quoting internal variable names

Hi,

I'm trying to use PostgreSQL's internal variables to simplify some shell
scripting database setup stuff. Single quotes appear to behave
differently in diffent contexts.

CREATE USER
:v_dbadmin
WITH PASSWORD
':v_dbpass';
CREATE USER

....CREATE USER worked o.k.

CREATE DATABASE
:v_dbname
WITH OWNER
:v_dbadmin
ENCODING
':v_encoding';
ERROR: :v_encoding is not a valid encoding name

....here the quotation marks appear to throwing things off

:v_encoding is set to SQL_ASCII. If I remove the quotation marks, then
I (appropriately enough) get the error:

CREATE DATABASE
:v_dbname
WITH OWNER
:v_dbadmin
ENCODING
:v_encoding;
ERROR: syntax error at or near "SQL_ASCII" at character 59
LINE 6: SQL_ASCII;

So it seems like the single quotes are causing :v_encoding to be read as
a string literal for ENCODING, but they don't do that for WITH PASSWORD.

?

--
Ron Peterson
Network & Systems Manager
Mount Holyoke College
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~rpeterso