Convert HTML docs to more streamlined TXT

[ai-pg] / full-docs / txt / app-psql.txt

psql

   psql — PostgreSQL interactive terminal

Synopsis

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

Description

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

Options

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

   -A
          --no-align #
          Switches to unaligned output mode. (The default output mode is
          aligned.) This is equivalent to \pset format unaligned.

   -b
          --echo-errors #
          Print failed SQL commands to standard error output. This is
          equivalent to setting the variable ECHO to errors.

   -c command
          --command=command #
          Specifies that psql is to execute the given command string,
          command. This option can be repeated and combined in any order
          with the -f option. When either -c or -f is specified, psql does
          not read commands from standard input; instead it terminates
          after processing all the -c and -f options in sequence.

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

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

          or

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

          (\\ is the separator meta-command.)

          Each SQL command string passed to -c is sent to the server as a
          single request. Because of this, the server executes it as a
          single transaction even if the string contains multiple SQL
          commands, unless there are explicit BEGIN/COMMIT commands
          included in the string to divide it into multiple transactions.
          (See Section 54.2.2.1 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.

   -d dbname
          --dbname=dbname #
          Specifies the name of the database to connect to. This is
          equivalent to specifying dbname as the first non-option argument
          on the command line. The dbname can be a connection string. If
          so, connection string parameters will override any conflicting
          command line options.

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

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

   -f filename
          --file=filename #
          Read commands from the file filename, rather than standard
          input. This option can be repeated and combined in any order
          with the -c option. When either -c or -f is specified, psql does
          not read commands from standard input; instead it terminates
          after processing all the -c and -f options in sequence. Except
          for that, this option is largely equivalent to the meta-command
          \i.

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

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

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

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

   -H
          --html #
          Switches to HTML output mode. This is equivalent to \pset format
          html or the \H command.

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

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

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

   -n
          --no-readline #
          Do not use Readline for line editing and do not use the command
          history (see the section called “Command-Line Editing” below).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Note

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

   -t
          --tuples-only #
          Turn off printing of column names and result row count footers,
          etc. This is equivalent to \t or \pset tuples_only.

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

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

   -v assignment
          --set=assignment
          --variable=assignment #
          Perform a variable assignment, like the \set meta-command. Note
          that you must separate name and value, if any, by an equal sign
          on the command line. To unset a variable, leave off the equal
          sign. To set a variable with an empty value, use the equal sign
          but leave off the value. These assignments are done during
          command line processing, so variables that reflect connection
          state will get overwritten later.

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

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

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

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

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

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

   -x
          --expanded #
          Turn on the expanded table formatting mode. This is equivalent
          to \x or \pset expanded.

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

   -z
          --field-separator-zero #
          Set the field separator for unaligned output to a zero byte.
          This is equivalent to \pset fieldsep_zero.

   -0
          --record-separator-zero #
          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.

   -1
          --single-transaction #
          This option can only be used in combination with one or more -c
          and/or -f options. It causes psql to issue a BEGIN command
          before the first such option and a COMMIT command after the last
          one, thereby wrapping all the commands into a single
          transaction. If any of the commands fails and the variable
          ON_ERROR_STOP was set, a ROLLBACK command is sent instead. This
          ensures that either all the commands complete successfully, or
          no changes are applied.

          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.

   -?
          --help[=topic] #
          Show help about psql and exit. The optional topic parameter
          (defaulting to options) 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.

Exit Status

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

Usage

Connecting to a Database

   psql is a regular PostgreSQL client application. In order to connect to
   a database you need to know the name of your target database, the host
   name and port number of the server, and what 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. If an argument is
   found that does not belong to any option it will be interpreted as the
   database name (or the database user name, if the database name is
   already given). Not all of these options are required; there are useful
   defaults. If you omit the host name, psql will connect via a
   Unix-domain socket to a server on the local host, or via TCP/IP to
   localhost on Windows. The default port number is determined at compile
   time. Since the database server uses the same default, you will not
   have to specify the port in most cases. The default 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.

   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 32.15.) It is also convenient to have a ~/.pgpass file to
   avoid regularly having to type in passwords. See Section 32.16 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 give you very wide control over the connection. For example:
$ psql "service=myservice sslmode=require"
$ psql postgresql://dbmaster:5433/mydb?sslmode=require

   This way you can also use LDAP for connection parameter lookup as
   described in Section 32.18. See Section 32.1.2 for more information on
   all the available connection options.

