PSQL(1)

📦 version 16.15, in opensuse-leap 16.0

💅 PSQL(1) — the PostgreSQL interactive terminal, bestie edition

PostgreSQL 16.15 Documentation ✨ (yes this is PSQL(1), the one and only, come sit with me)

🌸 NAME

psql — the PostgreSQL interactive terminal. She's the terminal-based front-end to PostgreSQL and she's literally the moment. 👑

🦋 SYNOPSIS

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

💖 DESCRIPTION

psql is a terminal-based front-end to PostgreSQL. Bestie, think of it as your little window into the database: you type queries interactively, you fire them off to PostgreSQL, and you see the query results right there. Gorgeous. 🎀

Alternatively, input can come from a file or from command line arguments — so it's not just a chat, she can also take instructions. 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. She's versatile like that. 💅

✨ OPTIONS ✨

Ok so here's the whole menu. Every flag, every default, everything — nothing skipped, iykyk. 🫶

  • -a, --echo-all — Print all nonempty input lines to standard output as they are read. (This does not apply to lines read interactively, so don't come for her.) This is equivalent to setting the variable ECHO to all.
  • -A, --no-align — Switches to unaligned output mode. (The default output mode is aligned, for the record.) 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. Periodt. 💅

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 — nope, not happening. 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 55.2.2.1 for more details about how the server handles multi-query strings.) 👀

If having several commands executed in one transaction is not desired, 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. Spreadsheet girlies rise 🍓
  • -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 — and if so, connection string parameters will override any conflicting command line options. Sneaky but iconic.
  • -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 — like reading her diary, but consensual. 📖 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. Slash = socket dir, got it. 💜
  • -H, --html — Switches to HTML output mode. This is equivalent to \pset format html or the \H command. Web girlie behavior 🌈
  • -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). Careful with that last bit, ok? 🎀

  • -L filename, --log-file=filename — Write all query output into file filename, in addition to the normal output destination. So you get both, queen behavior.
  • -n, --no-readline — Do not use Readline for line editing and do not use the command history (see the section called “Command-Line Editing” below). No arrow keys, no history, raw vibes.
  • -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. One step at a time, bestie 🧚
  • -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. Just the rows, nothing else 💀
  • -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. Timing is everything, bestie ⏰
  • -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. Set it once, and it stays — yes, for real.
  • -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. Same deal as -w, just the opposite energy.
  • -x, --expanded — Turn on the expanded table formatting mode. This is equivalent to \x or \pset expanded. Honestly a slay for wide tables 🔥
  • -X, --no-psqlrc — Do not read the start-up file (neither the system-wide psqlrc file nor the user's ~/.psqlrc file). No muscle memory, just vibes.
  • -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 — Set the record separator for unaligned output to a zero byte. This is useful for interfacing, for example, with xargs -0. This is equivalent to \pset recordsep_zero. NUL-separated chaos, we love her 💜
  • -1, --single-transaction — bestie this one is only legal when you also pass one or more -c and/or -f options. What it does: it makes 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 in one single transaction. Obsessed — it's all-or-nothing energy.

And if any of the commands fails and the variable ON_ERROR_STOP was set? A ROLLBACK command gets sent instead. So either every command completes successfully, or zero changes are applied. Periodt. 💅

Heads up: if the commands themselves contain BEGIN, COMMIT, or ROLLBACK, this option will not have the desired effects. Also, if an individual command cannot be executed inside a transaction block, specifying this option will cause the whole transaction to fail. No cap, that's the risk.
  • -?, --help[=topic] — show help about psql and exit. The optional topic parameter (it defaults to options) picks 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. Choose your own adventure 🦋

✨ EXIT STATUS ✨

psql tells the shell how it's feeling with these numbers:

  • 0 — it finished normally. slay 🎀
  • 1 — a fatal error of its own occurred (e.g., out of memory, file not found). 😭
  • 2 — the connection to the server went bad and the session was not interactive. 💀
  • 3 — an error occurred in a script and the variable ON_ERROR_STOP was set.

🌈 USAGE 🌈

🌸 Connecting to a Database 🌸

okay so psql is a regular PostgreSQL client application, nothing weird about it. To connect to a database you need to know three-ish things: the name of your target database, the host name and port number of the server, and what database user name you want to connect as.

psql can be told about those parameters via command line options — namely -d, -h, -p, and -U respectively, iykyk. If an argument is found that does not belong to any option, it gets interpreted as the database name (or the database user name, if the database name is already given).

Not all of these options are required btw — 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 Windows.
  • 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 database user name is your operating-system user name. Once the database user name is determined, it is used as the default database name.
Note that you cannot just connect to any database under any database user name. Your database administrator should have informed you about your access rights. ask before you touch, bestie 🙈

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 34.15.) It's also convenient to have a ~/.pgpass file so you don't have to type in passwords on the regular. See Section 34.16 for more information.

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

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

This way you can also use LDAP for connection parameter lookup as described in Section 34.18. See Section 34.1.2 for more information on all the available connection options. iconic behaviour honestly 👑

If the connection could not be made for any reason (e.g., insufficient privileges, server is not running on the targeted host, etc.), psql will return an error and terminate. no connection, no vibes, we go home 😭

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

🦋 Entering SQL Commands 🦋

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

$ psql testdb
psql (16.15)
Type "help" for help.

testdb=>

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

🔥 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. One can add options=-csearch_path= to the connection string or issue SELECT pg_catalog.set_config('search_path', '', false) before other SQL commands. This consideration is not specific to psql; it applies to every interface for executing arbitrary SQL commands. so it's not just a psql thing, it's an everyone thing.

Whenever a command is executed, psql also polls for asynchronous notification events generated by LISTEN and NOTIFY. it's giving attentive bestie energy 🌸

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

💜 Meta-Commands 💜

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

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

Now the quoting rules, and yes you need these:

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

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

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

The latter form is almost always preferable, unless you are very sure of what is in the variable. ngl bestie, just use the quoted form, it's safer. 🙈

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.

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

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

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. This will include previous input lines as well as any text appearing before the meta-command on the same line.

The following meta-commands are defined:

🎀 \a

If the current table output format is unaligned, it is switched to aligned. If it is not unaligned, it is set to unaligned. Literally a toggle, bestie. 🔁

This command is kept for backwards compatibility. See \pset for a more general solution.

🎀 \bind [ parameter ] ...

Sets query parameters for the next query execution, with the specified parameters passed for any parameter placeholders ($1 etc.).

Example:

INSERT INTO tbl1 VALUES ($1, $2) \bind 'first value' 'second value' \g

This also works for query-execution commands besides \g, such as \gx and \gset.

