Re: psql and regex not like

On Thu, Mar 6, 2025 at 10:38 AM Ron Johnson <ronljohnsonjr(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
> This statement runs great from the psql prompt. Does exactly what I want.
> select datname from pg_database WHERE datname !~ 'template|postgres' ORDER BY datname;
>
> But it doesn't work so well from the bash prompt. Not escaping the "!" generates a bunch of garbage, while escaping throws an sql syntax error.
>
> psql -Xc "select datname from pg_database WHERE datname \!~ 'template|postgres' ORDER BY datname;"
> ERROR: syntax error at or near "\"
>
> What's the magic syntax?
>
> (Yes, I could create a view and then query the view, but I'm going to be running this remotely against dozens of servers, so I don't want to have to create dozens of views, then need to recreate them every time I want to change the query.)

No answer to your question, but I'd argue it's moot, because it's not
the right query in the first place :)
It should be instead, IMHO, the one below, which should be OK in BASH
syntax-wise. --DD

select datname from pg_database WHERE datistemplate = false and
datname <> 'postgres' order by 1