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

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

Entering SQL Commands

   In normal operation, psql provides a prompt with the name of the
   database to which psql is currently connected, followed by the string
   =>. For example:
$ psql testdb
psql (18.0)
Type "help" for help.

testdb=>

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

   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.

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

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

Meta-Commands

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

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

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

   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.) 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.

   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.

   Many of the meta-commands also allow x to be appended as an option.
   This will cause the results to be displayed in expanded mode, as if \x
   or \pset expanded had been used.

   The following meta-commands are defined:

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

   \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 54.1.2) 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.

   \bind_named statement_name [ parameter ] ... #
          \bind_named is equivalent to \bind, except that it takes the
          name of an existing prepared statement as first parameter. An
          empty string denotes the unnamed prepared statement.

          Example:

INSERT INTO tbls1 VALUES ($1, $2) \parse stmt1
\bind_named stmt1 'first value' 'second value' \g

          This command causes the extended query protocol (see
          Section 54.1.2) 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.

   \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 32.1.1. If no arguments are given, a new connection is
          made using the same parameters as before.

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

          The new connection can re-use connection parameters from the
          previous connection; not only database name, user, host, and
          port, but other settings such as sslmode. By default, parameters
          are re-used in the positional syntax, but not when a conninfo
          string is given. Passing a first argument of -reuse-previous=on
          or -reuse-previous=off overrides that default. If parameters are
          re-used, then any parameter not explicitly specified as a
          positional parameter or in the conninfo string is taken from the
          existing connection's parameters. An exception is that if the
          host setting is changed from its previous value using the
          positional syntax, any hostaddr setting present in the existing
          connection's parameters is dropped. Also, any password used for
          the existing connection will be re-used only if the user, host,
          and port settings are not changed. When the command neither
          specifies nor reuses a particular parameter, the libpq default
          is used.

          If the new connection is successfully made, the previous
          connection is closed. If the connection attempt fails (wrong
          user name, access denied, etc.), the previous connection will be
          kept if psql is in interactive mode. But when executing a
          non-interactive script, the old connection is closed and an
          error is reported. That may or may not terminate the script; if
          it does not, all database-accessing commands will fail until
          another \connect command is successfully executed. This
          distinction was chosen as a user convenience against typos on
          the one hand, and a safety mechanism that scripts are not
          accidentally acting on the wrong database on the other hand.
          Note that whenever a \connect command attempts to re-use
          parameters, the values re-used are those of the last successful
          connection, not of any failed attempts made subsequently.
          However, in the case of a non-interactive \connect failure, no
          parameters are allowed to be re-used later, since the script
          would likely be expecting the values from the failed \connect to
          be re-used.

          Examples:

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

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

   \cd [ directory ] #
          Changes the current working directory to directory. Without
          argument, changes to the current user's home directory. For
          details on how home directories are found, see Section 32.16.

Tip

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

   \close_prepared prepared_statement_name #
          Closes the specified prepared statement. An empty string denotes
          the unnamed prepared statement. If no prepared statement exists
          with this name, the operation is a no-op.

          Example:

SELECT $1 \parse stmt1
\close_prepared stmt1

          This command causes the extended query protocol 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.

   \conninfo #
          Outputs information about the current database connection,
          including SSL-related information if SSL is in use.

          Note that the Client User field shows the user at the time of
          connection, while the Superuser field indicates whether the
          current user (in the current execution context) has superuser
          privileges. These users are usually the same, but they can
          differ, for example, if the current user was changed with the
          SET ROLE command.

   \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. This is an operation that
          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.
          This means that file accessibility and privileges are those of
          the local user, not the server, and no SQL superuser privileges
          are required.

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

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

          The syntax of this command is similar to that of the SQL COPY
          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.

Tip

          Another way to obtain 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 allows the
          command to span multiple lines; also, variable interpolation and
          backquote expansion can be used.

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.

   \copyright #
          Shows the copyright and distribution terms of PostgreSQL.

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

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

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

          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.

   \d[Sx+] [ 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.)

          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.

          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 will show a list of all visible tables, views,
          materialized views, sequences and foreign tables. This is purely
          a convenience measure.

          As with many other commands, if x is appended to the command
          name, the results are displayed in expanded mode, but note that
          this only applies when \d is used without a pattern argument,
          and the x modifier cannot appear immediately after the \d
          (because \dx is a different command); the x modifier may only
          appear after an S or + modifier. For example, \d+x is equivalent
          to \dtvmsE+x and will show a list of all relations in expanded
          mode.

   \da[Sx] [ 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. If x is appended to the
          command name, the results are displayed in expanded mode.

