LKBEN11158: Howto use \i command in psql for postgres running on windows?

Symptom

You want to use \i to read a file and execute all the commands in it but you get an invalid argument error

Cause

none

Solution

Windows and linux use a different syntax for file locations. The backslash is the main problem. To execute a script, you should double all your backslashes, this can be used to run scripts from an UNC path to.

e.g.

postgres=# \i y:\server\script.sql
y:: Invalid argument

If you use the following

postgres=# \i 'y:\\server\\script.sql'

Your script will, if the syntax is correct, work.

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About the Author

Author: Wim Peeters - Keskon GmbH & Co. KG

Wim Peeters is electronics engineer with an additional master in IT and over 30 years of experience, including time spent in support, development, consulting, training and database administration. Wim has worked with SQL Server since version 6.5. He has developed in C/C++, Java and C# on Windows and Linux. He writes knowledge base articles to solve IT problems and publishes them on the Lubby Knowledge Platform.