How to exit from PostgreSQL command line utility: psql

Question

What command or short key can I use to exit the PostgreSQL command line utility psql?

Pillory

@a_horse_with_no_name: I'm not shocked by the question, but the number of upvotes :) Compare e.g. to How do you quit the Vi editor with single keypress? – Trounce

Sometimes we need quick and straight forward answer than searching it in the manual to focus on the real problem.In such cases these short questions are really helpful. – Pillory

The real question is not "are people capable of reading a manual", but "should enterprise software respond to standard exit sequences" like, I don't know, "exit"? Having to read the manual to quit seems seriously counter-intuitive. – Monsignor

@Monsignor Indeed, it's just bad user interface design (coupled with arrogance). People are insecure about weird things. – Rubicund

more importantly, this post is now the first hit when i google "exit psql" – Guth

Excellent example of horrible usability (of a otherwise great product)! This is why development is so frustrating sometimes... – Loftin

Thanks for this. Tried exit, quit, bye.. then \quit \exit. Eventually \h for help, but \? was what I should have used... – Exaction

@MartijnPieters: I think \? is the sensible answer to this lazy question and similar ones. Teach a man to fish etc ... And that's the one you deleted. – Outfit

Other non-lazy answers for lazy questions: - "Can I have your number?" - "Yes, sure, look it up in a phone book." ;) I know, better to give a fishing rod than a fish. But I think it's not always the case - not when someone needs a fish very quickly or/and is a vegan and needs fish only once for uncle Tom that is visiting once a year. Best answer probably would be to give both. So after reading one would know how to quit psql and would know how to check how to quit (or look up other commands) if he/she miracelously doesn't know that already (didn't read info on the screen?). – Mycenae

I usually quit psql in frustration because I can't figure out how to make it DO anything. The reason for this was because I didn't realize you must add a ; to the end of SQL statements in psql, or they are considered incomplete and don't get executed. – Vitiate

@Vitiate Pretty much any SQL shell requires semi-colons at the end of statements, even for MSSQL and other variants that don't normally require them in general. – Navigable

spent 2 minutes to look for "exit" command in documentation. spent 10 seconds to google an answer on stackoverflow.com – Ingulf

Answer 1

Type \q and then press ENTER to quit psql.

UPDATE: 19-OCT-2018

As of PostgreSQL 11, the keywords "quit" and "exit" in the PostgreSQL command-line interface have been included to help make it easier to leave the command-line tool.

Mehitable

This won't work if you are in single user backend mode (--single). Instead use Kaarel's answer (Ctrl-D). In addition to always working in pgsql it'll work in most your other unix shells (python, mysql, etc). If you always do things the "standard" way in 'nix your brain will be less cluttered with trivia. – Engleman

I actually typed that .. but it seems that on my machine it started to give me some output only after actually connecting to a database. – Grumble

Type \? for help if just "help" doesn't help. This is a gleaming example of how not to create human computer interaction. Who thought of this great idea of \? for help and \q to quit? – Cavern

Ctrl-d also help – Dannielledannon

As of PostgreSQL 11 you can now type "quit" or "exit". – Bullroarer

@Bullroarer Yes, they announced it a few months ago: https://mcmap.net/q/45026/-how-to-exit-from-postgresql-command-line-utility-psql – Cloyd

quit may be deprecated and does not function. Just tried and error received bash: quit: command not found; exit cmd seems to work however – Knotgrass

@Knotgrass that are clearly commands for the bash shell, not postgresql shell. – Fantastic

Answer 2

My usual key sequence is:

quit()
quit
exit()
exit
q
q()
!q
^C
help
Alt + Tab
google.com
Quit PSQL
\q

I think veterans of the psql command line usually shorten that to just:

