autocommit to off?

On Wed, 3 Mar 2004, Bricklen wrote:

Hi all,

I've scoured the net for a simple way to set AUTOCOMMIT off in psql, for
the duration of a session (not simply a transaction). The only real
reference that I can find says that "\set autocommit off" will do what I
want. It doesn't though. For example, if session A inserts a row, then
session B has access to that data immediately (from another terminal).

I realize that you can fire off a begin/end pair for every statement,
but I'm looking for something more global.

Oracle's SQL*Plus is what I'm used to, which is the reason that I'm asking.

Feel free to correct any (mis)understandings I have of psql.

There was once a grand experiment in support autocommit = off on the
server side. After the fires were put out, it was decided to leave it in
userland.

the standard way of "turning off" autocommit is to issue a begin; before
you do anything. Then, should all go well you can commit; or rollback;
should things go horribly wrong. should an error occur, Postgresql will
rollback automagically when you try to commit.

begin;
insert 1000 rows;
commit;

Bricklen <bricklen-rem@yahoo.comz> writes:

I've scoured the net for a simple way to set AUTOCOMMIT off in psql, for
the duration of a session (not simply a transaction). The only real
reference that I can find says that "\set autocommit off" will do what I
want. It doesn't though.

You didn't read it carefully; it said "\set AUTOCOMMIT off". psql
variables are case-sensitive. (Note also this requires postgres >= 7.4.)

regards, tom lane

Bricklen wrote:

Hi all,

I've scoured the net for a simple way to set AUTOCOMMIT off in psql, for
the duration of a session (not simply a transaction). The only real
reference that I can find says that "\set autocommit off" will do what I
want. It doesn't though. For example, if session A inserts a row, then
session B has access to that data immediately (from another terminal).

I realize that you can fire off a begin/end pair for every statement,
but I'm looking for something more global.

Oracle's SQL*Plus is what I'm used to, which is the reason that I'm asking.

Feel free to correct any (mis)understandings I have of psql.

Use uppercase, \set AUTOCOMMIT off

test=> \set AUTOCOMMIT off
test=> select 1;
?column?
----------
1
(1 row)

test=> select 2;
?column?
----------
2
(1 row)

test=> commit;
COMMIT

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