   \dA[x+] [ pattern ] #
          Lists access methods. If pattern is specified, only access
          methods whose names match the pattern are shown. If x is
          appended to the command name, the results are displayed in
          expanded mode. If + is appended to the command name, each access
          method is listed with its associated handler function and
          description.

   \dAc[x+] [access-method-pattern [input-type-pattern]] #
          Lists operator classes (see Section 36.16.1). 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 x is appended to the command name, the
          results are displayed in expanded mode. If + is appended to the
          command name, each operator class is listed with its associated
          operator family and owner.

   \dAf[x+] [access-method-pattern [input-type-pattern]] #
          Lists operator families (see Section 36.16.5). If
          access-method-pattern is specified, only operator families
          associated with access methods whose names match that pattern
          are listed. If input-type-pattern is specified, only operator
          families associated with input types whose names match that
          pattern are listed. If x is appended to the command name, the
          results are displayed in expanded mode. If + is appended to the
          command name, each operator family is listed with its owner.

   \dAo[x+] [access-method-pattern [operator-family-pattern]] #
          Lists operators associated with operator families (see
          Section 36.16.2). If access-method-pattern is specified, only
          members of operator families associated with access methods
          whose names match that pattern are listed. If
          operator-family-pattern is specified, only members of operator
          families whose names match that pattern are listed. If x is
          appended to the command name, the results are displayed in
          expanded mode. If + is appended to the command name, each
          operator is listed with its sort operator family (if it is an
          ordering operator), and whether its underlying function is
          leakproof.

   \dAp[x+] [access-method-pattern [operator-family-pattern]] #
          Lists support functions associated with operator families (see
          Section 36.16.3). If access-method-pattern is specified, only
          functions of operator families associated with access methods
          whose names match that pattern are listed. If
          operator-family-pattern is specified, only functions of operator
          families whose names match that pattern are listed. If x is
          appended to the command name, the results are displayed in
          expanded mode. If + is appended to the command name, functions
          are displayed verbosely, with their actual parameter lists.

   \db[x+] [ pattern ] #
          Lists tablespaces. If pattern is specified, only tablespaces
          whose names match the pattern are shown. If x is appended to the
          command name, the results are displayed in expanded mode. If +
          is appended to the command name, each tablespace is listed with
          its associated options, on-disk size, permissions and
          description.

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

   \dconfig[x+] [ pattern ] #
          Lists server configuration parameters and their values. If
          pattern is specified, only parameters whose names match the
          pattern are listed. Without a pattern, only parameters that are
          set to non-default values are listed. (Use \dconfig * to see all
          parameters.) If x is appended to the command name, the results
          are displayed in expanded mode. If + is appended to the command
          name, each parameter is listed with its data type, context in
          which the parameter can be set, and access privileges (if
          non-default access privileges have been granted).

   \dC[x+] [ pattern ] #
          Lists type casts. If pattern is specified, only casts whose
          source or target types match the pattern are listed. If x is
          appended to the command name, the results are displayed in
          expanded mode. If + is appended to the command name, additional
          information about each cast is shown, including whether its
          underlying function is leakproof, and the cast's description.

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

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

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

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

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

          The ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES command is used to set default
          access privileges. The meaning of the privilege display is
          explained in Section 5.8.

   \dE[Sx+] [ pattern ]
          \di[Sx+] [ pattern ]
          \dm[Sx+] [ pattern ]
          \ds[Sx+] [ pattern ]
          \dt[Sx+] [ pattern ]
          \dv[Sx+] [ pattern ] #
          In this group of commands, the letters E, i, m, s, t, and v
          stand for foreign table, index, materialized view, sequence,
          table, and view, respectively. You can specify any or all of
          these letters, in any order, to obtain a listing of objects of
          these types. For example, \dti lists tables and indexes. If x is
          appended to the command name, the results are displayed in
          expanded mode. 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[x+] [ pattern ] #
          Lists foreign servers (mnemonic: “external servers”). If pattern
          is specified, only those servers whose name matches the pattern
          are listed. If x is appended to the command name, the results
          are displayed in expanded mode. If + is appended to the command
          name, a full description of each server is shown, including the
          server's access privileges, type, version, options, and
          description.

   \det[x+] [ pattern ] #
          Lists foreign tables (mnemonic: “external tables”). If pattern
          is specified, only entries whose table name or schema name
          matches the pattern are listed. If x is appended to the command
          name, the results are displayed in expanded mode. If + is
          appended to the command name, generic options and the foreign
          table description are also displayed.

