Thread: PostgreSQL or pl/psSQL equivalent to MS SQL Server's xp_cmdshell?

<p><font face="Arial" size="2">Does anyone know of the PostgreSQL or pl/psSQL equivalent to MS SQL Server's
xp_cmdshell?  This is the command that allows you issue command-line statements from within SQL, e.g., you would do
xp_cmdshell'dir c:\' if you wanted to see the contents of the c: drive.</font><p><font face="Arial"
size="2">TM</font><br/><font face="Arial"
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On Thu, 24 Jul 2003 Trent.Mera@PeopleFirst.com wrote:

> Does anyone know of the PostgreSQL or pl/psSQL equivalent to MS SQL Server's
> xp_cmdshell?   This is the command that allows you issue command-line
> statements from within SQL, e.g., you would do xp_cmdshell 'dir c:\' if you
> wanted to see the contents of the c: drive.

That can only be done inside an untrusted procedural language.  plpgsql is 
trusted, so it can't do that type of thing.

C, pltclu, plprelu, and, as of 7.4 plpython will let you do that.