On Thu, Mar 6, 2025 at 10:38 AM Ron Johnson <ronljohnsonjr@xxxxxxxxx> 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
