymore, thus LASTOID will always be 0 following INSERT when targeting such servers.
• LAST_ERROR_MESSAGE, LAST_ERROR_SQLSTATE — The primary error message and associated SQLSTATE code for the most recent failed query in the current psql session, or an empty string and 00000 if no error has occurred in the current session. 💜
• ON_ERROR_ROLLBACK — the "oops bestie, keep going" switch 🫶. Set it to on and if a statement inside a transaction block throws an error, the error gets ignored and the transaction just keeps vibing. Set it to interactive and those errors only get ignored in interactive sessions — not when reading script files. Set it to off (the default, and yes pls remember that) and a statement in a transaction block that generates an error aborts the entire transaction 💀. How's it work under the hood? It issues an implicit SAVEPOINT for you right before each command that's in a transaction block, then rolls back to that savepoint if the command fails. Neat.
• ON_ERROR_STOP — by default, command processing continues after an error. Set this variable to on and processing stops immediately instead. In interactive mode, psql returns to the command prompt; otherwise psql exits, returning error code 3 so you can tell this case apart from fatal error conditions, which get reported using error code 1. Either way, any currently running scripts (the top-level script, if any, and any other scripts it may have invoked) get terminated immediately 🛑. And if the top-level command string contained multiple SQL commands, processing stops with the current command.
• PORT — the database server port you're currently connected to. This gets set every time you connect to a database (including program start-up), but you can change it or unset it.
• PROMPT1, PROMPT2, PROMPT3 — these decide what the prompts psql spits out actually look like ✨. See Prompting below, bestie.
• QUIET — setting this to on is exactly equivalent to the command line option -q. Honestly it's probably not too useful in interactive mode.
• ROW_COUNT — the number of rows returned or affected by the last SQL query, or 0 if the query failed or didn't report a row count.
• SERVER_VERSION_NAME, SERVER_VERSION_NUM — the server's version number, as a string (for example 9.6.2, 10.1 or 11beta1) and in numeric form (for example 90602 or 100001). These are set every time you connect to a database (including program start-up), but can be changed or unset.
• SHOW_CONTEXT — set this to never, errors, or always to control whether CONTEXT fields show up in messages from the server. Default is errors (meaning context shows in error messages, but not in notice or warning messages). This setting has no effect when VERBOSITY is set to terse or sqlstate. (Also check out \errverbose, for when you want a verbose version of the error you just got 👀.)
• SINGLELINE — setting this to on is equivalent to the command line option -S.
• SINGLESTEP — setting this to on is equivalent to the command line option -s.
• SQLSTATE — the error code (see Appendix A) associated with the last SQL query's failure, or 00000 if it succeeded.
• USER — the database user you're currently connected as. Set every time you connect to a database (including program start-up), but can be changed or unset.
• VERBOSITY — set this to default, verbose, terse, or sqlstate to control the verbosity of error reports. (Again, \errverbose is your bestie when you want a verbose version of the error you just got.)
• VERSION, VERSION_NAME, VERSION_NUM — these get set at program start-up to reflect psql's own version, respectively as a verbose string, a short string (e.g., 9.6.2, 10.1, or 11beta1), and a number (e.g., 90602 or 100001). They can be changed or unset.

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💫 SQL Interpolation 💫

Okay so this is genuinely one of the coolest bits of psql variables, no cap. You can substitute — "interpolate" — them into regular SQL statements, and into the arguments of meta-commands too. And psql even gives you the tools to make sure variable values used as SQL literals and identifiers are properly quoted 🙌. The syntax for interpolating a value with no quoting at all is to slap a colon (:) in front of the variable name. Like:

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

That would query the table my_table. But heads up — this can be unsafe: the value of the variable gets copied literally, so it can contain unbalanced quotes, or even backslash commands 😭. You gotta make sure it actually makes sense where you put it.

When a value is going to be used as an SQL literal or identifier, the safest move is to arrange for it to be quoted. To quote a variable's value 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 handle quotes and other special characters embedded in the variable value correctly, which is the whole point 💅. The previous example would be way safer written like this:

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

Variable interpolation does not happen inside quoted SQL literals and identifiers. So a construction like ':foo' doesn't work to produce a quoted literal from a variable's value — and honestly 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 copying the contents of a file into a table column. First load the file into a variable, 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. Either way, you can escape a colon with a backslash to protect it from substitution 🛡️.

The :{?name} special syntax returns TRUE or FALSE depending on whether the variable exists or not, and is thus always substituted, unless the colon is backslash-escaped.

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.

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🌸 Prompting 🌸

Your prompts, your rules — psql prompts can be customized to your preference, and honestly the customization goes hard 🔥. The three variables PROMPT1, PROMPT2, and PROMPT3 contain strings and special escape sequences that describe what the prompt looks like.