This command causes the extended query protocol (see Section 55.1.2) to be used, unlike normal psql operation, which uses the simple query protocol. So this command can be useful to test the extended query protocol from psql. (The extended query protocol is used even if the query has no parameters and this command specifies zero parameters.) This command affects only the next query executed; all subsequent queries will use the simple query protocol by default. one-time thing, no strings attached 💅

🎀 \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 34.1.1. If no arguments are given, a new connection is made using the same parameters as before. same vibes, new... same vibes actually 🌈

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

were re-used from the last successful connection, not from any failed attempts that came after it. Buuut — plot twist — if a \connect fails in non-interactive mode, then no parameters are allowed to be re-used later, because the script is probably expecting the values from the failed \connect. Yeah. It's giving "trust issues" but honestly valid. 🙈

Examples, bestie — memorize the vibes:

=> \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 on any tables that get printed as the result of a query — or unsets such a title if you don't give one. This command is equivalent to \pset title title. (Fun fact iykyk: the name comes from "caption", because back in the day it was only ever used to set the caption in an HTML table. Historic queen behavior. 👑)

\cd [ directory ] 🦋

Changes the current working directory to directory. If you don't pass an argument, it changes to the current user's home directory. Cozy.

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

\conninfo 🌈

Outputs info about the current database connection. That's it. That's the whole command. Short and iconic.

\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. Okay so here's the tea: this runs an SQL COPY command, but instead of the server reading or writing the specified file, psql reads or writes the file and routes the data between the server and the local file system. Which means file accessibility and privileges are those of the local user, not the server — and no SQL superuser privileges are required. No cap, that's the whole appeal. ✨

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

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

The syntax of this command is similar to that of the SQL COPY command. All options other than the data source/destination are as specified for COPY. Because of this, 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. Yes, the whole line. No takesies-backsies. 💀

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 or destination, because all data must 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. Yeah. That's a real bug note, keep it in mind.

Shows the copyright and distribution terms of PostgreSQL. Legal bestie moment.

\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. Grid slay. ✨

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. Detective work but make it SQL. 🔍

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.

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.

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. Pick a lane, data. 💅

\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. ("Matching the pattern" is defined in Patterns below.) It's giving full inventory, no crumbs left. ✨

For some types of relation, \d shows additional information 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, a non-default replica identity setting and the access method name if the relation has an access method. Extra. Iconic. Both. 💅

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

Note 🙈 If \d is used without a pattern argument, it is equivalent to \dtvmsE — which shows a list of all visible tables, views, materialized views, sequences and foreign tables. This is purely a convenience measure. A little shortcut treat.

\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. Plus means more, always.

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

Lists operator classes (see Section 38.16.1). 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. Two patterns, one command, chaos coordinated. 🦋

  • \dAf[+] [access-method-pattern [input-type-pattern]] — lists operator families (peep Section 38.16.5 for the lore 🔍). If you pass access-method-pattern, bestie, only the operator families tied to access methods whose names match that pattern show up. If you pass input-type-pattern, only operator families tied to input types whose names match that pattern get listed. Slap a + on the end of the command name and each operator family comes with its owner. Periodt. 💅
  • \dAo[+] [access-method-pattern [operator-family-pattern]] — lists the operators hanging out inside operator families (Section 38.16.2 has the receipts). Give it access-method-pattern and you'll only see members of operator families attached to access methods matching that pattern. Give it operator-family-pattern and only members of operator families matching that pattern appear. Add + to the command name and each operator is listed with its sort operator family — but only if it's an ordering operator, iykyk ✨
  • \dAp[+] [access-method-pattern [operator-family-pattern]] — lists the support functions chillin' in operator families (Section 38.16.3, go read it 🫶). With access-method-pattern, only functions of operator families tied to matching access methods are listed. With operator-family-pattern, only functions of operator families matching that name are listed. Add + and the functions get displayed verbosely, with their actual parameter lists. Very demure, very thorough. 🎀
  • \db[+] [ pattern ] — lists tablespaces 💾. Pass pattern and only tablespaces whose names match it get shown. Add + and each tablespace is listed with its associated options, on-disk size, permissions and description. The full tea. ☕
  • \dc[S+] [ pattern ] — lists conversions between character-set encodings 🔤. Give it pattern and only conversions whose names match are listed. By default, only user-created objects are shown — so supply a pattern or the S modifier to include system objects. Add + and each object is listed with its associated description.
  • \dconfig[+] [ pattern ] — lists server configuration parameters and their values ⚙️. With pattern, only parameters whose names match are listed. Without a pattern, only parameters that are set to non-default values are listed (so if you wanna see literally everything, use \dconfig * — noted 📝). Add + and each parameter is listed with its data type, the context in which the parameter can be set, and access privileges — but only if non-default access privileges have been granted.
  • \dC[+] [ pattern ] — lists type casts 🔁. With pattern, only casts whose source or target types match that pattern are listed. Add + and each object gets listed with its associated description. Iconic.
  • \dd[S] [ pattern ] — shows descriptions of objects of type constraint, operator class, operator family, rule, and trigger 🏷️. All the other comments? You can view those with the respective backslash commands for those object types, no cap.

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

Also, descriptions for objects can be created with the COMMENT SQL command. Write that down. 💖

  • \dD[S+] [ pattern ] — lists domains 🌐. With pattern, only domains whose names match are shown. By default, only user-created objects are shown — supply a pattern or the S modifier to include system objects. Add + and each object is 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) for which the default privilege settings have been changed from the built-in defaults. With pattern, only entries whose role name or schema name matches are listed.

The ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES command is what you use to set default access privileges, and the meaning of the privilege display is explained in Section 5.7. It's giving documentation-inception 🌀

the little squad of lookups 📦

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

In this group of commands, the letters E, i, m, s, t, and v stand for foreign table, index, materialized view, sequence, table, and view, respectively 👑. You can specify any or all of these letters, in any order, to get a listing of objects of those types — for example, \dti lists tables and indexes. Combo moves, fr fr.

If + is appended to the command name, each object is listed with its persistence status (permanent, temporary, or unlogged), physical size on disk, and associated description if any. If pattern is specified, only objects whose names match the pattern are listed. By default, only user-created objects are shown — supply a pattern or the S modifier to include system objects.

  • \des[+] [ pattern ] — lists foreign servers 🛰️ (mnemonic: "external servers" — cute, right?). With pattern, only those servers whose name matches are listed. Use the form \des+ and you get a full description of each server, including the server's access privileges, type, version, options, and description. The whole resume. 📄
  • \det[+] [ pattern ] — lists foreign tables 📊 (mnemonic: "external tables"). With pattern, only entries whose table name or schema name matches are listed. Use \det+ and generic options plus the foreign table description are also displayed.
  • \deu[+] [ pattern ] — lists user mappings 👥 (mnemonic: "external users"). With pattern, only those mappings whose user names match are listed. Use \deu+ and you get additional information about each mapping.
⚠️ Caution ⚠️ \deu+ might also display the user name and password of the remote user, so care should be taken not to disclose them. Like, actually. Do not be out here leaking credentials on main. 😭🔒
  • \dew[+] [ pattern ] — lists foreign-data wrappers 🎁 (mnemonic: "external wrappers"). With pattern, only those foreign-data wrappers whose name matches are listed. Use \dew+ and the access privileges, options, and description of the foreign-data wrapper are also shown.
  • \df[anptwS+] [ pattern [ arg_pattern ... ] ] — lists functions, together with their result data types, argument data types, and function types 🧮, which are classified as agg (aggregate), normal, procedure, trigger, or window. To display only functions of specific type(s), add the corresponding letters a, n, p, t, or w to the command. With pattern, only functions whose names match are shown.

