Thread: .psql_history file is messed up and control-r does not work

My .psql_history contains lines of the  form.

select\040sum(price)\040from\040products\040p\040join\040

My psql client is 9.1.2 on Mac OS and server is linux 9.0.5

Is the version mismatch messing up this .psql_history file?

Also control-r to search the history isn't working at psql prompt from
Mac although it does work if I log in to server where client and
server are the same version.

Thanks for any assistance in this issue.

mr. wu

zhong ming wu <mr.z.m.wu@gmail.com> writes:
> My .psql_history contains lines of the  form.
> select\040sum(price)\040from\040products\040p\040join\040

Yeah, that's what it will look like if psql is using Apple's libedit
library; it's unrelated to the server.

I think libedit doesn't support control-r either, not totally sure
though.  In any case there are some known bugs in libedit that Apple's
not been terribly swift to fix.  I'd suggest installing GNU readline
and linking psql against that instead.

            regards, tom lane

>
> Yeah, that's what it will look like if psql is using Apple's libedit
> library; it's unrelated to the server.
>
> I think libedit doesn't support control-r either, not totally sure
> though.  In any case there are some known bugs in libedit that Apple's
> not been terribly swift to fix.  I'd suggest installing GNU readline
> and linking psql against that instead.


Thanks.  compiling with readline solves both problems.