Re: [BUGS] BUG #13702: pg_dump interprets “=” in a db name incorrectly

On Thu, Oct 22, 2015 at 8:34 PM, <felipe(at)felipegasper(dot)com> wrote:

> The following bug has been logged on the website:
>
> Bug reference: 13702
> Logged by: Felipe Gasper
> Email address: felipe(at)felipegasper(dot)com
> PostgreSQL version: Unsupported/Unknown
> Operating system: Linux
> Description:
>
> For the purposes of an administrative frontend that I help
> develop/maintain,
> I have a database named:
>
> --------------
> abcde_1234567890-=~!(at)#$%^&*()_+[]\{}|;:?,.<b>&lt;b&gt; spaces
> --------------
>
> When I try to back up this DB via pg_dump, the utility appears to split the
> DB name on the “=”, thinking that it’s another command-line option.
>
> I’ve tried passing in “--”, but no joy. I tried passing “--dbname” then the
> DB name, but pg_dump doesn’t seem to accept that argument.
>

"--dbname=..." ​Documented 9.3 and above​

> The only working solution I have found is to set the DB name in PGDATABASE.
>
> I found this in 9.0.18. Maybe it’s still a problem in supported releases,
> too?
>

It was decided to make the database name in this situation be an abstract
concept as opposed to strictly referring to a named database. Because of
this the equal sign has a special meaning that, apparently, cannot be
overridden.

You may want to consider URI format - the following appears to work (9.3
tested)

psql postgres:///db=123
>psql: FATAL: database "db=123" does not exist

David J.