Run a PostgreSQL .sql file using command line argu

Question

I have some .sql files with thousands of INSERT statements in them and need to run these inserts on my PostgreSQL database in order to add them to a table. The files are that large that it is impossible to open them and copy the INSERT statements into an editor window and run them there. I found on the Internet that you can use the following by navigating to the bin folder of your PostgreSQL install:

psql -d myDataBase -a -f myInsertFile

In my case:

psql -d HIGHWAYS -a -f CLUSTER_1000M.sql

I am then asked for a password for my user, but I cannot enter anything and when I hit enter I get this error:

psql: FATAL: password authentication failed for user "myUsername"

Why won't it let me enter a password. Is there a way round this as it is critical that I can run these scripts?

I got around this issue by adding a new entry in my pg_hba.conf file with the following structure:

# IPv6 local connections:
host    myDbName    myUserName ::1/128    trust

The pg_hba.conf file can usually be found in the 'data' folder of your PostgreSQL install.

Answer 1

You can give both user name and PASSSWORD on the command line itself.

   psql "dbname='urDbName' user='yourUserName' password='yourPasswd' host='yourHost'" -f yourFileName.sql

Answer 2

export PGPASSWORD=<password>
psql -h <host> -d <database> -U <user_name> -p <port> -a -w -f <file>.sql

Answer 3

If you are logged in into psql on the Linux shell the command is:

\i fileName.sql

for an absolute path and

\ir filename.sql

for the relative path from where you have called psql.

Answer 4

You can open a command prompt and run as administrator. Then type

../bin>psql -f c:/...-h localhost -p 5432 -d databasename -U "postgres"

Password for user postgres: will show up.

Type your password and enter. I couldn't see the password what I was typing, but this time when I press enter it worked. Actually I was loading data into the database.

Answer 5

You have four choices to supply a password:

1. Set the PGPASSWORD environment variable. For details see the manual:
   http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/libpq-envars.html
2. Use a .pgpass file to store the password. For details see the manual:
   http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/libpq-pgpass.html
3. Use "trust authentication" for that specific user: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/auth-methods.html#AUTH-TRUST
4. Since PostgreSQL 9.1 you can also use a connection string:
   https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/libpq-connect.html#LIBPQ-CONNSTRING

Answer 6

You should do it like this:

\i path_to_sql_file

See: