Run a PostgreSQL .sql file using command line arguments

Of course, you will get a fatal error for authenticating, because you do not include a user name...

Try this one, it is OK for me :)

psql -U username -d myDataBase -a -f myInsertFile

If the database is remote, use the same command with host

psql -h host -U username -d myDataBase -a -f myInsertFile

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You should do it like this:

\i path_to_sql_file

See:

https://i.stack.imgur.com/oLP8E.png

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You have four choices to supply a password:

Set the PGPASSWORD environment variable. For details see the manual: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/libpq-envars.html Use a .pgpass file to store the password. For details see the manual: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/libpq-pgpass.html Use "trust authentication" for that specific user: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/auth-methods.html#AUTH-TRUST Since PostgreSQL 9.1 you can also use a connection string: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/libpq-connect.html#LIBPQ-CONNSTRING

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Use this to execute *.sql files when the PostgreSQL server is located in a difference place:

psql -h localhost -d userstoreis -U admin -p 5432 -a -q -f /home/jobs/Desktop/resources/postgresql.sql

-h PostgreSQL server IP address
-d database name
-U user name
-p port which PostgreSQL server is listening on
-f path to SQL script
-a all echo
-q quiet

Then you are prompted to enter the password of the user.

EDIT: updated based on the comment provided by @zwacky

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If you are logged in into psql on the Linux shell the command is:

\i fileName.sql

for an absolute path and

\ir filename.sql

for the relative path from where you have called psql.

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export PGPASSWORD=<password>
psql -h <host> -d <database> -U <user_name> -p <port> -a -w -f <file>.sql

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Via the terminal log on to your database and try this:

database-# >@pathof_mysqlfile.sql

or

database-#>-i pathof_mysqlfile.sql

or

database-#>-c pathof_mysqlfile.sql

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You can give both user name and PASSSWORD on the command line itself.

   psql "dbname='urDbName' user='yourUserName' password='yourPasswd' host='yourHost'" -f yourFileName.sql

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you could even do it in this way:

sudo -u postgres psql -d myDataBase -a -f myInsertFile

If you have sudo access on machine and it's not recommended for production scripts just for test on your own machine it's the easiest way.

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Walk through on how to run an SQL on the command line for PostgreSQL in Linux:

Open a terminal and make sure you can run the psql command:

psql --version
which psql

Mine is version 9.1.6 located in /bin/psql.

Create a plain textfile called mysqlfile.sql

Edit that file, put a single line in there:

select * from mytable;

Run this command on commandline (substituting your username and the name of your database for pgadmin and kurz_prod):

psql -U pgadmin -d kurz_prod -a -f mysqlfile.sql

The following is the result I get on the terminal (I am not prompted for a password):

select * from mytable;

test1
--------
hi
me too

(2 rows)

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2021 Solution

if your PostgreSQL database is on your system locally.

psql dbname < sqldump.sql username

If its hosted online

psql -h hostname dbname < sqldump.sql username

If you have any doubts or questions, please ask them in the comments.

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psql -h localhost -d userstoreis -U admin -p 5432 -a -q -f /home/jobs/Desktop/resources/postgresql.sql

Parameter explanations:

-h PostgreSQL server IP address
-d database name
-U user name
-p port which PostgreSQL server is listening on
-f path to SQL script
-a all echo
-q quiet

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You can open a command prompt and run as administrator. Then type

../bin>psql -f c:/...-h localhost -p 5432 -d databasename -U "postgres"

Password for user postgres: will show up.

Type your password and enter. I couldn't see the password what I was typing, but this time when I press enter it worked. Actually I was loading data into the database.

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I achived that wrote (located in the directory where my script is)

::someguy@host::$sudo -u user psql -d my_database -a -f file.sql 

where -u user is the role who owns the database where I want to execute the script then the psql connects to the psql console after that -d my_database loads me in mydatabase finally -a -f file.sql where -a echo all input from the script and -f execute commands from file.sql into mydatabase, then exit.

I'm using: psql (PostgreSQL) 10.12 on (Ubuntu 10.12-0ubuntu0.18.04.1)

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A small improvement in @wingman__7 's 2021 answer: if your username contains certain characters (an underscore in my case), you need to pass it with the -U flag.
This worked for me:

$ psql -h db.host -d db_name -U my_user < query.sql 

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Try using the following command in the command line console:

psql -h localhost -U postgres -f restore.sql 

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