Re: psql access of user's environmental variables

Paul Tilles <Paul.Tilles@noaa.gov> writes:
> What I really want to do is the following:

> \set  local_site  `echo  $FXA_LOCAL_SITE
> UPDATE  table_name  SET  office_id =  :local_site;

> This results in the message
>                column  "xxx" does not exist

Yes, because you have no quotes in the value of the variable, so that
update looks to the server like
    UPDATE  table_name  SET  office_id =  xxx;

After some fooling around, the easiest way to get the needed quotes is
to embed them in the echo result:

\set local_site `echo "'$FXA_LOCAL_SITE'"`

BTW, does your psql really let you leave off the trailing ` like
that?  Mine doesn't.

            regards, tom lane