PostgreSQL cheatsheet
Install:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install postgresql postgresql-contrib
PSQL
Magic words:
sudo -u postgres -i
Some interesting flags (to see all, use -h
or --help
depending on your psql version):
- -E
: will describe the underlaying queries of the \
commands (cool for learning!)
- -l
: psql will list all databases and then exit (useful if the user you connect with doesn't has a default database, like at AWS RDS)
Most \d
commands support additional param of __schema__.name__
and accept wildcards like *.*
\?
: Show help (list of available commands with an explanation)\q
: Quit/Exit\c __database__
: Connect to a database\d __table__
: Show table definition (columns, etc.) including triggers\d+ __table__
: More detailed table definition including description and physical disk size\l
: List databases\dy
: List events\df
: List functions\di
: List indexes\dn
: List schemas\dt *.*
: List tables from all schemas (if*.*
is omitted will only show SEARCH_PATH ones)\dT+
: List all data types\dv
: List views\dx
: List all extensions installed\df+ __function__
: Show function SQL code.\x
: Pretty-format query results instead of the not-so-useful ASCII tables\copy (SELECT * FROM __table_name__) TO 'file_path_and_name.csv' WITH CSV
: Export a table as CSV\des+
: List all foreign servers\dE[S+]
: List all foreign tables\! __bash_command__
: execute__bash_command__
(e.g.\! ls
)
User Related:
- \du
: List users
- \du __username__
: List a username if present.
- create role __test1__
: Create a role with an existing username.
- create role __test2__ noinherit login password __passsword__;
: Create a role with username and password.
- set role __test__;
: Change role for current session to __test__
.
- grant __test2__ to __test1__;
: Allow __test1__
to set its role as __test2__
.
- \deu+
: List all user mapping on server
Configuration
- Service management commands:
sudo service postgresql stop
sudo service postgresql start
sudo service postgresql restart
Creating a User and granting all priviliges to a db
CREATE DATABASE test_db;
CREATE USER test_username WITH PASSWORD 'password';
ALTER ROLE test_username SET client_encoding TO 'utf8';
ALTER ROLE test_username SET default_transaction_isolation TO 'read committed';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE test_db TO test_username;
DB Backing Up
pg_dump name_of_database > name_of_backup_file
-- to create a backup filepsql empty_database < backup_file
-- to fill empty db with backedup data