To: Tarlika Elisabeth Schmitz <postgresql2@numerixtechnology.de>
cc: pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: psql -f COPY from STDIN 
In-reply-to: <20101112220340.36a0bc75@dick.coachhouse> 
References: <20101112220340.36a0bc75@dick.coachhouse>
Comments: In-reply-to Tarlika Elisabeth Schmitz
	<postgresql2@numerixtechnology.de>
	message dated "Fri, 12 Nov 2010 22:03:40 +0000"
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2010 22:22:11 -0500
Message-ID: <8452.1289618531@sss.pgh.pa.us>
From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>

Tarlika Elisabeth Schmitz <postgresql2@numerixtechnology.de> writes:
> The following command works fine when pasing it to psql via the -c
> option:

> cat event.csv | \
> psql -c "COPY (event_id, event_name) FROM STDIN DELIMITER AS ',' NULL
> AS ''"

> When executed from a file via -f, it does nothing (no error messages
> either):

> event.sql:
> COPY (event_id, event_name) FROM STDIN DELIMITER AS ',' NULL AS ''

> cat event.csv | psql -f event.sql

I believe that psql's interpretation of "stdin" when reading from a file
is that the COPY data is to come from that same file (look at the script
produced by pg_dump for an example).  So it reads to the end of the
file, which is right away --- otherwise you'd get some incorrect-data
errors.  The data sourced from the cat command is never noticed at all.

I think you can get the effect you're after using \copy ... from pstdin.
See the psql man page.

			regards, tom lane