Greetings... I've run into a problem with the way \copy behaves when psql is reading its input from a file using either the -f command line option or the \i command. (Not that it matters in this case, but this is PostgreSQL 7.4 on i686-pc-linux-gnu, compiled with gcc.)
The following... ---8<--SNIP--- CREATE TABLE junk ( abbrev CHAR(1), name VARCHAR(80) ); \copy junk (abbrev, name) FROM STDIN WITH DELIMITER '|' NULL '' F|Foo B|Bar Z|Baz \. ---8<--SNIP--- ...works just fine when keyed directly into psql or is redirected from a file (i.e., psql < junk.sql). When using -f or \i, psql sits and waits for data and an EOF on the standard input and then proceeds to interpret the next four lines as commands. This was discussed several years ago in this thread: http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2000-01/msg00361.php Peter Eisentraut declared that from that point on, stdin would be whatever stream the \copy command came from. I'd like to propose a variant on the "FROM" clause which makes good on Peter's declaration without breaking anything already using FROM STDIN and expecting it to really read from stdin. (I think this is for the better because there are lots of good uses for "psql -f foo.sql < foo.dat".) I'd be more than happy to write and test a patch if folks think this would be a good thing. I'm leaning toward "FROM -" as the syntax but am open to other ideas (i.e., "FROM HERE" or "FROM INPUT"). - Mark P.S.: I've been using Postgre(s(95)?|SQL) in its various forms for close to a decade, and what was a stable platform for lightweight storage has matured into something I'd pour a few million rows into without thinking twice about it. Thanks to everyone for all the great work! ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 8: explain analyze is your friend
