Postgresql: Scripting psql execution with password

Question

How can I call psql so that it doesn't prompt for a password?

This is what I have:

psql -Umyuser < myscript.sql 

However, I couldn't find the argument that passes the password, and so psql always prompts for it.

Answer 1

You may wish to read a summary of the ways to authenticate to PostgreSQL.

To answer your question, there are several ways provide a password for password-based authentication:

1. Via the password prompt. Example:

   psql -h uta.biocommons.org -U foo Password for user foo:  

2. In a pgpass file. See libpq-pgpass. Format:

   <host>:<port>:<database>:<user>:<password> 

3. With the PGPASSWORD environment variable. See libpq-envars. Example:

   export PGPASSWORD=yourpass psql ...  # Or in one line for this invocation only: PGPASSWORD=yourpass psql ... 

4. In the connection string The password and other options may be specified in the connection string/URI. See app-psql. Example:

   psql postgresql://username:password@dbmaster:5433/mydb?sslmode=require