Once you have constructed a database, you can access it by:
Running the PostgreSQL terminal monitor program
(psql) which allows you to interactively
enter, edit, and execute SQL commands.
Writing a C program using the libpq subroutine
library. This allows you to submit SQL commands
from C and get answers and status messages back
about the program.
You might want to start up
psql,
to try out the examples in this manual. It can be activated for the
dbname database by typing the command:
You will see the following message:
Welcome to psql, the PostgreSQL interactive terminal.
Type: \copyright for distribution terms
\h for help with SQL commands
\? for help on internal slash commands
\g or terminate with semicolon to execute query
\q to quit
dbname=> |
This prompt indicates that the terminal monitor is listening
to you and that you can type SQL queries into a
workspace maintained by the terminal monitor.
The psql program responds to escape
codes that begin
with the backslash character, "\". For example, you
can get help on the syntax of various
PostgreSQL SQL commands by typing:
Once you have finished entering your queries into the
workspace, you can pass the contents of the workspace
to the
PostgreSQL server by typing:
This tells the server to process the query.
If you
terminate your query with a semicolon, the backslash-g is not
necessary.
psql will automatically
process semicolon terminated queries.
To read queries from a file, instead of
entering them interactively, type:
To get out of
psql and return to Linux, type
and
psql will quit and return
you to your command shell. (For more escape codes, type
backslash-h at the monitor prompt.)
You can include white space in
SQL queries.
Single-line comments are denoted by two dashes
("
--"). Everything after the dashes up to the end of the
line is ignored. Multiple-line comments, and comments within a line,
are denoted by the "
/* ... */" convention.