Check return status of psql command in unix shell scripting

Question

I am using psql command to connect and issue a query on postgreSQL database. Can anybody let me know how to check the return status of the executed query in shell script.

I have used echo $? command to check the status but it always returning zero.

Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

psql return code is documented as:

EXIT STATUS
psql returns 0 to the shell if it finished normally, 1 if a fatal error of its own occurs (e.g. out of memory, file not found), 2 if the connection to the server went bad and the session was not interactive, and 3 if an error occurred in a script and the variable ON_ERROR_STOP was set.

You probably just want to use ON_ERROR_STOP.

Failure getting tested and reported to the shell:

$ psql -d test -v "ON_ERROR_STOP=1" <<EOF select error; select 'OK'; EOF  ERROR:  column "error" does not exist LINE 1: select error;  $ echo $? 3 

Failure getting ignored and not reported to the shell:

$ psql -d test  <<EOF select error; select 'OK'; EOF ERROR:  column "error" does not exist LINE 1: select error;                ^  ?column?  ----------  OK (1 row)  $ echo $? 0 

Answer 2

As mentioned here, you can also add this line at the top of your SQL file/script:

\set ON_ERROR_STOP true