I was trying to break a long command line involving psql command string (i.e. psql -c),and this seems to cause errors. For example, with PostgreSQL 9.5 and Ubuntu 16.04:
$ psql -c "\\dt"
works fine, while
$ psql -c "
> \\dt
> "
generates:
ERROR: syntax error at or near "\"
LINE 2: \dt
Just out of curiosity, when is it OK to insert newlines (i.e. \n) into a psql command string?
command must be either a command string that is completely parsable by the server (i.e., it contains no psql-specific features), or a single backslash command.
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/app-psql.html
It seems that psql does not understand a backslash command with the leading new line.
As an alternative you can use piped echo command, also described in the documentation. For example:
$ echo '
> \d
> select 1 as x;' | psql postgres
List of relations
Schema | Name | Type | Owner
--------+-------+------+----------
public | dummy | view | postgres
(1 row)
x
---
1
(1 row)
