Chris Angelico <rosuav(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> As a side point: Is it possible to disable Postgres's default
> autocommit behavior and have it automatically open a transaction on
> connection and after commit/rollback? That's what I grew up on with
> DB2 - you do some work, then you commit, then you do more work, then
> you commit, but never have to say "and begin a transaction too".
In psql, see "\set AUTOCOMMIT off". In other frontends, it would depend
on the client-side code whether or how you can do that.
(We once made an attempt to provide this sort of behavioral option on
the server side; but it was a complete disaster from the client
compatibility standpoint, and was soon, um, rolled back.)
regards, tom lane