playbook/antigravity-awesome-skills/skills/postgresql-cli/references/meta-commands-formatting.md

Part of the psql meta-command reference. See also: meta-commands-core.md, meta-commands-inspection.md

psql Meta-Commands — Output Formatting & Pipeline Mode

Table of Contents

• Output Formatting
• Pipeline Mode
• Session Management

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Output Formatting

\pset [ option [ value ] ]

Sets options affecting query result table output. Without arguments, displays current settings.

Option	Values	Description
border	0-2 (3 for latex)	Border/line style. Higher = more lines.
columns	integer	Target width for wrapped format. 0 = use COLUMNS env or screen width. Non-zero also wraps output when sent to file or pipe (normally file/pipe output is unwrapped).
csv_fieldsep	character	CSV field separator (default: comma)
expanded (or x)	on, off, auto	Vertical display. auto uses expanded when wider than screen. Note: auto is only effective in aligned and wrapped formats.
fieldsep	string	Field separator for unaligned output (default: |)
fieldsep_zero	—	Set field separator to NUL byte
footer	on, off	Toggle row count footer display
format	aligned, asciidoc, csv, html, latex, latex-longtable, troff-ms, unaligned, wrapped	Output format. See format descriptions below.
linestyle	ascii, old-ascii, unicode	Border character style. ascii uses +, -, `
null	string	Display string for NULL values (default: empty)
numericlocale	on, off	Locale-specific number formatting
pager	on, off, always	Pager control. Uses PSQL_PAGER or PAGER env. For \watch output, PSQL_WATCH_PAGER takes precedence over both.
pager_min_lines	integer	Minimum lines before pager activates (default: 0)
recordsep	string	Record separator for unaligned mode (default: newline)
recordsep_zero	—	Set record separator to NUL byte
tableattr (or T)	string	HTML: table tag attributes (e.g., border=1). latex-longtable: whitespace-separated proportional column widths (e.g., '0.2 0.2 0.6').
title (or C)	string	Table title. Unset with no value.
tuples_only (or t)	on, off	Show only data, no headers/footers
unicode_border_linestyle	single, double	Unicode border drawing
unicode_column_linestyle	single, double	Unicode column drawing
unicode_header_linestyle	single, double	Unicode header drawing
xheader_width	full, column, page, or integer	Max width of expanded output header

Format Descriptions

Format	Description
aligned	Standard human-readable table with column alignment (default).
wrapped	Like aligned but long values wrap to fit column width. Headers with underscores are not repeated on continuation rows.
unaligned	All columns on one line, separated by fieldsep. Useful for script output.
csv	RFC 4180 compliant CSV output. Uses csv_fieldsep (default: comma). Safe for import into spreadsheets and other tools.
html	HTML <table> markup.
asciidoc	AsciiDoc table format for documentation.
latex	LaTeX tabular format.
latex-longtable	LaTeX longtable format for multi-page tables. Supports proportional column widths via \pset tableattr (e.g., '0.2 0.2 0.6').
troff-ms	troff ms macros table format.

Formatting shortcuts

Shortcut	Equivalent
\a	\pset format unaligned (toggle)
\C [title]	\pset title
\f [string]	\pset fieldsep
\H	\pset format html (toggle)
\t	\pset tuples_only (toggle)
\T table_options	\pset tableattr
\x [on|off|auto]	\pset expanded

---

Pipeline Mode

Pipeline mode batches SQL statements into fewer network round trips for better performance. Available in PostgreSQL 14+.

Pipeline commands

Command	Description
\startpipeline	Begin a pipeline block
\endpipeline	End a pipeline block and process remaining results
\sendpipeline	Append current query buffer to pipeline without waiting for results
\syncpipeline	Send a sync message without ending the pipeline
\flushrequest	Request server flush without sync
\flush	Manually push unsent data to server
\getresults [N]	Read pending results (N=0 or omitted = all)

Pipeline rules

• All queries in pipeline mode use the extended query protocol
• Queries are appended with semicolons or \sendpipeline
• Allowed meta-commands: \bind, \bind_named, \parse, \close_prepared
• NOT allowed: \g, \gx, \gdesc (and other result-consuming commands)
• COPY is not supported in pipeline mode
• A %P prompt variable is available to show pipeline status (on, off, or abort)

Example

\startpipeline
  SELECT * FROM pg_class;
  SELECT 1 \bind \sendpipeline
  \flushrequest
  \getresults
\endpipeline

---

Session Management

\e / \edit [ filename ] [ line_number ]

Opens the query buffer (or a file) in the external editor. On save, the buffer is re-parsed. Complete queries are immediately executed. The cursor is positioned on the specified line number. See $EDITOR / $VISUAL for editor configuration.

\ef [ function_description [ line_number ] ]

Edits a function or procedure definition as a CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION/PROCEDURE command. Specify function by name or name and argument types. Without arguments, shows a blank template. Line number positions within the function body.

Unlike most meta-commands, the entire line is the argument — no variable interpolation.

\ev [ view_name [ line_number ] ]

Edits a view definition as a CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW command. Without arguments, shows a blank template.

\cd [ directory ]

Changes the current working directory. Without an argument, changes to the home directory.

\cd /tmp
\! pwd           -- /tmp
\cd              -- back to home directory

\r / \reset

Clears the query buffer.

\s [ filename ]

Prints command history to file or stdout. Requires Readline support.

\timing [ on | off ]

Toggles (or explicitly sets) display of query execution time. Shown in milliseconds; intervals > 1s also show minutes:seconds, hours, days as needed.

\errverbose

Repeats the most recent server error message at maximum verbosity (as if VERBOSITY=verbose and SHOW_CONTEXT=always).

\restrict restrict_key / \unrestrict restrict_key

Enter/exit restricted mode where only \unrestrict is allowed. Key must be alphanumeric. Primarily used by pg_dump/pg_restore.