postgresql/doc
Tom Lane f833c847b8 Allow psql variable substitution to occur in backtick command strings.
Previously, text between backquotes in a psql metacommand's arguments
was always passed to the shell literally.  That considerably hobbles
the usefulness of the feature for scripting, so we'd foreseen for a long
time that we'd someday want to allow substitution of psql variables into
the shell command.  IMO the addition of \if metacommands has brought us to
that point, since \if can greatly benefit from some sort of client-side
expression evaluation capability, and psql itself is not going to grow any
such thing in time for v10.  Hence, this patch.  It allows :VARIABLE to be
replaced by the exact contents of the named variable, while :'VARIABLE'
is replaced by the variable's contents suitably quoted to become a single
shell-command argument.  (The quoting rules for that are different from
those for SQL literals, so this is a bit of an abuse of the :'VARIABLE'
notation, but I doubt anyone will be confused.)

As with other situations in psql, no substitution occurs if the word
following a colon is not a known variable name.  That limits the risk of
compatibility problems for existing psql scripts; but the risk isn't zero,
so this needs to be called out in the v10 release notes.

Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/9561.1490895211@sss.pgh.pa.us
2017-04-01 21:44:54 -04:00
..
src Allow psql variable substitution to occur in backtick command strings. 2017-04-01 21:44:54 -04:00
bug.template Stamp HEAD as 10devel. 2016-08-15 13:49:49 -04:00
KNOWN_BUGS Remove extra newlines at end and beginning of files, add missing newlines 2010-08-19 05:57:36 +00:00
Makefile Remove maintainer-check target, fold into normal build 2013-10-10 20:11:56 -04:00
MISSING_FEATURES Remove extra newlines at end and beginning of files, add missing newlines 2010-08-19 05:57:36 +00:00
TODO Update URL. 2008-08-21 20:15:31 +00:00