Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 20:03:54 +0200
To: pgsql-docs@postgresql.org
Subject: Pattern with backslash commands in psql terminal
Message-ID: <20060523180354.GA3057@inari.ctilabs.internal>
Reply-To: rolf.unger@ctilabs.de
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From: Rolf Unger <rolf.unger@ctilabs.de>

Hi Folks,

actually I am not sure if this is the right mailing list, although I am
quite sure that this is a documenation issue:

I want to list the functions that are defined in a database and tried to
use the internal \df command of the psql terminal (I use emacs so I
don't need pgAdmin). Of course I don't want to see all internal function
like substr(), cast(), ..., but only those that were created by myself
some weeks ago.

The internal docs say that I can specify an optional pattern after the
\df or the \df+. And I think I read somewhere that the pattern is meant
to be a regular expression. So wildcards should rather be .* or [a-z]+
and not the typical shell wildcards ? or *.
But I had no success in either way. And using SQL wildcards % or _
doesn't work as well. "No success" means: The returned list is empty.
And I didn't find more detailed information anywhere in the docs.

Only if I use the full function name as pattern, then one row with the
function is returned. But that is useless, because my starting point is
usually: "What's the exact name of this function again? It started with
'my_' but was it 'export' or 'exp' after the prefix?"

 \df my_                --> no rows
 \df "my_.*"            --> no rows
 \df /my_.*/            --> no rows
 \df "my_*"             --> no rows
 \df 'my%'              --> no rows
 
 \df my_export          --> (1 row)

Are there some special delimiters required? It would be really a good
thing to have at least a comment or a footnote with any one of the \d
commands what kind of syntax is needed for the [PATTERN].
An example would surely be a good idea as well.

Thanks, Rolf.