Run a PostgreSQL .sql file using command line arguments

I have some .sql files with thousands of INSERT statements in them and need to run these inserts on my PostgreSQL database in order to add them to a table. The files are that large that it is impossible to open them and copy the INSERT statements into an editor window and run them there. I found on the Internet that you can use the following by navigating to the bin folder of your PostgreSQL install:

psql -d myDataBase -a -f myInsertFile

In my case:

psql -d HIGHWAYS -a -f CLUSTER_1000M.sql

I am then asked for a password for my user, but I cannot enter anything and when I hit enter I get this error:

> psql: FATAL: password authentication failed for user "myUsername"

Why won't it let me enter a password. Is there a way round this as it is critical that I can run these scripts?

I got around this issue by adding a new entry in my pg_hba.conf file with the following structure:

# IPv6 local connections:
host    myDbName    myUserName ::1/128    trust

The pg_hba.conf file can usually be found in the 'data' folder of your PostgreSQL install.

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

You should do it like this:

\i path_to_sql_file

See:

You have four choices to supply a password:

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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)

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.

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

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.

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)

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