Re: [HACKERS] Re: [QUESTIONS] copy command

>
> At 4:18 PM 4/28/98, Jose' Soares Da Silva wrote:
> >stuff about copy vs. \copy
>
> In at least one instance, the reason for 2 versions is that copy is faster
> (presumably) than \copy, but for some sort of security reason, \copy is
> "safer" because it goes through the PostgreSQL backend.
>
> At least, that's my understanding based on a message I got from psql about
> me not having permission to use copy, so use \copy instead.  [See mail from
> a few days ago.]
>
> Of course, \copy is the one that won't allow a delimiter other than \t
> (tab), so that kinda screwed me over for awhile.
>
> Thanks to some kind list members I got a Perl and a sed script to change my
> delimiters, but it actually turned out that I could just change my
> delimiter to \t (tab) in my export package or a text editor, once I was
> told that \t (tab) was the default, which I couldn't find documented
> anywhere (maybe I missed it...)  I could even almost read the Perl script,
> except for the regexp part.
>
> So, suggestions for postgres hackers/documenters:
>
> #1.  Modify the docs to explicitly state that \t (tab) is the default delimiter.

Added.

> #2.  Modify the docs to explicitly state what form the argument to USING
> DELIMITERS can take.

Done.

>      [Presumably just one character, but I didn't try it with multiple.  I
> *CAN'T* try it.]
> #3.  Modify \copy to match copy in syntax (IE  include the delimiter stuff).

Added to TODO lst.

> #4.  Beef up the FAQ about importing tables and the copy command,
> particularly for folks who can't use copy, and mention options such as
> exporting as tab separated text or altering the separator charachter to \t
> (tab).

Not sure about this one.  Someone is working on a newbies FAQ.

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