   \deu[x+] [ pattern ] #
          Lists user mappings (mnemonic: “external users”). If pattern is
          specified, only those mappings whose user names match the
          pattern are listed. If x is appended to the command name, the
          results are displayed in expanded mode. If + is appended to the
          command name, additional information about each mapping is
          shown.

Caution

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

   \dew[x+] [ pattern ] #
          Lists foreign-data wrappers (mnemonic: “external wrappers”). If
          pattern is specified, only those foreign-data wrappers whose
          name matches the pattern are listed. If x is appended to the
          command name, the results are displayed in expanded mode. If +
          is appended to the command name, the access privileges, options,
          and description of the foreign-data wrapper are also shown.

   \df[anptwSx+] [ 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. If
          pattern is specified, only functions whose names match the
          pattern are shown. Any additional arguments are type-name
          patterns, which are matched to the type names of the first,
          second, and so on arguments of the function. (Matching functions
          can have more arguments than what you specify. To prevent that,
          write a dash - as the last arg_pattern.) By default, only
          user-created objects are shown; supply a pattern or the S
          modifier to include system objects. If x is appended to the
          command name, the results are displayed in expanded mode. If +
          is appended to the command name, additional information about
          each function is shown, including volatility, parallel safety,
          owner, security classification, whether it is leakproof, access
          privileges, language, internal name (for C and internal
          functions only), and description. Source code for a specific
          function can be seen using \sf.

   \dF[x+] [ pattern ] #
          Lists text search configurations. If pattern is specified, only
          configurations whose names match the pattern are shown. If x is
          appended to the command name, the results are displayed in
          expanded mode. If + is appended to the command name, a full
          description of each configuration is shown, including the
          underlying text search parser and the dictionary list for each
          parser token type.

   \dFd[x+] [ pattern ] #
          Lists text search dictionaries. If pattern is specified, only
          dictionaries whose names match the pattern are shown. If x is
          appended to the command name, the results are displayed in
          expanded mode. If + is appended to the command name, additional
          information is shown about each selected dictionary, including
          the underlying text search template and the option values.

   \dFp[x+] [ pattern ] #
          Lists text search parsers. If pattern is specified, only parsers
          whose names match the pattern are shown. If x is appended to the
          command name, the results are displayed in expanded mode. If +
          is appended to the command name, a full description of each
          parser is shown, including the underlying functions and the list
          of recognized token types.

   \dFt[x+] [ pattern ] #
          Lists text search templates. If pattern is specified, only
          templates whose names match the pattern are shown. If x is
          appended to the command name, the results are displayed in
          expanded mode. If + is appended to the command name, additional
          information is shown about each template, including the
          underlying function names.

   \dg[Sx+] [ pattern ] #
          Lists database roles. (Since the concepts of “users” and
          “groups” have been unified into “roles”, this command is now
          equivalent to \du.) By default, only user-created roles are
          shown; supply the S modifier to include system roles. If pattern
          is specified, only those roles whose names match the pattern are
          listed. If x is appended to the command name, the results are
          displayed in expanded mode. If + is appended to the command
          name, additional information is shown about each role; currently
          this adds the comment for each role.

   \dl[x+] #
          This is an alias for \lo_list, which shows a list of large
          objects. If x is appended to the command name, the results are
          displayed in expanded mode. If + is appended to the command
          name, each large object is listed with its associated
          permissions, if any.

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

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

   \do[Sx+] [ pattern [ arg_pattern [ arg_pattern ] ] ] #
          Lists operators with their operand and result types. If pattern
          is specified, only operators whose names match the pattern are
          listed. If one arg_pattern is specified, only prefix operators
          whose right argument's type name matches that pattern are
          listed. If two arg_patterns are specified, only binary operators
          whose argument type names match those patterns are listed.
          (Alternatively, write - for the unused argument of a unary
          operator.) By default, only user-created objects are shown;
          supply a pattern or the S modifier to include system objects. If
          x is appended to the command name, the results are displayed in
          expanded mode. If + is appended to the command name, additional
          information about each operator is shown, including the name of
          the underlying function, and whether it is leakproof.

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

   \dp[Sx] [ pattern ] #
          Lists tables, views and sequences with their associated access
          privileges. If pattern is specified, only tables, views and
          sequences whose names match the pattern are listed. By default
          only user-created objects are shown; supply a pattern or the S
          modifier to include system objects. If x is appended to the
          command name, the results are displayed in expanded mode.