Prompt 1 is the normal prompt, issued when psql asks for a new command. Prompt 2 is issued when more input is expected during command entry — for example because the command wasn't terminated with a semicolon, or a quote wasn't closed. Prompt 3 is issued when you're running an SQL COPY FROM STDIN command and you need to type in a row value on the terminal.

The value of the selected prompt variable gets printed literally, except where a percent sign (%) is encountered. Depending on the next character, certain other text gets substituted instead. The 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.)
• %p — the process ID of the backend currently connected to.
• %R — in prompt 1, normally =, but @ if the session is in an inactive branch of a conditional block, or ^ if in single-line mode, or ! if the session is disconnected from the database (which can happen if \connect fails). In prompt 2, %R is replaced by a character that depends on why psql expects more input: - if the command simply wasn't terminated yet, but * if there's an unfinished /* ... */ comment, a single quote if there's an unfinished quoted string, a double quote if there's an unfinished quoted identifier, a dollar sign if there's an unfinished dollar-quoted string, or ( if there's 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's no connection).
• %l — the line number inside the current statement, starting from 1.
• %digits — the character with the indicated octal code is substituted.
• %:name: — the value of the psql variable name. See Variables, above, for details.
• %`command` — the output of command, similar to ordinary "back-tick" substitution.
• %[ ... %] — prompts can totally contain terminal control characters, like ones that change the color, background, or style of your prompt text, or even change the title of the terminal window. But listen: for Readline's line editing to actually work right, those non-printing control characters have to be marked as invisible — you do that by wrapping them in %[ and %]. You can have multiple pairs of these inside one prompt, no cap. Like:

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

and that gives you a boldfaced (1;) yellow-on-black (33;40) prompt on VT100-compatible, color-capable terminals. slay 💅

• %w — whitespace of the same width as the most recent output of PROMPT1. You'd use this as a PROMPT2 setting so that multi-line statements line up with the first line, but you get no visible secondary prompt. sneaky but iconic ✨

To insert an actual percent sign into your prompt, you write %%. The default prompts are '/%/%R%x%# ' for prompts 1 and 2, and '>> ' for prompt 3.

Note This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from tcsh. 💀 (their words, not mine)

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🦋 Command-Line Editing 🦋

psql supports the Readline library for convenient line editing and retrieval — literally the basics, bestie, and we love her for it. Your command history is automatically saved when psql exits and reloaded when psql starts up. Tab-completion is also supported, although the completion logic makes no claim to be an SQL parser (it's giving confident but not certified 😭). The queries generated by tab-completion can also interfere with other SQL commands, e.g. SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL.

If for some reason you don't 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 — go read the source of truth, babe 🫶)

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🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

• COLUMNS — if \pset columns is zero, this controls the width for the wrapped format, and also the width used for deciding whether wide output needs the pager or should be switched to the vertical format in expanded auto mode. multi-tasking queen 👑
• PGDATABASE, PGHOST, PGPORT, PGUSER — default connection parameters (see Section 33.14). the classic squad 🫶
• PG_COLOR — specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages. Possible values are always, auto and never. pick your vibe 🌈
• PSQL_EDITOR, EDITOR, VISUAL — the editor used by the \e, \ef, and \ev commands. These variables are examined in the order listed; the first that is set is used. If none of them is set, the default is to use vi on Unix systems or notepad.exe on Windows systems. (notepad.exe... bestie I'm so sorry 😭)
• PSQL_EDITOR_LINENUMBER_ARG — when \e, \ef, or \ev is used with a line number argument, this variable specifies the command-line argument used to pass the starting line number to your editor. For editors like 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. ngl that plus sign is lowkey iconic ✨

• PSQL_HISTORY — alternative location for the command history file. Tilde (~) expansion is performed. so cosy 🎀
• PSQL_PAGER, PAGER — if a query's results do not fit on the screen, they are piped through this command. Typical values are more or less. Use of the pager can be disabled by setting PSQL_PAGER or PAGER to an empty string, or by adjusting the pager-related options of the \pset command. These variables are examined in the order listed; the first that is set is used. If none of them is set, the default is to use more on most platforms, but less on Cygwin. scroll responsibly 💅
• PSQLRC — alternative location of the user's .psqlrc file. Tilde (~) expansion is performed.
• SHELL — the command executed by the \! command. (yes, that's a real backslash command, she's chaotic 💀)
• 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 33.14).

