To: pgsql-docs@postgreSQL.org
Subject: psql's ON_ERROR_STOP is misdocumented
Date: Thu, 05 May 2011 11:20:09 -0400
Message-ID: <4087.1304608809@sss.pgh.pa.us>
From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>

The documentation for ON_ERROR_STOP states, or at least implies by
omission, that it only affects the behavior in non-interactive scripts:

	By default, if non-interactive scripts encounter an error, such
	as a malformed SQL command or internal meta-command, processing
	continues. This has been the traditional behavior of psql but it
	is sometimes not desirable. If this variable is set, script
	processing will immediately terminate. If the script was called
	from another script it will terminate in the same fashion. If
	the outermost script was not called from an interactive psql
	session but rather using the -f option, psql will return error
	code 3, to distinguish this case from fatal error conditions
	(error code 1).

However, it is easily proven that it *does* affect interactive commands;
just try two commands on one line:

regression=# select 1/0; select 2;
ERROR:  division by zero
 ?column? 
----------
        2
(1 row)

regression=# \set ON_ERROR_STOP 1
regression=# select 1/0; select 2;
ERROR:  division by zero
regression=# 

Can we get the docs changed to reflect reality?

			regards, tom lane