          The GRANT and REVOKE commands are used to set access privileges.
          The meaning of the privilege display is explained in
          Section 5.8.

   \dP[itnx+] [ pattern ] #
          Lists partitioned relations. If pattern is specified, only
          entries whose name matches the pattern are listed. The modifiers
          t (tables) and i (indexes) can be appended to the command,
          filtering the kind of relations to list. By default, partitioned
          tables and indexes are listed.

          If the modifier n (“nested”) is used, or a pattern is specified,
          then non-root partitioned relations are included, and a column
          is shown displaying the parent of each partitioned relation.

          If x is appended to the command name, the results are displayed
          in expanded mode. If + is appended to the command name, the sum
          of the sizes of each relation's partitions is also displayed,
          along with the relation's description. If n is combined with +,
          two sizes are shown: one including the total size of
          directly-attached leaf partitions, and another showing the total
          size of all partitions, including indirectly attached
          sub-partitions.

   \drds[x] [ role-pattern [ database-pattern ] ] #
          Lists defined configuration settings. These settings can be
          role-specific, database-specific, or both. role-pattern and
          database-pattern are used to select specific roles and databases
          to list, respectively. If omitted, or if * is specified, all
          settings are listed, including those not role-specific or
          database-specific, respectively. If x is appended to the command
          name, the results are displayed in expanded mode.

          The ALTER ROLE and ALTER DATABASE commands are used to define
          per-role and per-database configuration settings.

   \drg[Sx] [ pattern ] #
          Lists information about each granted role membership, including
          assigned options (ADMIN, INHERIT and/or SET) and grantor. See
          the GRANT command for information about role memberships.

          By default, only grants to user-created roles are shown; supply
          the S modifier to include system roles. If pattern is specified,
          only grants to those roles whose names match the pattern are
          listed. If x is appended to the command name, the results are
          displayed in expanded mode.

   \dRp[x+] [ pattern ] #
          Lists replication publications. If pattern is specified, only
          those publications whose names match the pattern are listed. If
          x is appended to the command name, the results are displayed in
          expanded mode. If + is appended to the command name, the tables
          and schemas associated with each publication are shown as well.

   \dRs[x+] [ pattern ] #
          Lists replication subscriptions. If pattern is specified, only
          those subscriptions whose names match the pattern are listed. If
          x is appended to the command name, the results are displayed in
          expanded mode. If + is appended to the command name, additional
          properties of the subscriptions are shown.

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

   \du[Sx+] [ pattern ] #
          Lists database roles. (Since the concepts of “users” and
          “groups” have been unified into “roles”, this command is now
          equivalent to \dg.) By default, only user-created roles are
          shown; supply the S modifier to include system roles. If pattern
          is specified, only those roles whose names match the pattern are
          listed. If x is appended to the command name, the results are
          displayed in expanded mode. If + is appended to the command
          name, additional information is shown about each role; currently
          this adds the comment for each role.

   \dx[x+] [ pattern ] #
          Lists installed extensions. If pattern is specified, only those
          extensions whose names match the pattern are listed. If x is
          appended to the command name, the results are displayed in
          expanded mode. If + is appended to the command name, all the
          objects belonging to each matching extension are listed.

   \dX[x] [ pattern ] #
          Lists extended statistics. If pattern is specified, only those
          extended statistics whose names match the pattern are listed. If
          x is appended to the command name, the results are displayed in
          expanded mode.

          The status of each kind of extended statistics is shown in a
          column named after its statistic kind (e.g. Ndistinct). defined
          means that it was requested when creating the statistics, and
          NULL means it wasn't requested. You can use pg_stats_ext if
          you'd like to know whether ANALYZE was run and statistics are
          available to the planner.

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

   \e or \edit [ filename ] [ line_number ] #
          If filename is specified, the file is edited; after the editor
          exits, the file's content is copied into the current query
          buffer. If no filename is given, the current query buffer is
          copied to a temporary file which is then edited in the same
          fashion. Or, 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 you 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 remains in the query buffer is
          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. (Thus you cannot make meta-command-using
          scripts this way. Use \i for that.)

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

Tip

          See 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. This can be useful to
          intersperse information in the output of scripts. For example:

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

          If the first argument is an unquoted -n the trailing newline is
          not written (nor is the first argument).

Tip

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

   \ef [ function_description [ line_number ] ] #
          This command fetches and edits the definition of the named
          function or procedure, in the form of a CREATE OR REPLACE
          FUNCTION or CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE command. Editing is done
          in the same way as for \edit. If you quit the editor without
          saving, the statement is discarded. If you save and exit the
          editor, the updated command is executed immediately if you added
          a semicolon to it. Otherwise it is 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, for example foo(integer, text). The argument
          types must be given if there is more than one function of the
          same name.