Any additional arguments are type-name patterns, matched against the type names of the first, second, and so on arguments of the function. (Matching functions can have more arguments than what you specify — and to prevent that, write a dash - as the last arg_pattern. Sneaky little trick, love that for us ✨)

By default, only user-created objects are shown — supply a pattern or the S modifier to include system objects. Use \df+ and you get additional info about each function, including volatility, parallel safety, owner, security classification, access privileges, language, internal name (for C and internal functions only), and description. Source code for a specific function can be seen using \sf. Chef's kiss. 👨‍🍳💋

  • \dF[+] [ pattern ] — lists text search configurations 🔎. With pattern, only configurations whose names match are shown. Use \dF+ and you get 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 pattern, only dictionaries whose names match are shown. Use \dFd+ and additional information is shown about each selected dictionary, including the underlying text search template and the option values.
  • \dFp[+] [ pattern ] — lists text search parsers 🧩. With pattern, only parsers whose names match are shown. Use \dFp+ and a full description of each parser is shown, including the underlying functions and the list of recognized token types.
  • \dFt[+] [ pattern ] — lists text search templates 📝. With pattern, only templates whose names match are shown. Use \dFt+ and additional information is shown about each template, including the underlying function names.
  • \dg[S+] [ pattern ] — lists database roles 🎭. (Since the concepts of "users" and "groups" have been unified into "roles", this command is now equivalent to \du. History, bestie.) By default, only user-created roles are shown — supply the S modifier to include system roles. With pattern, only those roles whose names match are listed. Use \dg+ and additional information is shown about each role; currently this adds the comment for each role.
  • \dl[+] — this is an alias for \lo_list, which shows a list of large objects 🐘. Add + to the command name and each large object is listed with its associated permissions, if any.
  • \dL[S+] [ pattern ] — lists procedural languages 🗣️. With pattern, only languages whose names match are listed. By default, only user-created languages are shown — supply the S modifier to include system objects. Add + and each language is listed with its call handler, validator, access privileges, and whether it is a system object.
  • \dn[S+] [ pattern ] — lists schemas (namespaces) 🗂️. With pattern, only schemas whose names match are listed. By default, only user-created objects are shown — supply a pattern or the S modifier to include system objects. Add + and each object is listed with its associated permissions and description, if any.

💅 \do[S+] [ pattern [ arg_pattern [ arg_pattern ] ] ]

Bestie, this one lists your operators, and it's so nice about it it'll show you each one's operand and result types too. 🎀 If you give a pattern, only operators whose names match get listed. One arg_pattern? Then it's prefix operators only, filtered by whether their right argument's type name matches that pattern. Two arg_patterns? Binary operators only, whose argument type names match those patterns. (And if you're dealing with a unary operator, just write - for the argument that isn't being used — iconic little placeholder, honestly.)

By default you only see user-created objects; supply a pattern or the S modifier to pull in system objects too. Add + to the command name and you get extra info on each operator — currently that's just the name of the underlying function. ✨

🌸 \dO[S+] [ pattern ]

Collations, collations, collations — this is the collation list command. Give it a pattern and only collations whose names match show up. Same deal as always: default is user-created objects only, so supply a pattern or the S modifier for system objects. 💖

Stick + on the end and each collation comes with its associated description, if there is one.

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. Not a bug, just vibes (encoding ones).

🔐 \dp[S] [ pattern ]

Lists tables, views and sequences with their associated access privileges. Give a pattern and only matching tables/views/sequences get listed. Default again: user-created objects only — pattern or S modifier for system objects. 😌

The GRANT and REVOKE commands are what set access privileges, and the whole meaning of the privilege display is explained in Section 5.7 — go read it, iykyk.

🧚 \dP[itn+] [ pattern ]

Partitioned relations, let's gooo. Give a pattern and only entries whose name matches are listed. You can append the modifiers t (tables) and i (indexes) to filter the kind of relations you want. By default, partitioned tables and indexes are listed. 🦋

Use the n modifier ("nested"), or specify a pattern, and non-root partitioned relations get included — plus you get a column showing the parent of each partitioned relation. Slay.

Append + and you also get the sum of the sizes of each relation's partitions, along with the relation's description. And if you combine n with +, 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. Two sizes! Main character energy. 👑

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

Lists defined configuration settings — and these can be role-specific, database-specific, or both at once. role-pattern and database-pattern pick which roles and databases to list, respectively. Omit them (or pass *) and everything gets listed, including the settings that aren't role-specific or database-specific. 💜

The ALTER ROLE and ALTER DATABASE commands are what define those per-role and per-database configuration settings. 🎀

👯 \drg[S] [ pattern ]

Info about each granted role membership, including the assigned options (ADMIN, INHERIT and/or SET) and the grantor. Peep the GRANT command for the lore on role memberships.

By default only grants to user-created roles show up, so supply the S modifier to include system roles. Give a pattern and only grants to roles whose names match get listed. ✨

📰 \dRp[+] [ pattern ]

Lists replication publications. Give a pattern and only the publications whose names match show up. Add + and the tables and schemas associated with each publication are shown too. 💖

📬 \dRs[+] [ pattern ]

Lists replication subscriptions. Give a pattern and only subscriptions whose names match get listed. Add + and you get additional properties of the subscriptions. 🦋

🧬 \dT[S+] [ pattern ]

Data types! Give a pattern and only types whose names match are listed. Add + and each type comes with its internal name and size, its allowed values if it's an enum type, and its associated permissions. So thorough of it. 💅

Default is user-created objects only — pattern or S modifier to include system objects.

🫶 \du[S+] [ pattern ]

Lists database roles. And yes, since the concepts of "users" and "groups" got unified into "roles", this command is now literally equivalent to \dg — they're the same thing, no cap. Default: user-created roles only, so supply the S modifier to include system roles. Give a pattern and only roles whose names match are listed.

Use the form \du+ and you get additional info about each role — currently that adds the comment for each role. 📝

🧩 \dx[+] [ pattern ]

Lists installed extensions. Give a pattern and only extensions whose names match are listed. Use \dx+ and all the objects belonging to each matching extension get listed out. Obsessed. 😭

📊 \dX [ pattern ]

Lists extended statistics. Give a pattern and only those extended statistics whose names match get listed.

