Re: Surprising behaviour of \set AUTOCOMMIT ON

Ok. Please find attached a patch which introduces psql error when
autocommit is turned on inside a transaction. It also adds relevant
documentation in psql-ref.sgml. Following is the output.

bash-4.2$ psql -d postgres
psql (10devel)
Type "help" for help.

postgres=# \set AUTOCOMMIT OFF
postgres=# create table test(i int);
CREATE TABLE
postgres=# \set AUTOCOMMIT ON
\set: Cannot set AUTOCOMMIT to ON inside a transaction, either COMMIT or
ROLLBACK and retry
postgres=#

Thank you,
Rahila Syed

On Wed, Aug 17, 2016 at 6:31 PM, Robert Haas <robertmhaas(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:

> On Tue, Aug 16, 2016 at 5:25 PM, Rahila Syed <rahilasyed90(at)gmail(dot)com>
> wrote:
> >>I think I like the option of having psql issue an error. On the
> >>server side, the transaction would still be open, but the user would
> >>receive a psql error message and the autocommit setting would not be
> >>changed. So the user could type COMMIT or ROLLBACK manually and then
> >>retry changing the value of the setting.
> >
> > Throwing psql error comes out to be most accepted outcome on this
> thread. I
> > agree it is safer than guessing user intention.
> >
> > Although according to the default behaviour of psql, error will abort the
> > current transaction and roll back all the previous commands.
>
> A server error would do that, but a psql errror won't.
>
> --
> Robert Haas
> EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
> The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company
>