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

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

          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 the current encoding.

   \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.

   \ev [ view_name [ line_number ] ] #
          This command fetches and edits the definition of the named view,
          in the form of a CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW command. Editing is done
          in the same way as for \edit. If you quit the editor without
          saving, the statement is discarded. If you save and exit the
          editor, the updated command is executed immediately if you added
          a semicolon to it. Otherwise it is 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.

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

   \f [ string ] #
          Sets the field separator for unaligned query output. The default
          is the vertical bar (|). It is equivalent to \pset fieldsep.

   \g [ (option=value [...]) ] [ filename ]
          \g [ (option=value [...]) ] [ |command ] #
          Sends the current query buffer to the server for execution.

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

          If a filename or |command argument is given, the query's output
          is written to the named file or piped to the given shell
          command, instead of displaying it as usual. The file or command
          is written to only if the query successfully returns zero or
          more tuples, not if the query fails or is a non-data-returning
          SQL command.

          If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently sent
          query is re-executed instead. Except for that behavior, \g
          without any arguments is essentially equivalent to a semicolon.
          With arguments, \g provides a “one-shot” alternative to the \o
          command, and additionally allows one-shot adjustments of the
          output formatting options normally set by \pset.

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

   \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; 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 is not defined in
          the psql process's environment, psql_var is not changed.
          Example:

=> \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. 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 is
          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. 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.)
          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. Each column of
          the row is stored into a separate variable, named the same as
          the column. For example:

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

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

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

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

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

          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.

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

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

Note

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

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

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

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

Note

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

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

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

          The expression argument of an \if or \elif command is subject to
          variable interpolation and backquote expansion, just like any
          other backslash command argument. After that it is evaluated
          like the value of an on/off option variable. So a valid value is
          any unambiguous case-insensitive match for one of: true, false,
          1, 0, on, off, yes, no. For example, t, T, and tR will all be
          considered to be true.

          Expressions that do not properly evaluate to true or false will
          generate a warning and be treated as false.

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

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

          Here is an example:

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

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

   \l[x+] or \list[x+] [ 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 x is appended to the command name, the results are
          displayed in expanded mode. If + is appended to the command
          name, database sizes, default tablespaces, and descriptions are
          also displayed. (Size information is only available for
          databases that the current user can connect to.)

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

Tip

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

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

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

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

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

   \lo_list[x+] #
          Shows a list of all PostgreSQL large objects currently stored in
          the database, along with any comments provided for them. If x is
          appended to the command name, the results are displayed in
          expanded mode. If + is appended to the command name, each large
          object is listed with its associated permissions, if any.

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

Tip

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

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

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

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

Tip

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

   \p or \print #
          Print the current query buffer to the standard output. If the
          current query buffer is empty, the most recently executed query
          is printed instead.

   \parse statement_name #
          Creates a prepared statement from the current query buffer,
          based on the name of a destination prepared-statement object. An
          empty string denotes the unnamed prepared statement.

          Example:

SELECT $1 \parse stmt1

          This command causes the extended query protocol to be used,
          unlike normal psql operation, which uses the simple query
          protocol. A Parse (F) message will be issued by this command so
          it can be useful to test the extended query protocol from psql.
          This command affects only the next query executed; all
          subsequent queries will use the simple query protocol by
          default.

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

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

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

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

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

          Adjustable printing options are:

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

        columns #
                Sets the target width for the wrapped format, and also the
                width limit 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).

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

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

        format #
                Sets the output format to one of aligned, asciidoc, csv,
                html, latex, latex-longtable, troff-ms, unaligned, or
                wrapped. Unique abbreviations are allowed.

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

                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.

                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.

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

                The 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.

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

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

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

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

                When the border setting is greater than zero, 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.

   \startpipeline
          \sendpipeline
          \syncpipeline
          \endpipeline
          \flushrequest
          \flush
          \getresults [ number_results ] #
          This group of commands implements pipelining of SQL statements.
          A pipeline must begin with a \startpipeline and end with an
          \endpipeline. In between there may be any number of
          \syncpipeline commands, which sends a sync message without
          ending the ongoing pipeline and flushing the send buffer. In
          pipeline mode, statements are sent to the server without waiting
          for the results of previous statements. See Section 32.5 for
          more details.

