Re: psql include text file with bom

Rick Parrish <ai5jt(at)unitrunker(dot)net> writes:
> I think it would be reasonable for the include command to skip over any
> BOM found in the first two or three bytes of a file.

This has been proposed before, and rejected before. psql has no
inherent knowledge of what encoding an input file is in, and therefore
no justification to assume that a bit-pattern it sees there is a BOM.
In non-UTF8 encodings it could very easily be valid data.

(For that matter, it's also valid data in UTF8: it's the same bit
pattern as U+FEFF ZERO WIDTH NO-BREAK SPACE. Programs that emit
one into UTF8 streams, and expect it not to be taken as data,
are frankly broken.)

regards, tom lane