The status of each kind of extended statistics shows up in a column named after its statistic kind (e.g. Ndistinct). defined means it was requested when creating the statistics, and NULL means it wasn't requested. If you wanna know whether ANALYZE was run and statistics are actually available to the planner, hit up pg_stats_ext. 🔍

🎉 \dy[+] [ pattern ]

Lists event triggers. Give a pattern and only event triggers whose names match are listed. Add + and each object is listed with its associated description. ✨

✏️ \e or \edit [ filename ] [ line_number ]

Okay, editor time — this is a big one, stay with me. 🫶

If filename is specified, that file gets edited; after the editor exits, the file's content is copied into the current query buffer. If no filename is given, the current query buffer gets copied to a temporary file, which is then edited the same way. Or — plot twist — if the current query buffer is empty, the most recently executed query is copied to a temporary file and edited in the same fashion. 💅

If you edit a file or the previous query and then quit the editor without modifying the file, the query buffer is cleared. Otherwise, the new contents of the query buffer are re-parsed according to the normal rules of psql, treating the whole buffer as a single line. Any complete queries are immediately executed — that is, if the query buffer contains or ends with a semicolon, everything up to that point is executed and 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. 😌

Treating the buffer as a single line primarily affects meta-commands: whatever is in the buffer after a meta-command will be taken as argument(s) to the meta-command, even if it spans multiple lines. (So you cannot make meta-command-using scripts this way — use \i for that. Noted, bestie. 📌)

If a line number is specified, psql will position the cursor on the specified line of the file or query buffer. And note: if a single all-digits argument is given, psql assumes it's a line number, not a file name. 🙈

💡 Tip — See Environment, below, for how to configure and customize your editor.

🗣️ \echo text [ ... ]

Prints the evaluated arguments to standard output, separated by spaces and followed by a newline. Super useful for interspersing info into the output of your scripts. Like:

=> \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 the first argument). Sneaky little flag. 🎀

💡 Tip — If you're using the \o command to redirect your query output, you might wanna use \qecho instead of this one. See also \warn. 🫶

🛠️ \ef [ function_description [ line_number ] ]

This one fetches and edits the definition of the named function or procedure, served up as a CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION or CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE command. Editing works the same as for \edit. Quit the editor without saving and the statement is discarded. Save and exit, and the updated command is executed immediately if you added a semicolon to it. Otherwise it's redisplayed — type semicolon or \g to send it, or \r to cancel. 🔥

The target function can be specified by name alone, or by name and arguments, like foo(integer, text). The argument types must be given if there's more than one function with the same name — don't skip that part, it matters. 😭

If no function is specified, you get a blank CREATE FUNCTION template to edit. Fresh slate, love that for you. ✨

If a line number is specified, psql will position the cursor on the specified line of the function body. (Note that the function body typically does not begin on the first line of the file. Just so you're not confused, bestie. 🎀)

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. 💅

💡 Tip — See Environment, below, for how to configure and customize your editor.

🔤 \encoding [ encoding ]

Sets the client character set encoding. Without an argument, this command shows you the current encoding instead. So you can always check before you commit, king behaviour. 👑

💀 \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. Maximum drama, maximum detail, we love a thorough error. 😭🔥

🖼️ \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. Quit the editor without saving and the statement is discarded. Save and exit, and the updated command is executed immediately if you added a semicolon to it. Otherwise it's redisplayed — type semicolon or \g to send it, or \r to cancel. 🌸

If no view is specified, a blank CREATE VIEW template is presented for editing. 🎀

If a line number is specified, psql will position the cursor on the specified line of the view definition.

And a lil heads-up bestie: unlike basically every other meta-command, the entire remainder of the line is always taken to be the argument(s) of \ev — and nope, no variable interpolation, no backquote expansion happening in the arguments. Zero. None. It just takes what you typed. 💅

✨ \f [ string ] ✨

Sets the field separator for unaligned query output. Default is the vertical bar (|), obviously, because what else would it be. This one is literally equivalent to \pset fieldsep, same vibes, different spelling. 🎀

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

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

Sends the current query buffer to the server for execution. This is the moment, the main character moment, the query actually goes. 🔥

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

If parentheses show up after \g, they wrap a space-separated list of option=value formatting-option clauses. These get interpreted exactly the same way as \pset option value commands — but they only take effect for the duration of this query. One-shot slay. ✨ In this list, spaces are not allowed around = signs, but they are required between option clauses. (Yes, it's picky. It's giving "finicky but worth it.") And if you omit =value, 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 gets written to the named file or piped to the given shell command, instead of being displayed as usual. Important though: 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. 🙈

If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently sent query is re-executed instead. Other than that little quirk, \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 lets you do 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 is performed in it. The rest of the line is simply passed literally to the shell. No takebacks, no edits. 💀

✨ \gdesc ✨

Shows the description (that is, the column names and data types) of the result of the current query buffer. The query is not actually executed — it's just a little peek, a vibe check, a "what would this look like" 🦋 — however, if it contains some type of syntax error, that error will be reported in the normal way.

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

✨ \getenv psql_var env_var ✨

Gets the value of the environment variable env_var and assigns it to the psql variable psql_var. If env_var isn't defined in the psql process's environment, then psql_var is just... not changed. No drama, no error. 🍓

Example, since we love a demo:

=> \getenv home HOME
=> \echo :home
/home/postgres

✨ \gexec ✨

Sends the current query buffer to the server, then treats each column of each row of the query's output (if any) as an SQL statement to be executed. It's queries generating queries, inception-core, honestly iconic. 🧚

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 nor contain psql variable references. Sorry bestie, no nesting tricks there. 🫶 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 — seriously, take the advice.) 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 to be executed must return exactly one row — one row only, no more no less, it's giving strict. Each column of the row is 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:

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

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

If the query fails or does not return one row, no variables are changed. All or nothing, periodt.

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

✨ \gx [ (option=value [...]) ] [ filename ] ✨

✨ \gx [ (option=value [...]) ] [ |command ] ✨

\gx is equivalent to \g, except that it forces expanded output mode for this query, as if expanded=on were included in the list of \pset options. See also \x. Same energy, but wide. 🌈

\gx [ (option=value [...]) ] [ filename ]
\gx [ (option=value [...]) ] [ |command ]

✨ \h or \help [ command ] ✨

Gives syntax help on the specified SQL command. If command isn't specified, then psql will list all the commands for which syntax help is available. And if command is an asterisk (*), then syntax help on all SQL commands is shown. The full lore drop. 👑

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 consists of several words do not have to be quoted. Thus it is fine to type \help alter table.

✨ \H or \html ✨

Turns on HTML query output format. If the HTML format is already on, it gets switched back to the default aligned text format. Toggle behaviour, so cute. 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. Script go brrr. 🔥

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 whole little "if this then that" universe inside your psql session. 🦋

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's 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. Chaotic but valid. 💅

Expressions that don't 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. Skipped means skipped, bestie. 🙈

Warning 💀 — 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, drink it in:

-- 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. Path-aware icon behaviour. 🎀

✨ \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 available for databases on which the current user has CONNECT privilege, or if the current user is a superuser or has privileges of the pg_read_all_stats role.

\lo_export 💾

\lo_export loid filename — grabs the large object with OID loid out of the database and drops it into filename. Bestie, listen: this is subtly different from the server function lo_export, which runs with the permissions of the user the database server runs as, and on the server's file system. Different vibe entirely.

✨ Tip: use \lo_list to find out the large object's OID. iykyk.

\lo_import 📥

\lo_import filename [ comment ] — stores the file into a PostgreSQL large object, and if you feel like it, it associates the given comment with the object. So cute. Example:

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

The response is telling you the large object got object ID 152801, which you can use to access the newly-created large object later. 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. 🎀

Heads up: 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. Lowkey important.

