Re: controlling psql's use of the pager a bit more

Andrew Dunstan <andrew(at)dunslane(dot)net> writes:
> I often get annoyed because psql is a bit too aggressive when it decides
> whether to put output through the pager, and the only way to avoid this
> is to turn the pager off (in which case your next query might dump many
> thousands of lines to the screen). I'd like a way to be able to specify
> a minumum number of lines of output before psql would invoke the pager,
> rather than just always using the terminal window size.

Are you saying you'd want to set the threshold to *more* than the window
height? Why?

My impression is that the problem is not with the threshold as such,
it's that psql is not terribly careful about determining how many lines
it will put out (ie, the value being compared to the threshold isn't
100% reliable). If that's correct, then a hand-set threshold isn't
really going to make you happier, and what's needed is some hard work
on improving the quality of the lines-to-be-output estimates.

regards, tom lane