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Postgres documentation

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</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><computeroutput>createuser:Creation of user "<replaceable class="parameter">username</replaceable>" failed.</computeroutput></term>

<term><computeroutput>createuser:creation of user "<replaceable class="parameter">username</replaceable>" failed</computeroutput></term>

<listitem>

<para>

Something went wrong. The user was not created.

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Postgres documentation

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</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><computeroutput>dropuser:Deletion of user "<replaceable class="parameter">username</replaceable>" failed.</computeroutput></term>

<term><computeroutput>dropuser:deletion of user "<replaceable class="parameter">username</replaceable>" failed</computeroutput></term>

<listitem>

<para>

Something went wrong. The user was not removed.

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Postgres documentation

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</para>

<para>

The command form <literal>\d?</literal> is identical, but any comments

The command form <literal>\d+</literal> is identical, but any comments

associated with the table columns are shown as well.

</para>

Lists all available aggregate functions, together with the data type they operate on.

If <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable>

(a regular expression) is specified, only matching aggregates are shown.

If the alternative command form <literal>\da?</literal> is used,

comments are listed for each function as well. The command form

<literal>\da+</literal> will show more information about each aggregate

function, which is usually not of general interest.

</para>

</listitem>

</varlistentry>

If <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable>

(a regular expression) is specified, only matching functions are shown.

If the form <literal>\df+</literal> is used, additional information about

each function is shown. Comments for each function can be shown with

the <literal>\df?</literal> form.

each function, including language and description is shown.

</para>

</listitem>

</varlistentry>

<para>

If <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable> is specified,

it is a regular expression restricts the listing to those objects

whose name matches. If one appends a <quote>?</quote> to the command name,

whose name matches. If one appends a <quote>+</quote> to the command name,

each object is listed with its associated description, if any.

</para>

</listitem>

interpretation of the backslash as a new command, you might also

wish to quote the argument.)

</para>

<para>

If the form <literal>\do?</literal> is used, comments are listed for

each operator.

</para>

</listitem>

</varlistentry>

<listitem>

<para>

Lists all data types or only those that match <replaceable class="parameter">pattern</replaceable>.

The command forms <literal>\dT+</literal> and <literal>\dT?</literal> show extra information

and the associated descriptions of the types, respectively.

The command form <literal>\dT+</literal> shows extra information.

</para>

</listitem>

</varlistentry>

<listitem>

<para>

List all the databases in the server as well as their owners. Append a

<quote>?</quote> (question mark) to the command name to see any descriptions

<quote>+</quote> to the command name to see any descriptions

for the databases as well. If your <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>

installation was

compiled with multibyte encoding support, the encoding scheme of each

<para>

Shows a list of all <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> <quote>large

objects</quote> currently stored in the database along with their owners.

Append a question mark to the command name (<literal>\lo_list?</literal>) to

see the the associated comments as well.

</para>

</listitem>

</varlistentry>

<para>

If so configured, <application>psql</application> understands both standard

Unix short options, and <acronym>GNU</acronym>-style long options. Since the

latter are not available on all systems, you are advised to consider carefully

whether to use them, if you are writing scripts, etc. For support on the

<productname>PostgreSQL</productname> mailing lists, you are asked to only

use the standard short options.

Unix short options, and <acronym>GNU</acronym>-style long options. The latter

are not available on all systems, so you are advised to consider carefully

whether to use them.

</para>

<para>

<varlistentry>

<term>-F, --field-sep <replaceable class="parameter">separator</replaceable></term>

<term>-F, --field-separator <replaceable class="parameter">separator</replaceable></term>

<listitem>

<para>

Use <replaceable class="parameter">separator</replaceable> as the field separator.

<varlistentry>

<term>-o, --out <replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable></term>

<term>-o, --output <replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable></term>

<listitem>

<para>

Put all query output into file <replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable>.

<listitem>

<para>

Specifies that <application>psql</application> should do its work quietly.

By default, it prints welcome messages, various informational output and

prompts for each query.

By default, it prints welcome messages and various informational output.

If this option is used, none of this happens. This is useful with the

<option>-c</option> option. Within <application>psql</application> you can

also set the <envar>quiet</envar> variable to achieve the same effect.

<term>-V, --version</term>

<listitem>

<para>

Shows version information about <application>psql</application> and your

<productname>PostgreSQL</productname> database server, if it could be reached.

</para>

<para>

The output looks similar to this:

<programlisting>

~$ <userinput>psql -V</userinput>

Server: PostgreSQL 6.5.2 on i586-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by egcs

psql 6.6.0 on i586-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc 2.8.1 (Oct 27 1999 15:15:04), long options,

readline, history, locale, assert checks

</programlisting>

The <quote>Server</quote> line is identical to the one returned by the

backend function <function>version()</function> and thus might vary

if you query different servers by using different connection

options.

</para>

<para>

The <quote>psql</quote> line is compiled into the <application>psql</application>

binary. It shows you which <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> release

it was distributed with and what optional features were compiled into it.

Although in general (as in the example above) you can use <application>psql</application>

and database servers from different versions (if they don't differ too much)

this is not recommended or

even necessary. The optional features indicate only <application>psql</application>'s

capabilities but if <application>psql</application> was configured with

the same source tree as the rest of the distribution, it gives you an

indication about other parts of the installation as well.

Shows the <application>psql</application> version.

</para>

</listitem>

</varlistentry>

</refsect2>

<refsect2>

<title>History and Lineage</title>

<para>

<application>psql</application> first appeared in <productname>Postgres95</productname>

to complement and later replace the <application>monitor</application> program. (You see this

name here or there in really old files. The author has never had the pleasure to use this

program though.) An uncountable number of people have added features since to reflect

the enhancements in the actual database server.

</para>

<para>

The present version is the result of a major clean-up and re-write in 1999 by

<ulink URL="mailto:peter_e@gmx.net">Peter Eisentraut</ulink> in preparation for release 7.0.

Many people had again contributed their ideas. A bunch of features were stolen

from various shells (in case you hadn't noticed), in particular

<application>tcsh</application>.

</para>

</refsect2>

<refsect2>

<title><acronym>GNU</acronym> readline</title>