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🎀 FILES 🎀

psqlrc and ~/.psqlrc

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

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. she's got layers 👑

.psql_history

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

The location of the history file can be set explicitly via the HISTFILE psql variable or the PSQL_HISTORY environment variable. protect the receipts at all costs 🙈

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💜 NOTES 💜

• 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 around a copy of psql from each major version and be sure to use the version that matches the respective server. But in practice, this additional complication should not be necessary. don't overthink it babe 🫶

• Before PostgreSQL 9.6, the -c option implied -X (--no-psqlrc); this is no longer the case. history lesson 💀
• Before PostgreSQL 8.4, psql allowed the first argument of a single-letter backslash command to start directly after the command, without intervening whitespace. Now, some whitespace is required. periodt. ✨

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🪟 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:

1. 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.
2. Set the console font to Lucida Console, because the raster font does not work with the ANSI code page. (raster font found unemployed and unbothered, we don't miss her 💅)

🌸 EXAMPLES 🌸

Ok bestie, this is the fun part — like, actual receipts of psql being iconic. Stay with me, it's giving tutorial energy and honestly? We ate. 💅

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✨ Example one: commands that just keep going ✨

The first example shows how to spread a command over several lines of input. The way the prompt changes as you keep typing is the whole vibe — watch it:

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

See that? testdb=> turns into testdb(> and then testdb-> — it's literally telling you "girl, I'm still listening, keep going." 🫶

Now look at the table definition again:

testdb=> \d my_table
              Table "public.my_table"
 Column |  Type   | Collation | Nullable | Default
--------+---------+-----------+----------+---------
 first  | integer |           | not null | 0
 second | text    |           |          |

Now we change the prompt to something more interesting — main character prompt energy, no cap:

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)

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🎀 Making it pretty with \pset 🎀

You can display tables in different ways by using the \pset command. Border glow-ups, let's go:

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)

Ok that one is lowkey serving. Now strip the box away:

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)

And border style 1, then a little csv moment, then tuples-only, then unaligned — a whole mini fashion show:

peter@localhost testdb=> \pset border 1
Border style is 1.
peter@localhost testdb=> \pset format csv
Output format is csv.
peter@localhost testdb=> \pset tuples_only
Tuples only is on.
peter@localhost testdb=> SELECT second, first FROM my_table;
one,1
two,2
three,3
four,4
peter@localhost testdb=> \pset format unaligned
Output format is unaligned.
peter@localhost testdb=> \pset fieldsep '\t'
Field separator is "    ".
peter@localhost testdb=> SELECT second, first FROM my_table;
one     1
two     2
three   3
four    4

Alternatively, use the short commands — the girlies love a shortcut 🦋:

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

Look at -[ RECORD 1 ]-… she's so expanded, she's so on. 😭💖

Also, these output format options can be set for just one query by using \g. One query. One look. Then back to normal:

peter@localhost testdb=> SELECT * FROM my_table
peter@localhost testdb-> \g (format=aligned tuples_only=off expanded=on)
-[ RECORD 1 ]-
first  | 1
second | one
-[ RECORD 2 ]-
first  | 2
second | two
-[ RECORD 3 ]-
first  | 3
second | three
-[ RECORD 4 ]-
first  | 4
second | four

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🌈 Crosstab o'clock (\crosstabview) 🌈

When suitable, query results can be shown in a crosstab representation with the \crosstabview command. This is the spreadsheet arc, and honestly it's giving pivot table but make it chic:

testdb=> SELECT first, second, first > 2 AS gt2 FROM my_table;
 first | second | gt2
-------+--------+-----
     1 | one    | f
     2 | two    | f
     3 | three  | t
     4 | four   | t
(4 rows)

testdb=> \crosstabview first second
 first | one | two | three | four
-------+-----+-----+-------+------
     1 | f   |     |       |
     2 |     | f   |       |
     3 |     |     | t     |
     4 |     |     |       | t
(4 rows)

So first became the rows, second became the columns, and the f/t values landed in the grid like they belonged there. Obsessed. 🔥

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👑 Example two: the multiplication table flex 👑

This second example shows a multiplication table with rows sorted in reverse numerical order and columns with an independent, ascending numerical order. Yes, both at once. She's ambidextrous, she contains multitudes:

testdb=> SELECT t1.first as "A", t2.first+100 AS "B", t1.first*(t2.first+100) as "AxB",
testdb(> row_number() over(order by t2.first) AS ord
testdb(> FROM my_table t1 CROSS JOIN my_table t2 ORDER BY 1 DESC
testdb(> \crosstabview "A" "B" "AxB" ord
 A | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104
---+-----+-----+-----+-----
  4 | 404 | 408 | 412 | 416
  3 | 303 | 306 | 309 | 312
  2 | 202 | 204 | 206 | 208
  1 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104
(4 rows)

Rows going 4, 3, 2, 1 (reverse, icon behaviour). Columns going 101, 102, 103, 104 (ascending, separate order, independent queen). And every cell is the product. Math has never been this cunty, fr fr. ✨

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Reminder bestie: all those \pset choices, the \a \t \x shortcuts, the \g (format=… ) one-shot settings and \crosstabview are exactly what the earlier sections describe — this page is just them living their best life. 💜

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And that's the whole page, bestie — psql(1), PostgreSQL 13.23, dated 2025, and honestly? She did that. Now go forth and query like the main character you are. Mwah. 🎀💖🦋