Re: [HACKERS] psql and libpq fixes

Bruce Momjian <pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us> writes:
>> This does bring up a thought --- should psql's kill-the-script-on-error
>> option perhaps zap the script only for errors committed outside of a
>> transaction block?

> Why is being in a transaction block important?

I was thinking that the script might be expecting an error, and have
established a begin-block to limit the effects of the error.

But on third thought, probably the thing that would be really useful
for "expected errors" is if there is a backslash-command that turns on
or off the kill-on-error behavior. (The command line switch would
merely set the initial state of this flag.) This way, a script could
use the option in an intelligent fashion:

\kill-on-error off
DROP TABLE t1;
\kill-on-error on
CREATE TABLE t1;
...

It'd still have to default to 'off' for backwards compatibility,
unfortunately, but something like this would be really useful.

regards, tom lane