Some notes on using PostgreSQL and the psql command line interface.

• psql is a command line tool that can be used to:

  • Connect to a PostgreSQL server.
  • Execute SQL commands on that server.
  • Execute scripts from the command line.

• Use psql <database> -h <host> -U <username> to create an interactive shell.

  • The password can be defined on the PGPASSWORD environment variable.
  • The user name can be defined on the PGUSER environment variable.

• Use `psql -f <script_file> to execute a script.

• The following commands are available inside the psql interactive shell.

  • \l lists all databases.
  • \c connects to a database.
  • \d lists all relations (e.g. tables).
  • \i executes a script.
  • \q exits the interactive shell.

• SQL commands can be executed directly in the interactive shell, ended with ';'.