\lo_list[+] 📋

\lo_list[+] — shows a list of all PostgreSQL large objects currently stored in the database, along with any comments provided for them. If you append + to the command name, each large object is listed with its associated permissions, if any. Slay, permissions included. ✨

\lo_unlink loid — deletes the large object with OID loid from the database. Bye bestie 💅

🌸 Tip: use \lo_list to find out the large object's OID. Yes, again.

\o / \out 📤

\o or \out [ filename ]
\o or \out [ |command ]

Arranges to save future query results to the file filename, or pipes future results to the shell command command. If you give it no argument at all, the query output is reset to the standard output. Back to normal, we love a reset. 🫶

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 just passed literally to the shell. No cap, literally.

“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. Errors stay in their own lane.

🦋 Tip: to intersperse text output in between query results, use \qecho.

\p / \print 🖨️

\p or \print — prints the current query buffer to the standard output. If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently executed query is printed instead. Main character fallback behaviour, honestly.

\password 🔐

\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. The way it does this makes sure that the new password does not appear in cleartext in the command history, the server log, or anywhere else. Obsessed with the security of it all. 👑

\prompt 💬

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

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 instead. Plot twist. 🌀

\pset 🎛️

\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 that particular option. If no such behavior is mentioned, then omitting value just results in the current setting being displayed. Vibe check, basically. ✨

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

The adjustable printing options are, and buckle up because there are a lot of them:

  • border — the value must be a number. In general, the higher the number the more borders and lines the tables will have, but the details depend on the particular format. In HTML format, this translates 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. Fancy. 🎀
  • columns — sets the target width for the wrapped format, and also the width limit for determining whether output is wide enough to require the pager or switch to the vertical display in expanded auto mode. Zero (the default) causes the target width to be controlled by the environment variable COLUMNS, or the detected screen width if COLUMNS is not set. In addition, if columns is zero then the wrapped format only affects screen output. If columns is nonzero then file and pipe output is wrapped to that width as well. 💅
  • csv_fieldsep — specifies the field separator to be used in CSV output format. If the separator character appears in a field's value, that field is output within double quotes, following standard CSV rules. The default is a comma.
  • expanded (or x) — if value is specified it must be either on or off, which will enable or disable expanded mode, or auto. If value is omitted the command toggles between the on and off settings. When expanded mode is enabled, query results are displayed in two columns, with the column name on the left and the data on the right. This mode is useful if the data wouldn't fit on the screen in the normal “horizontal” mode. In the auto setting, the expanded mode is used whenever the query output has more than one column and is wider than the screen; otherwise, the regular mode is used. The auto setting is only effective in the aligned and wrapped formats. In other formats, it always behaves as if the expanded mode is off. 😭
  • fieldsep — specifies the field separator to be used in unaligned output format. That way one can create, for example, tab-separated output, which other programs might prefer. To set a tab as field separator, type \pset fieldsep '\t'. The default field separator is '|' (a vertical bar). Yes, the pipe character, iconic.
  • fieldsep_zero — sets the field separator to use in unaligned output format to a zero byte. Wild but ok 🫶
  • footer — if value is specified it must be either on or off, which will enable or disable display of the table footer (the (n rows) count). If value is omitted the command toggles footer display on or off. That little row count is genuinely so useful.
  • format — sets the output format to one of aligned, asciidoc, csv, html, latex, latex-longtable, troff-ms, unaligned, or wrapped. Unique abbreviations are allowed. Let's break it down:
    • aligned format is the standard, human-readable, nicely formatted text output; this is the default. The moment. ✨
    • unaligned format writes all columns of a row on one line, separated by the currently active field separator. This is useful for creating output that might be intended to be read in by other programs, for example, tab-separated or comma-separated format. However, the field separator character is not treated specially if it appears in a column's value; so CSV format may be better suited for such purposes. Choose wisely bestie.
    • 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, which is typically a single newline (\n) for Unix-like systems or a carriage return and newline sequence (\r\n) for Microsoft Windows. Field separator characters other than comma can be selected with \pset csv_fieldsep. CSV girlies rise 🍓
    • wrapped format is like aligned but wraps wide data values across lines to make the output fit in the target column width. The target width is determined as described under the columns option. Note that psql will not attempt to wrap column header titles; therefore, wrapped format behaves the same as aligned if the total width needed for column headers exceeds the target. Headers said no thanks. 💀
    • The asciidoc, html, latex, latex-longtable, and troff-ms formats put out tables that are intended to be included in documents using the respective mark-up language. They are not complete documents! This might not be necessary in HTML, but in LaTeX you must have a complete document wrapper. The latex format uses LaTeX's tabular environment. The latex-longtable format requires the LaTeX longtable and booktabs packages. Don't forget your packages, bestie 😭
  • linestyle — sets the border line drawing style to one of ascii, old-ascii, or unicode. Unique abbreviations are allowed. (That would mean one letter is enough.) The default setting is ascii. This option only affects the aligned and wrapped output formats. Aesthetic choices, we respect them:
    • ascii style uses plain ASCII characters. Newlines in data are shown using a + symbol in the right-hand margin. When the wrapped format wraps data from one line to the next without a newline character, a dot (.) is shown in the right-hand margin of the first line, and again in the left-hand margin of the following line. Simple, clean, does the job.
    • old-ascii style uses plain ASCII characters, using the formatting style used in PostgreSQL 8.4 and earlier. Newlines in data are shown using a : symbol in place of the left-hand column separator. When the data is wrapped from one line to the next without a newline character, a ; symbol is used in place of the left-hand column separator. Retro throwback energy 🦋
    • unicode style uses Unicode box-drawing characters. Newlines in data are shown using a carriage return symbol in the right-hand margin. When the data is wrapped from one line to the next without a newline character, an ellipsis symbol is shown in the right-hand margin of the first line, and again in the left-hand margin of the following line. This one is genuinely so pretty, the prettiest borders you'll ever see 🌈👑

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

  • null — Sets the string to be printed in place of a null value. The default is to print nothing, which can easily be mistaken for an empty string. For example, one might prefer \pset null '(null)'.
  • numericlocale — If value is specified it must be either on or off, which will enable or disable display of a locale-specific character to separate groups of digits to the left of the decimal marker. If value is omitted the command toggles between regular and locale-specific numeric output.
  • pager — Controls use of a pager program for query and psql help output. When the pager option is off, the pager program is not used. When the pager option is on, the pager is used when appropriate, i.e., when the output is to a terminal and will not fit on the screen. The pager option can also be set to always, which causes the pager to be used for all terminal output regardless of whether it fits on the screen. \pset pager without a value toggles pager use on and off.

If the environment variable PSQL_PAGER or PAGER is set, output to be paged is piped to the specified program. Otherwise a platform-dependent default program (such as more) is used.