          All queries executed while a pipeline is ongoing use the
          extended query protocol. Queries are appended to the pipeline
          when ending with a semicolon. The meta-commands \bind,
          \bind_named, \close_prepared or \parse can be used in an ongoing
          pipeline. While a pipeline is ongoing, \sendpipeline will append
          the current query buffer to the pipeline. Other meta-commands
          like \g, \gx or \gdesc are not allowed in pipeline mode.

          \flushrequest appends a flush command to the pipeline, allowing
          to read results with \getresults without issuing a sync or
          ending the pipeline. \getresults will automatically push unsent
          data to the server. \flush can be used to manually push unsent
          data.

          \getresults accepts an optional number_results parameter. If
          provided, only the first number_results pending results will be
          read. If not provided or 0, all pending results are read.

          When pipeline mode is active, a dedicated prompt variable is
          available to report the pipeline status. See %P for more details

          COPY is not supported while in pipeline mode.

          Example:

\startpipeline
SELECT * FROM pg_class;
SELECT 1 \bind \sendpipeline
\flushrequest
\getresults
\endpipeline

   \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.

   \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 ] [ m[in_rows]=rows ] [
          seconds ] #
          Repeatedly execute the current query buffer (as \g does) until
          interrupted, or the query fails, or the execution count limit
          (if given) is reached, or the query no longer returns the
          minimum number of rows. Wait the specified number of seconds
          (default 2) between executions. The default wait can be changed
          with the variable WATCH_INTERVAL. For backwards compatibility,
          seconds can be specified with or without an interval= prefix.
          Each query result is 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.

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

   \z[Sx] [ 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. If x is appended to the
          command name, the results are displayed in expanded mode.

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

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

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

   \? [ topic ] #
          Shows help information. The optional topic parameter (defaulting
          to commands) selects which part of psql 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 54.2.2.1 for more details about how the server handles
          multi-query strings.)

Patterns

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

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

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

   A 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.

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.

Note

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

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

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

   ECHO #
          If set to all, all nonempty input lines are printed to standard
          output as they are read. (This does not apply to lines read
          interactively.) To select this behavior on program start-up, use
          the switch -a. If set to queries, psql prints each query to
          standard output as it is sent to the server. The switch to
          select this behavior is -e. If set to errors, then only failed
          queries are displayed on standard error output. The switch for
          this behavior is -b. If set to none (the default), then no
          queries are displayed.

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

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

   ERROR #
          true if the last SQL query failed, false if it succeeded. See
          also SQLSTATE.

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

Tip

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

   HIDE_TABLEAM #
          If this variable is set to true, a table's access method details
          are not displayed. This is mainly useful for regression tests.

   HIDE_TOAST_COMPRESSION #
          If this variable is set to true, column compression method
          details are not displayed. This is mainly useful for regression
          tests.

   HISTCONTROL #
          If this variable is set to ignorespace, lines which begin with a
          space are not entered into the history list. If set to a value
          of ignoredups, lines matching the previous history line are not
          entered. A value of ignoreboth combines the two options. If set
          to none (the default), all lines read in interactive mode are
          saved on the history list.

Note

          This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from Bash.

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

\set HISTFILE ~/.psql_history-:DBNAME

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

Note

          This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from Bash.

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

Note

          This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from Bash.

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

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

Note

          This feature was shamelessly plagiarized from Bash.

   LASTOID #
          The value of the last affected OID, as returned from an INSERT
          or \lo_import command. This variable is only guaranteed to be
          valid until after the result of the next SQL command has been
          displayed. PostgreSQL servers since version 12 do not support
          OID system columns anymore, thus LASTOID will always be 0
          following INSERT when targeting such servers.

   LAST_ERROR_MESSAGE
          LAST_ERROR_SQLSTATE #
          The primary error message and associated SQLSTATE code for the
          most recent failed query in the current psql session, or an
          empty string and 00000 if no error has occurred in the current
          session.

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

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

   PIPELINE_COMMAND_COUNT #
          The number of commands queued in an ongoing pipeline.

   PIPELINE_RESULT_COUNT #
          The number of commands of an ongoing pipeline that were followed
          by either a \flushrequest or a \syncpipeline, forcing the server
          to send the results. These results can be retrieved with
          \getresults.

   PIPELINE_SYNC_COUNT #
          The number of sync messages queued in an ongoing pipeline.

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

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

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

   ROW_COUNT #
          The number of rows returned or affected by the last SQL query,
          or 0 if the query failed or did not report a row count.

