From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: Ron Johnson <ronljohnsonjr@gmail.com>
cc: Rich Shepard <rshepard@appl-ecosys.com>,
        pgsql-general <pgsql-general@postgresql.org>
Subject: Re: psql command line editing
In-reply-to: <CANzqJaCHXvZRC6xJbxg80DoWNmm-ohFP+u=VqpsXd6wtqXXpmw@mail.gmail.com>
References: <61255ab-6249-1226-7db6-4ecc3e4c127b@appl-ecosys.com> <CANzqJaCHXvZRC6xJbxg80DoWNmm-ohFP+u=VqpsXd6wtqXXpmw@mail.gmail.com>
Comments: In-reply-to Ron Johnson <ronljohnsonjr@gmail.com>
	message dated "Wed, 12 Feb 2025 13:55:04 -0500"
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Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:29:15 -0500
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Ron Johnson <ronljohnsonjr@gmail.com> writes:
> On Wed, Feb 12, 2025 at 1:50 PM Rich Shepard <rshepard@appl-ecosys.com>
> wrote:
>> My web searches suggest that using the psql command line I'm limited to
>> moving the cursor one character at a time. Is there a way to use a small
>> editor, e.g., joe on linux, to move by words or to the begining and end of
>> the line?

> The PGDG prebuilt packages are built with libreadline.  Thus, if that's how
> you installed psql, Home, End, Ctrl-Left, Ctrl-Right and Ctrl-w should work.

On my machine, Ctrl-Left/Right don't seem to do anything, but
the usual Emacs combinations Ctrl-A, Ctrl-E, Escape-B, Escape-F
and so on work in psql.  I don't believe I did anything special
to configure that.  Check your local readline documentation.

As Adrian notes, there's also \e, which is good for entering
or editing multi-line queries.

			regards, tom lane