Thread: ";" no longer allowed to terminate a command beginning with "\"

Hi there,

    Just would like some "is this a bug or a feature"-style
clarification on this please.

    In PostgreSQL v6.5 you used to be able to end a command issued to
"psql" starting with a backslash "\" with a semicolon ";", eg.

bookmarks=> \d sites_tbl;
Table    = sites_tbl
...
TABLE HERE
...

    However, in PostgreSQL v7.0.2, this does not happen, eg.

projman_dev=# \d login_tbl;
Did not find any relation named "login_tbl;".

[even though there _is_ a table called login_tbl]

    I know that SQL statements end with a semi-colon, and I also know
that the backslashed commands are _not_ SQL statements.  In my case, I
know I am used to ending almost everything I write with a semicolon but
was just wondering whether this was a planned change to the "psql"
application.

    Thanks for your time,

--
Sean Kelly <S.Kelly@ncl.ac.uk>
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it" - Alan Kay

Sean Kelly writes:

>     Just would like some "is this a bug or a feature"-style
> clarification on this please.

It was an undocumented "fact" that didn't work very well or consistently,
but it will be back.

>     In PostgreSQL v6.5 you used to be able to end a command issued to
> "psql" starting with a backslash "\" with a semicolon ";", eg.

--
Peter Eisentraut                  Sernanders väg 10:115
peter_e@gmx.net                   75262 Uppsala
http://yi.org/peter-e/            Sweden