When using the \watch command to execute a query repeatedly, the environment variable PSQL_WATCH_PAGER is used to find the pager program instead, on Unix systems. This is configured separately because it may confuse traditional pagers, but can be used to send output to tools that understand psql's output format (such as pspg --stream). 👀

  • pager_min_lines — If pager_min_lines is set to a number greater than the page height, the pager program will not be called unless there are at least this many lines of output to show. The default setting is 0.
  • recordsep — Specifies the record (line) separator to use in unaligned output format. The default is a newline character.
  • recordsep_zero — Sets the record separator to use in unaligned output format to a zero byte.
  • tableattr (or T) — In HTML format, this specifies attributes to be placed inside the table tag. This could for example be cellpadding or bgcolor. Note that you probably don't want to specify border here, as that is already taken care of by \pset border. If no value is given, the table attributes are unset.

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

  • title (or C) — Sets the table title for any subsequently printed tables. This can be used to give your output descriptive tags. If no value is given, the title is unset.
  • tuples_only (or t) — If value is specified it must be either on or off, which will enable or disable tuples-only mode. If value is omitted the command toggles between regular and tuples-only output. Regular output includes extra information such as column headers, titles, and various footers. In tuples-only mode, only actual table data is shown.
  • 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.
  • xheader_width — Sets the maximum width of the header for expanded output to one of full (the default value), column, page, or an integer value.
    • full: the expanded header is not truncated, and will be as wide as the widest output line.
    • column: truncate the header line to the width of the first column.
    • page: truncate the header line to the terminal width.
    • integer value: specify the exact maximum width of the header line.

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 [ ... ] — This command is identical to \echo except that the output will be written to the query output channel, as set by \o.
  • \r or \reset — Resets (clears) the query buffer.
  • \restrict restrict_key — Enter "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 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.

  • \s [ filename ] — Print psql's command line history to filename. If filename is omitted, the history is written to the standard output (using the pager if appropriate). This command is not available if psql was built without Readline support.
  • \set [ name [ value [ ... ] ] ] — Sets the psql variable name to value, or if more than one value is given, to the concatenation of all of them. If only one argument is given, the variable is set to an empty-string value. To unset a variable, use the \unset command.

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

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

Certain variables are special, in that they control psql's behavior or are automatically set to reflect connection state. These variables are documented in Variables, below.

🙈 Note: This command is unrelated to the SQL command SET.
  • \setenv name [ value ] — Sets the environment variable name to value, or if the value is not supplied, unsets the environment variable. Example:
testdb=> \setenv PAGER less
testdb=> \setenv LESS -imx4F
  • \sf[+] function_description — This command fetches and shows the definition of the named function or procedure, in the form of a CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION or CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE command. The definition is printed to the current query output channel, as set by \o.

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

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

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

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

If + is appended to the command name, then the output lines are numbered from 1.

Unlike most other meta-commands, the entire remainder of the line is always taken to be 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 row count footer. This command is equivalent to \pset tuples_only and is provided for convenience.
  • \T table_options — Specifies attributes to be placed within the table tag in HTML output format. This command is equivalent to \pset tableattr table_options.
  • \timing [ on | off ] — With a parameter, turns displaying of how long each SQL statement takes on or off. Without a parameter, toggles the display between on and off. The display is in milliseconds; intervals longer than 1 second are also shown in minutes:seconds format, with hours and days fields added if needed.
  • \unrestrict restrict_key — Exit "restricted" mode (i.e., where all other meta-commands are blocked), provided the specified key 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.

Unlike most other meta-commands, the entire remainder of the line is always taken to be the argument of \unrestrict, and neither variable interpolation nor backquote expansion are performed.

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

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

  • \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 is 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 in it. The rest of the line is simply passed literally to the shell.

  • \warn text [ ... ] — This command is identical to \echo except that the output will be written to psql's standard error channel, rather than standard output.
  • \watch [ i[nterval]=seconds ] [ c[ount]=times ] [ seconds ] — okay so this one is on repeat, bestie. It repeatedly executes the current query buffer (exactly like \g does) until you interrupt it, or the query fails, or the execution count limit (if you gave one) is reached. It waits the specified number of seconds between executions — default is 2. For backwards compatibility, seconds can be specified with or without an interval= prefix. Every query result gets displayed with a header that includes the \pset title string (if any), 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. Iconic.

  • \x [ on | off | auto ] — sets or toggles expanded table formatting mode. As such it is equivalent to \pset expanded. That's it, that's the whole vibe.
  • \z[S] [ pattern ] — lists tables, views and sequences with their associated access privileges. If a pattern is specified, only tables, views and sequences whose names match the pattern are listed. By default only user-created objects are shown; supply a pattern or the S modifier to include system objects.

This is an alias for \dp (“display privileges”). Slay.

  • \! [ 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. No extra processing, no cap.

  • \? [ topic ] — shows help information. The optional topic parameter (defaulting to commands) selects which part of psql is explained: commands describes psql's backslash commands; options describes the command-line options that can be passed to psql; and variables shows help about psql configuration variables.
  • \; — backslash-semicolon is not a meta-command in the same way as the preceding commands; rather, it simply causes a semicolon to be added to the query buffer without any further processing.

Normally, psql will dispatch an SQL command to the server as soon as it reaches the command-ending semicolon, even if more input remains on the current line. Thus for example entering

select 1; select 2; select 3;

will result in the three SQL commands being individually sent to the server, with each one's results being displayed before continuing to the next command. However, a semicolon entered as \; will not trigger command processing, so that the command before it and the one after are effectively combined and sent to the server in one request. So for example

select 1\; select 2\; select 3;

results in sending the three SQL commands to the server in a single request, when the non-backslashed semicolon is reached. The server executes such a request as a single transaction, unless there are explicit BEGIN/COMMIT commands included in the string to divide it into multiple transactions. (See Section 55.2.2.1 for more details about how the server handles multi-query strings.) Fr fr, that semicolon is doing main character work.

🌸 Patterns 🌸

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

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

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

A relation pattern that contains a dot (.) is interpreted as a schema name pattern followed by an object name pattern. For example, \dt foo*.*bar* displays all tables whose table name includes bar that are in schemas whose schema name starts with foo. When no dot appears, then the pattern matches only objects that are visible in the current schema search path. Again, a dot within double quotes loses its special meaning and is matched literally. A relation pattern that contains two dots (.) is interpreted as a database name followed by a schema name pattern followed by an object name pattern. The database name portion will not be treated as a pattern and must match the name of the currently connected database, else an error will be raised.

A schema pattern that contains a dot (.) is interpreted as a database name followed by a schema name pattern. For example, \dn mydb.*foo* displays all schemas whose schema name includes foo. The database name portion will not be treated as a pattern and must match the name of the currently connected database, else an error will be raised.

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

💖 Advanced Features 💖

✨ Variables ✨

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

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

testdb=> \set foo bar

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

testdb=> \echo :foo
bar

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

If you call \set without a second argument, the variable is set 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. Not me using \set with no args just to see the whole variable situation 💅.

