However, in the second case, the "magic" first line causes psql, at present, to report an error and abort. This is why I'd like to modify how the file referenced via the -f argument is processed. That is, the first line of any file referenced & executed via the -f argument will be ignored if and only if it starts with a shebang (#!). If the first line of the file does not start with a shebang, it is processed normally as are all subsequent lines.