FAQ
These are some questions that the author wishes everyone would ask, since he knows the answers for them.
Why does pgcli exist?
I'm a huge fan of CLIs. Especially REPLs. When I first encountered BPython, I fell in love with it. BPython is a Python REPL that has auto-completion, syntax-highlighting and displays the docstring of functions as you type. Once you get used to that level of pampering, all other REPLs start to look like Dumb Terminals.
When I started using psql for interacting with my Postgres database, I yearned for a BPython equivalent for psql.
One fine day I got a twitter DM from Jonathan Slenders asking me if I'd be interested in trying a new Python library that he's working on called Python-Prompt-Toolkit. This library provided a way to write CLIs without having to deal with curses and had the requisite tools for doing auto-completion and syntax-highlighting. So I jumped at the opportunity to try it out. After I got myself familiarized, I started writing pgcli to scratch my own itch.
So this app exists because Jonathan was kind enough to request my feedback.
Does pgcli work on Windows?
Yes! It does. One of our prominent core developers is a Windows user and he tests the releases in Windows. A few caveats, if you don't have less.exe installed on your system it uses more by default which is not very feature full. It is also advisable to use cmder instead of cmd.exe.
Will there be an equivalent of this for SQLite/MySQL?
There is already an equivalent for both MySQL at https://www.mycli.net/ and SQLite at https://litecli.com/.
For an up-to-date list of all DBCLI clients, visit https://www.dbcli.com/.
What's the difference between Smart Completion and Naive Completion?
Naive Completion is a collection of all the keywords, functions, table names and column names. As you start typing this collection will be narrowed down based on the text that has been types so far.
Smart Completion tries to do context sensitive completion. For eg: 'SELECT * FROM ' knows that the only items relevant after the FROM keyword is a table name, so it only suggests items from a collection of table names.
How 'smart' is the Smart Completion?
Smart Completion uses the Sqlparse library to tokenize the sql statement and uses heuristics to suggest context sensitive completion. It can handle nearly 80% of scenarios (in my testing). But there are still some corner cases where it will suggest only keywords when you might be looking for columns or tables. So it could get frustrating when it refuses to provide completions from a different category. In those scenarios, I tend to turn it off (using the F2 key) and switch to Naive completion which suggests words from all categories.
The code itself is not my proudest work. Writing auto-completion libraries are inherently difficult since you're dealing with incomplete input. So the parser can't work effectively in many scenarios. So the code has to compensate for those corner cases. Which resulted in a lot of testing and patching those cases with one off 'if-conditions'.
What is the license for pgcli?
BSD 3-clause license. https://github.com/dbcli/pgcli/blob/master/LICENSE.txt
How can I get support for pgcli?
We use Github Issues to communicate about this project.
I found a bug, what do I do?
Whoopsie Daisies! I'm sorry you encountered a bug. Please file a bug on Github Issues for this project. I'll fix it asap.
I have a feature request, what do I do?
Sweet! Open a new item on Github Issues. Alternatively, you can take a stab at implementing the new feature yourself. If you'd like some guidance, I'm just an email away. Don't hesitate to contact me.
I want to contribute to this project, how do I do that?
Awesome! I thought you'd never ask. Here's a developer guide that provides basic info on getting started with local development. You're also welcome to contact me, if you need some help getting started.
What's your favorite cuisine?
What's the point in having an FAQ if I don't include at least one frequently asked question. So here it goes:
South Indian, North Indian, Thai, Mexican, Mediterranean, Ethiopian, Japanese, Chinese, Sandwiches, Salads. In that order.