pgcli - Command Line Interface for PostgreSQL
28 Apr 2015Debugging is a fact of life when building apps with Rails or any other set of tools. All troubleshooting is easier when we can see what’s going on inside.
pgcli is a command line tool that lets devs examine PostgreSQL databases from the command line. pgcli offers more powerful features than psql (the default terminal front-end for PostgreSQL) such as:
- Autocompletion. In fact,
pgcliautocompletion is smart enough to only show table names afterFROMin a SQL statement. - Syntax highlighting. Find gotchas quicker, just like you would in a text editor.
Debugging is easier when you can look inside the black box.
Installation
To install pgcli on Mac OS X, use Homebrew:
$ brew install pgcli
==> Installing dependencies for pgcli: openssl, postgresql
==> Installing pgcli dependency: openssl
==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/openssl-1.0.2a-1.yosemite.b
######################################################################## 100.0%
# Homebrew installs dependencies as required...
==> Installing pgcli
==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/pgcli-0.16.3.yosemite.bottl
######################################################################## 100.0%
==> Pouring pgcli-0.16.3.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
🍺 /usr/local/Cellar/pgcli/0.16.3: 423 files, 5.2M
$
Verify installation as follows:
$ which pgcli
/usr/local/bin/pgcli
$ pgcli --version
Version: 0.16.3
$
Using pgcli
To view a list of available pgcli commands:
$ pgcli --help
Usage: pgcli [OPTIONS] [DATABASE] [USERNAME]
Options:
-h, --host TEXT Host address of the postgres database.
-p, --port INTEGER Port number at which the postgres instance is listening.
-U, --user TEXT User name to connect to the postgres database.
-W, --password Force password prompt.
-w, --no-password Never prompt for password.
-v, --version Version of pgcli.
-d, --dbname TEXT database name to connect to.
--help Show this message and exit.
$
To use pgcli:
$ pgcli
Version: 0.16.3
Chat: https://gitter.im/amjith/pgcli
Mail: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/pgcli
Home: http://pgcli.com
rth> \l
\l will list the databases available to this installation of PostgreSQL. Note that the pgcli command prompt shows the currently logged in username. To discover other commands, use \?.
As you experiment with pgcli, notice the command completion and the syntax highlighting. Big time savers relative to psql.
Acknowledgements
Thanks Attila Domokos and Ken Walters for the tweets that led to this pgcli blog post.