Turns on the 'echo all' option, which displays all lines as they are read by psql . This option can be useful for scripting, and is equivalent to issuing the command: \set ECHO all from within psql .

Starts psql in unaligned output formatting mode. If this is not specified, the output formatting mode will be set to aligned.

Instead of running psql interactively, this option executes the statement that you specify. This must be a syntactically correct SQL statement, and must be devoid of any psql -specific commands.

Explicitly specifies the database you wish psql to initially connect to.

Specifies that all queries are echoed to the screen.

Displays the hidden queries generated by slash commands. You can also issue the following command from within psql to accomplish the same effect: \set ECHO_HIDDEN.

Specifies that rather than start in interactive mode, psql should read and execute SQL from the specified filename , and process its contents as it would if input directly. After processing the file, psql exits.

Specifies that psql should use the specified separator character as the field (column) delimiter.

Specifies the hostname of the backend machine. This is usually not necessary when connecting to a local backend process, which uses UNIX domain sockets. However, if the postmaster initializes its domain socket file somewhere other than the default path of /tmp , specifying a hostname with a leading forward slash will cause psql to interpret the hostname value as a local directory to check for the domain socket file (e.g., -h /var/pgsql will cause psql to look for a domain socket file within /var/pgsql ).

Starts psql in HTML output mode.

Displays a list of available databases to connect to.

Redirects psql output to filename .

Specifies TCP/IP port (or numbered UNIX domain socket) that postmaster is currently listening on. By default, this is whatever PGPORT is set to (or the default of 5432).

Specifies the output formatting options using the same syntax as used with the \pset command. All option names are the same as for \pset, but with this command-line option you must use an an equal sign (=) instead of a space between each formatting option name and its value.

Instructs psql to work in quiet mode. No psql -specific informative messages or informational text is displayed.

Specifies separator as the record (row) delimiter.

Specifies that psql will run in "single-step" mode. While in single-step mode, you will be prompted to either continue or cancel upon executing a SQL statement.

Specifies that psql will run in "single-line" mode. When running in this mode, a new line acts as a semi-colon to execute a SQL statement.

Turns off the display of extraneous table information, such as column names and footers. To accomplish this from within psql , use the \t command.

Sets an HTML attribute that you wish to be placed within the <table> output while in HTML formatting mode (e.g., width=100%). If you pass more than one table_attribute to this flag, they must all be contained within double quotes. You can use \pset from within psql to insert these attributes as well.

Connects with the specified username .

Assigns a value to a variable name , as you would do using the \set command from within psql . When separating a value from a name, use an equal sign instead of a space.

Displays version information.

Prompts for a password before connecting to a database. This setting remains for the duration of the psql session.

Activate extended row format mode. Accomplish this from within psql by using the \x slash command.

Do not read or execute the startup file ( ~/.psqlrc ).

Displays brief psql command line argument help.