Connect to a specific database
Low risk
What do risk levels mean?
- Read-only
- Inspects state without changing anything.
- Low risk
- Reversible with a routine follow-up command.
- Medium risk
- Changes state; undo path documented.
- Destructive
- Deletes or overwrites; confirmation required.
Opens an interactive psql session to a named database so you can run queries, inspect schema, or manage objects directly.
postgresqlconnectsession
Parameters
Name of the database to connect to.
Commands
Open an interactive session to the specified database
psql -d <database>Verification
psql -d <database> -c "SELECT current_database();"The name of the connected database is printed.
Undo
Not undoable
Opening a connection does not change state. Close the session with \q.
Pitfalls
- The database must exist and the current user must have CONNECT privilege.
- psql defaults to a database matching the username; use -d to override.