In JDBC for PostgreSQL, can I execute commands of psql?

Question

When using a JDBC driver for PostgreSQL in a Java program, is it correct that I can only execute SQL commands?

Can I execute psql-specific commands, such as \conninfo, \l ...?

Does JDBC directly connect to PostgreSQL server, not to any client such as psql?

Thanks.

Possible duplicate of: dba.stackexchange.com/questions/58312/… — Tim Biegeleisen
– Tim Biegeleisen, Commented Aug 7, 2018 at 14:17
It seems that no, you can't do that from Postgres, but perhaps could do it in some other databases. But, there might be functions available which you could call from a SQL query which would give you the information you want. — Tim Biegeleisen
– Tim Biegeleisen, Commented Aug 7, 2018 at 14:18
Related: stackoverflow.com/questions/46816657/…, stackoverflow.com/questions/12460479/d-failed-in-jdbc-program — Mark Rotteveel
– Mark Rotteveel, Commented Aug 8, 2018 at 8:33

Laurenz Albe · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-08 07:01:24Z

4

The PostgreSQL JDBC driver does not use psql at all. It is implemented in Java and does not even use the C client shared library libpq.

There is no way to use psql commands with JDBC.

If you start psql with the -E option, you can see the SQL commands that psql sends to the server during processing its commands. That might give you a clue how you can emulate psql functionality using JDBC.

answered Aug 8, 2018 at 7:01

Laurenz Albe

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3 Comments

Mark Rotteveel Over a year ago

Or better yet, use the standard JDBC API to get most of that info.

Tim Over a year ago

@MarkRotteveel Thanks. What methods in JDBC API to get that info?

Mark Rotteveel Over a year ago

@Tim Check the documentation of the JDBC interface java.sql.DatabaseMetaData and the PostgreSQL JDBC driver for information and look for equivalent functionality. There probably will not be a 100% equivalent for everything, but for most cases there will be something comparable.

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