\q

Lawannalawbreaker

I tried ctrl-z, myself. It got the job done, more or less, but I wasn't entirely satisfied. :( – Pumping

cntrl+D to exit from any where – Hire

@Pumping ctrl+z just suspends the process to the background, almost certainly not what you want. – Vineland

postgres=# /q postgres-# \q – Merilyn

Had a laugh with your answer. Brainsmashed due to all different tools we use. – Epigenous

Yes, thank you for your humor. Mine was google.com then click the link for #9463818 – Popular

I wish all questions on SO could have one answer like this one. – Ingulf

I think you missed :q – Eighteenmo

/q definitely doesn't work. – Mvd

You missed an 'Alt+Tab' after 'Quit PSQL' :P – Aran

Answer 3

Ctrl+D is what I usually use to exit psql console.

Flea

Yep. This also works in bash, sh, ssh, zsh, irb, pry, python, sudo su, node, and more. It is the standard way to exit a shell of any kind. – Hyacinthie

Not just a shell. Any reasonably sane program which reads from stdin and interprets the empty string as EOF will accept ^D. – Addictive

This does not work for me, probably because I use the Dvorak keyboard layout on OSX. Neither cmd-D nor cmd-E (where D is on Qwerty) works. – Vitiate

@Vitiate Ctrl is not the same as Cmd. Try Control-D instead of Command-D. – Excretory

@Addictive you don't have to interpret the empty string as EOF.. by default sending ctrl+D will make you actually receive EOF from fgetc() (int=-1), and it will close the stdin file stream: any subsequent call to f*read*() will return error and feof(stdin) will return 1. So it's even easier to recognize it :) – Concertina

Answer 4

Use:

• Ctrl+Z - this sends the TSTP signal (TSTP is short for “terminal stop”)
• Ctrl+\ - this sends the QUIT signal

For curiosity:

• Ctrl+D - this sends the EOF character. EOF stands for "end of file". In this concrete case it exits from the psql subprogram, as the shell is waiting for user input. This should not be 'the way to go' as it is not working if:
• any other character is entered before - try entering some white spaces and then press Ctrl+D, it's not going to exit psql.
• if the user input is not required at all

Costanzia

There is no need to "try" anything. The proper command to cleanly exit psql is well documented and is \q – Mot

As @hobs clearly states about \q: "This won't work if you are in single user backend mode (--single). Instead use Kaarel's answer (CtrlD)". IMHO using CtrlD is not the way to go either, and I explained why above and offered an alternative. – Costanzia

Thank you! Ctrl+Z was the only command that worked for me - I was connected to a database via tunnel which lost the connection - neither \q nor Ctrl+D worked, but I could Ctrl+Z and then kill the suspended process – Clarsach

You may consider substituting the word 'try' with 'use' at the top of this answer. It brings in a feeling of 'not sure', yet this is a straight-forward and working answer to the question. – Adrell

Answer 5

quit or exit or \q

Based on PostgreSQL 11 Beta 1 Released!:

User Experience Enhancements

Another feature that fell into this category was the inability to intuitively quit from the PostgreSQL command-line (psql). There has been numerous recorded complaints of users trying to quit with the quit and exit commands, only to learn that the command to do so was \q.

We have heard your frustrations and have now added the ability to quit the command-line using the keywords quit and exit and hope that quitting a PostgreSQL session is now as enjoyable as using PostgreSQL.

Cloyd

bad habits, bad habits everywhere – Isaacs

@randomware Could you elaborate? – Cloyd

yes, i mean backslash was satisfactory and consistent with the other internal semicolonless pgsql commands, and one would do \? or \h to continue learning 'everything else' imho – Isaacs

"There has been numerous recorded complaints" -> "backslash was satisfactory"? Heh. – Cannelloni

Answer 6

I learned that I could include \q in a batch .sql file, so I could have psql quit earlier from an \i operation.

Jeremie

Answer 7

Actually, \q, exit and CTRL + D didn't work for me to exit from the psql program.

Ctrl + Shift + D

This worked for me.

My Ubuntu version is 19.04.

Maje