Prints all input lines to standard output as they are read. This is more useful for script processing than interactive mode. It is equivalent to setting the variable ECHO to all.

Switches to unaligned output mode. (The default output mode is aligned.)

Executes one command and exits. This is useful in shell scripts. The command must be either a command string that is completely parsable by the server (i.e., it contains no vsql specific features), or a single meta-command. In other words, you cannot mix SQL and vsql meta-commands. To achieve that, you can pipe the string into vsql like this: echo "\ x \\ select * from foo;" | vsql.

Specifies the name of the database to connect to. This is equivalent to specifying dbname as the first non-option argument on the command line.

Copies all SQL commands sent to the server to standard output as well. This is equivalent to setting the variable ECHO to queries.

Uses the file filename as the source of commands instead of reading commands interactively. After the file is processed, vsql terminates. This is in many ways equivalent to the internal command \i.

If filename is - (hyphen), the standard input is read.

Using this option is subtly different from writing vsql < filename. In general, both will do what you expect, but using -f enables some nice features such as error messages with line numbers. There is also a slight chance that using this option will reduce the start-up overhead. On the other hand, the variant using the shell's input redirection is (in theory) guaranteed to yield exactly the same output that you would have gotten had you entered everything by hand.

Specifies the field separator. This is equivalent to \pset fieldsep or \f.

Specifies the host name of the machine on which the server is running. If the value begins with a slash, it is used as the directory for the socket.

Turn on HTML tabular output. This is equivalent to \pset format html or the \H command.

Writes all query output into file filename. This is equivalent to the command \o.

Specifies the TCP port or the local socket file extension on which the server is listening for connections. Defaults to port 5433.

Allows you to specify printing options in the style of \pset on the command line. Note that you have to separate name and value with an equal sign instead of a space. Thus to set the output format to LaTeX, you could write -P format=latex.

Specifies that vsql should do its work quietly. By default, it prints welcome messages and various informational output. If this option is used, none of this appears. This is useful with the -c option. Within vsql you can also set the QUIET variable to achieve the same effect.

Use separator as the record separator. This is equivalent to the \pset recordsep command.

Run in single-step mode for debugging scripts. Forces vsql to prompt before each statement is sent to the database and allows you to cancel execution.

Runs in single-line mode where a newline terminates an SQL command, as a semicolon does.

Note: This mode is provided for those who insist on it, but you are not necessarily encouraged to use it. In particular, if you mix SQL and meta-commands on a line the order of execution might not always be clear to the inexperienced user.

Disables printing of column names and result row count footers, etc. This is equivalent to the \t command.

Allows you to specify options to be placed within the HTML table tag. See \pset for details.

Connects to the database as the user username instead of the default.

Perform a variable assignment, like the \set internal command. You must separate name and value, if any, by an equal sign on the command line.

To unset a variable, omit the equal sign. To set a variable without a value, use the equal sign but omit the value. These assignments are done during a very early stage of start-up, so variables reserved for internal purposes can get overwritten later.

Print the vsql version and exit.

Specifies the password for a database user.

Using this command line option displays the database password in plain text on the screen. Use it with care particularly if you are connecting as the Database Administrator.

Forces vsql to prompt for a password before connecting to a database. The password is not displayed on the screen. This option remains set for the entire session, even if you change the database connection with the meta-command \connect.

Enables extended table formatting mode. This is equivalent to the command \ x.

Prevents the start-up file from being read (the system-wide vsqlrc file or the user's ~/.vsqlrc file).

Displays help about vsql command line arguments and exits.