How to exit from PostgreSQL's command line utility (psql)
Posted by: AJ Welch
Command line utilities often use different conventions for exiting and it can be difficult to remember the exact command for the utility you’re using. Is it quit
? quit()
? exit
? Ctrl+C
? I give up! In this tutorial, we’ll go over the exact commands you can use to quit psql
.
Meta-Commands
psql
has a concept of meta-commands which are commands that are evaluated by psql
before ever sending anything to the database server. They are denoted by a backslash and then followed by the command and its arguments. The most common way to exit psql
is using a meta-command.
Exiting psql using a Meta-Command
The meta-command for exiting psql
is \q
. For more information about this and other meta-commands use the meta-command \?
.
Exiting psql using an End-of-Transmission character
You can also quit psql
using the End-of-Transmission (EOT) character. The EOT character signals the end of a file to a program that is waiting for input. In the case of psql
, this will cause the program to exit. The EOT character can be sent by typing Ctrl+D
.