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

Note: In autocommit-off mode, you must explicitly abandon any failed transaction by entering ABORT or ROLLBACK. Also keep in mind that if you exit the session without committing, your work will be lost. No cap, that's the warning. 🫶
Note: autocommit-on is PostgreSQL's OG traditional behavior, but autocommit-off is literally closer to the SQL spec. If you're Team autocommit-off, you might wanna set it in the system-wide psqlrc file or your ~/.psqlrc file. 🎀

COMP_KEYWORD_CASE 💅

Decides what letter case to use when you're tab-completing an SQL key word. Set it to lower or upper and the completed word comes out lower or upper case, respectively. Set it to preserve-lower or preserve-upper (that's the default, bestie) and the completed word matches the case of whatever you already typed — but if you're completing with nothing entered yet, it'll fall back to lower or upper case, respectively. Iconic.

DBNAME 🦋

The name of the database you're currently connected to. It gets set every single time you connect to a database (including at program start-up), but you can change it or unset it. Main character variable energy.

ECHO ✨

  • Set it to all and every nonempty input line gets printed to standard output as it's read. (This does not apply to lines read interactively, just so you know.) Wanna select this behavior on program start-up? Use the switch -a.
  • Set it to queries and psql prints each query to standard output as it's sent to the server. The switch for this one is -e.
  • Set it to errors and only failed queries get displayed, on standard error output. The switch here is -b.
  • Set it to none (the default) and nothing gets displayed. Peace and quiet, we love that for you.

ECHO_HIDDEN 🙈

When this variable is on and a backslash command queries the database, the query gets shown first. This is so helpful for studying PostgreSQL internals and giving your own programs similar functionality. (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 — purely for the aesthetic of watching them. The default value is off.

ENCODING 🌈

The current client character set encoding. This gets set every time you connect to a database (including program start-up), and when you change the encoding with \encoding, but you can change it or unset it. Slay.

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 instead of the default behavior of collecting the entire result set before display. So only a limited amount of memory gets used, regardless of how huge the result set is — genuinely so efficient. Settings of 100 to 1000 are commonly used when enabling this feature. Keep in mind that when you're using this, a query might fail after it's already displayed some rows. 😭

Tip: You can use any output format with this feature, but the default aligned format tends to look bad because each group of FETCH_COUNT rows gets formatted separately, which leads to varying column widths across the row groups. The other output formats work better. Trust.

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. Nothing to see here, move along.

HIDE_TOAST_COMPRESSION 🧚

If this variable is set to true, column compression method details are not displayed. Also mainly useful for regression tests. Same vibe, different details.

HISTCONTROL 👑

  • Set it to ignorespace and lines that begin with a space are not entered into the history list.
  • Set it to ignoredups and lines matching the previous history line are not entered.
  • Set it to ignoreboth and it combines the two options, because why not have both.
  • Set it to none (the default) and all lines read in interactive mode get saved on the history list.
Note: This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from Bash. We respect the source. 💅

HISTFILE 🎀

The file name that will be used to store the history list. If it's unset, the file name is taken from the PSQL_HISTORY environment variable. If that's 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. So organized, honestly.

Note: This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from Bash. Again. Icons only. 💅

HISTSIZE 🌸

The maximum number of commands to store in the command history (default 500). If it's set to a negative value, no limit is applied — go off, infinite history.

Note: This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from Bash. The third one. Obsessed. 💅

HOST 🦋

The database server host you're currently connected to. It gets set every time you connect to a database (including program start-up), but you can change it or unset it.

IGNOREEOF 🔥

If it's set to 1 or less, sending an EOF character (usually Ctrl+D) to an interactive session of psql will terminate the application. If it's 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's interpreted as 10. The default is 0.

Note: This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from Bash. Fourth time's the charm. 💅

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. Also, PostgreSQL servers since version 12 don't support OID system columns anymore, so LASTOID will always be 0 following INSERT when targeting such servers. Not me mourning the OIDs. 😭

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. No errors? No drama.

ON_ERROR_ROLLBACK 💅

  • Set it to on and, if a statement in a transaction block generates an error, the error gets ignored and the transaction continues.
  • Set it to interactive and such errors are only ignored in interactive sessions, not when reading script files.
  • Set it to off (the default) and a statement in a transaction block that generates an error aborts the entire transaction.

The error rollback mode works by issuing an implicit SAVEPOINT for you, just before each command that's in a transaction block, then rolling back to the savepoint if the command fails. Clutch behavior, ngl.

ON_ERROR_STOP 🫶

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

PORT 🌈

The database server port to which you're currently connected. 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 specify what the prompts psql issues should look like. See Prompting below. 👀

QUIET 🍓

Setting this variable to on is equivalent to the command line option -q. It's probably not too useful in interactive mode — kinda gives "shhh" in a room where you're already chatting. 🙈

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. Receipts, basically.

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 get set every time you connect to a database (including program start-up), but you can change them or unset them.

SHELL_ERROR 💀

true if the last shell command failed, false if it succeeded. This applies to shell commands invoked via the \!, \g, \o, \w, and \copy meta-commands, as well as backquote () expansion. Note that for \o, this variable is updated when the output pipe is closed by the next \ocommand. See alsoSHELL_EXIT_CODE`.

SHELL_EXIT_CODE 👑

The exit status returned by the last shell command. 0–127 represent program exit codes, 128–255 indicate termination by a signal, and -1 indicates failure to launch a program or to collect its exit status. This applies to shell commands invoked via the \!, \g, \o, \w, and \copy meta-commands, as well as backquote () expansion. Note that for \o, this variable is updated when the output pipe is closed by the next \ocommand. See alsoSHELL_ERROR`. Numbers don't lie. 💅

SHOW_ALL_RESULTS 🎀

When this variable is set to off, only the last result of a combined query (\;) is shown instead of all of them. The default is on. The off behavior is for compatibility with older versions of psql — retro vibes only.

SHOW_CONTEXT 🌸

This variable can be set to the values never, errors, or always to control whether CONTEXT fields are displayed in messages from the server. The default is errors (meaning context will be shown in error messages, but not in notice or warning messages). This setting has no effect when VERBOSITY is set to terse or sqlstate. (See also \errverbose, for when you want a verbose version of the error you just got — treat yourself.)

SINGLELINE 🔥

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

SINGLESTEP 🔥

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

  • SQLSTATE — bestie this is the error code (peep Appendix A) from your last SQL query flopping, or 00000 if it actually ate and succeeded. 💅
  • USER — the database user you're currently connected as, like who you are rn. It gets set every single time you connect to a database (including program start-up), but lowkey you can change it or unset it.
  • VERBOSITY — set this to default, verbose, terse, or sqlstate to control how chatty error reports get. (Also check out \errverbose when you want the verbose version of that error you just got — very "give me the whole story" energy.)
  • VERSION, VERSION_NAME, VERSION_NUM — these three get set at program start-up to reflect psql's 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, no cap.

✨ SQL Interpolation ✨

Okay so this is a key feature of psql variables, and it's genuinely iconic: you can substitute (aka "interpolate") them into regular SQL statements, and into the arguments of meta-commands too. And beyond that, psql has facilities for making 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 prepend the variable name with a colon (:). Like so:

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

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

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

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

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

One example use of this mechanism is to copy the contents of a file into a table column. First you 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. Sorry bestie.)

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

The :{?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.

🎀 Prompting 🎀

The prompts psql issues can be customized to your preference — make them yours, it's giving main character energy. The three variables PROMPT1, PROMPT2, and PROMPT3 contain strings and special escape sequences that describe the appearance of the prompt.

