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Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2003 06:19:17 -0500
From: Bruno Wolff III <bruno@wolff.to>
To: Chris Schneider <cschneider@xede.com>
Cc: info@pgsql.com, pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: Inquiry From Form [pgsql]
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On Wed, Jul 02, 2003 at 16:26:09 -0300,
  Chris Schneider <cschneider@xede.com> wrote:
> I know this is basic, but couldn\'t find and in a hurry to know the answer.  When interfacing with PostgreSQL through PSQL, it appears that DML statements are auto-commited, that is, a change I make in one session is seen from another without the original session issueing a COMMIT.  Is this a result of PSQL interface and if so, can it be turned off.  Is PostgreSQL transactional in the sense that I can issue several DMLs and then ROLLBACK.  If so, how.  Thanks and sorry for the newbie question.

Autocommit is the default mode for psql. Use "begin;" to start a transaction.
And use "end;" to end a transaction. Note that unlike in sqlplus with Oracle,
any errors while in the transaction will abort it and you have to start
over.

All DML and most DDL statements are rollbackable by 7.3. I believe in 7.4
all DDL statements will be rollbackable.