   SERVER_VERSION_NAME
          SERVER_VERSION_NUM #
          The server's version number as a string, for example 9.6.2, 10.1
          or 11beta1, and in numeric form, for example 90602 or 100001.
          These are set every time you connect to a database (including
          program start-up), but can be changed or unset.

   SERVICE #
          The service name, if applicable.

   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 \o command. See also SHELL_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 \o command.
          See also SHELL_ERROR.

   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.

   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 that 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 use when you want a verbose
          version of the error you just got.)

   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 #
          The error code (see Appendix A) associated with the last SQL
          query's failure, or 00000 if it succeeded.

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

   VERBOSITY #
          This variable can be set to the values default, verbose, terse,
          or sqlstate to control the verbosity of error reports. (See also
          \errverbose, for use when you want a verbose version of the
          error you just got.)

   VERSION
          VERSION_NAME
          VERSION_NUM #
          These variables are 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.

   WATCH_INTERVAL #
          This variable sets the default interval, in seconds, which
          \watch waits between executing the query. The default is 2
          seconds. Specifying an interval in the command overrides this
          variable.

SQL Interpolation

   A key feature of psql variables is that you can substitute
   (“interpolate”) them into regular SQL statements, as well as the
   arguments of meta-commands. Furthermore, psql provides facilities for
   ensuring that variable values used as SQL literals and identifiers are
   properly quoted. The syntax for interpolating a value without any
   quoting is to prepend the variable name with a colon (:). For example,
testdb=> \set foo 'my_table'
testdb=> SELECT * FROM :foo;

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

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

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

   One example use of this mechanism is to copy the contents of a file
   into a table column. First load the file into a variable and then
   interpolate the variable's value as a quoted string:
testdb=> \set content `cat my_file.txt`
testdb=> INSERT INTO my_table VALUES (:'content');

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

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

   The :{?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. The three
   variables PROMPT1, PROMPT2, and PROMPT3 contain strings and special
   escape sequences that describe the appearance of the prompt. Prompt 1
   is the normal prompt that is issued when psql requests a new command.
   Prompt 2 is issued when more input is expected during command entry,
   for example because the command was not terminated with a semicolon or
   a quote was not closed. Prompt 3 is issued when you are running an 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. 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.)

   %s #
          The name of the service.

   %/ #
          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.

   %P #
          Pipeline status: off when not in a pipeline, on when in an
          ongoing pipeline or abort when in an aborted pipeline.

   %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 is an
          unfinished /* ... */ comment, a single quote if there is an
          unfinished quoted string, a double quote if there is an
          unfinished quoted identifier, a dollar sign if there is an
          unfinished dollar-quoted string, or ( if there is an unmatched
          left parenthesis. In prompt 3 %R doesn't produce anything.

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

   %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.

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.

   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 is particularly useful when you need to
   copy-and-paste text that contains TAB characters.

Environment

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

   PGDATABASE
          PGHOST
          PGPORT
          PGUSER #
          Default connection parameters (see Section 32.15).

   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 32.15).

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-18 or ~/.psqlrc-18.0. 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

   The first example shows how to spread a command over several lines of
   input. Notice the changing prompt:
testdb=> CREATE TABLE my_table (
testdb(>  first integer not null default 0,
testdb(>  second text)
testdb-> ;
CREATE TABLE

   Now look at the table definition again:
testdb=> \d my_table
              Table "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=>

   Let's assume you have filled the table with data and want to take a
   look at it:
peter@localhost testdb=> SELECT * FROM my_table;
 first | second
-------+--------
     1 | one
     2 | two
     3 | three
     4 | four
(4 rows)

   You can display tables in different ways by using the \pset command:
peter@localhost testdb=> \pset border 2
Border style is 2.
peter@localhost testdb=> SELECT * FROM my_table;
+-------+--------+
| first | second |
+-------+--------+
|     1 | one    |
|     2 | two    |
|     3 | three  |
|     4 | four   |
+-------+--------+
(4 rows)

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

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

   Alternatively, use the short commands:
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

   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)

   Here, the + option is used to display additional information about one
   of these functions, and x is used to display the results in expanded
   mode:
testdb=> \df+x int*pl integer bigint
List of functions
-[ RECORD 1 ]-------+-----------------------------
Schema              | pg_catalog
Name                | int48pl
Result data type    | bigint
Argument data types | integer, bigint
Type                | func
Volatility          | immutable
Parallel            | safe
Owner               | postgres
Security            | invoker
Leakproof?          | no
Access privileges   |
Language            | internal
Internal name       | int48pl
Description         | implementation of + operator

   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)

   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)