Prompt 1 is the normal prompt that gets issued when psql requests a new command. Prompt 2 is issued when more input is expected during command entry, for example because the command was not terminated with a semicolon or a quote was not closed. Prompt 3 is issued when you'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 is printed literally, except where a percent sign (%) is encountered. Depending on the next character, certain other text is 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 contain terminal control characters which, for example, change the color, background, or style of the prompt text, or change the title of the terminal window. In order for the line editing features of Readline to work properly, these non-printing control characters must be designated as invisible by surrounding them with %[ and %]. Multiple pairs of these can occur within the prompt. For example:
testdb=> \set PROMPT1 '%[%033[1;33;40m%]%n@%/%R%[%033[0m%]%# '

results in a boldfaced (1;) yellow-on-black (33;40) prompt on VT100-compatible, color-capable terminals. 💛🔥

  • %w — whitespace of the same width as the most recent output of PROMPT1. This can be used as a PROMPT2 setting, so that multi-line statements are aligned with the first line, but there is no visible secondary prompt.

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

Note This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from tcsh. 😭 iconic behaviour honestly

🦋 Command-Line Editing 🦋

psql uses the Readline or libedit library, if available, for convenient line editing and retrieval. The command history is automatically saved when psql exits and is reloaded when psql starts up. Type up-arrow or control-P to retrieve previous lines — muscle memory, fr fr.

You can also use tab completion to fill in partially-typed keywords and SQL object names in many (by no means all) contexts. For example, at the start of a command, typing ins and pressing TAB will fill in insert into. Then, typing a few characters of a table or schema name and pressing TAB will fill in the unfinished name, or offer a menu of possible completions when there's more than one. (Depending on the library in use, you may need to press TAB more than once to get a menu.)

Tab completion for SQL object names requires sending queries to the server to find possible matches. In some contexts this can interfere with other operations. For example, after BEGIN it will be too late to issue SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL if a tab-completion query is issued in between. 😬 If you do not want tab completion at all, you can turn it off permanently 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.)

The -n (--no-readline) command line option can also be useful to disable use of Readline for a single run of psql. This prevents tab completion, use or recording of command line history, and editing of multi-line commands. It's particularly useful when you need to copy-and-paste text that contains TAB characters. 🫶

🌸 ENVIRONMENT 🌸

Okay so bestie, these are the env vars psql peeks at, and they're kind of the backstage crew of your session. 💅

  • COLUMNS — if \pset columns is zero, this controls the width for the wrapped format and the width for determining if wide output requires the pager or should be switched to the vertical format in expanded auto mode.
  • PGDATABASE, PGHOST, PGPORT, PGUSER — default connection parameters (see Section 34.15).
  • PG_COLOR — specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages. Possible values are always, auto, and never.
  • PSQL_EDITOR, EDITOR, VISUAL — 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.
  • 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 the user's editor. For editors such as Emacs or vi, this is a plus sign. Include a trailing space in the value of the variable if there needs to be space between the option name and the line number. Examples:
PSQL_EDITOR_LINENUMBER_ARG='+'
PSQL_EDITOR_LINENUMBER_ARG='--line '

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

  • PSQL_HISTORY — alternative location for the command history file. Tilde (~) expansion is performed.
  • 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 neither of them is set, the default is to use more on most platforms, but less on Cygwin.
  • PSQL_WATCH_PAGER — when a query is executed repeatedly with the \watch command, a pager is not used by default. This behavior can be changed by setting PSQL_WATCH_PAGER to a pager command, on Unix systems. The pspg pager (not part of PostgreSQL but available in many open source software distributions) can display the output of \watch if started with the option --stream.
  • PSQLRC — alternative location of the user's .psqlrc file. Tilde (~) expansion is performed.
  • SHELL — command executed by the \! command.
  • TMPDIR — directory for storing temporary files. The default is /tmp.

This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment variables supported by libpq (see Section 34.15).

🎀 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.

The system-wide startup file is named psqlrc. By default it is sought in the installation's "system configuration" directory, which is most reliably identified by running pg_config --sysconfdir. Typically this directory will be ../etc/ relative to the directory containing the PostgreSQL executables. The directory to look in 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 the personal startup file is instead named %APPDATA%\postgresql\psqlrc.conf. In either case, this default file path can be overridden by setting 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 identifier to the file name, for example ~/.psqlrc-16 or ~/.psqlrc-16.15. The most specific version-matching file will be read in preference to a non-version-specific file. These version suffixes are added after determining the file path as explained above.

🦋 .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.

🔥 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 9.2, 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.

  • Before PostgreSQL 9.6, the -c option implied -X (--no-psqlrc); this is no longer the case.
  • 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.

🪟 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:

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

🌸 EXAMPLES ✨

Okay bestie, this is the fun part — actual demos, like a little runway show for everything psql can do 💅

🎀 Example one: spreading a command over several lines

The first example shows how to spread a command over several lines of input. And this is where the prompt does its whole main-character thing — watch it change on you:

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

See how it went testdb=> → testdb(> → testdb->? That's psql literally telling you "girl, you're mid-statement, keep going" 😌 no cap.

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:

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

✨ iconic. Now you know who you are, where you are, and which db you're in.

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)

🦋 Example two: switching up how tables look with \pset

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

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

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

peter@localhost testdb=> \pset border 1
Border style is 1.
peter@localhost testdb=> \pset format 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

Border 2 gives you the fancy boxed look, border 0 is the bare-bones no-frills vibe, and then it's off to csv / tuples-only / unaligned land 🍓 honestly the glow-up potential here is unreal.

Alternatively, use the short commands:

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

Also, these output format options can be set for just one query by using \g:

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

One query, one fit, one moment 💅 then it goes right back to normal. Obsessed.

💖 Example three: \df doing detective work

Here is an example of using the \df command to find only functions with names matching int*pl and whose second argument is of type bigint:

testdb=> \df int*pl * bigint
                          List of functions
 Schema   |  Name   | Result data type | Argument data types | Type
----------+---------+------------------+---------------------+------
 pg_catalog | int28pl | bigint           | smallint, bigint    | func
 pg_catalog | int48pl | bigint           | integer, bigint     | func
 pg_catalog | int8pl  | bigint           | bigint, bigint      | func
(3 rows)

Three results, zero scrolling. Fr fr, the pattern game is undefeated 🫶

🌈 Example four: crosstab, aka the glow-up view

When suitable, query results can be shown in a crosstab representation with the \crosstabview command:

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)

It's giving spreadsheet, it's giving chef's kiss 😭 the diagonal of fs and ts is so satisfying.

👑 Example five: 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.

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 down, columns going up, math going off 🔥 and the ord argument keeps the column order exactly where you put it. Not me being emotional over a crosstab. Okay maybe a little 🥲

that's the whole page, bestie! Every example, every prompt change, every border style — all yours now 💜

This page is from PostgreSQL 16.15, dated 2026, and it's the PSQL(1) manual page 🎀 Go forth and query slayfully ✨💅🦋
📦 where this page comes from