25

I'm trying to import a (rather large) .txt file into a table geonames in PostgreSQL 9.1. I'm in the /~ directory of my server, with a file named US.txt placed in that directory. I set the search_path variable to geochat, the name of the database I'm working in. I then enter this query:

COPY geonames
FROM 'US.txt',
DELIMITER E'\t',
NULL 'NULL');

I then receive this error:

ERROR: could not open file "US.txt" for reading: No such file or directory.

Do I have to type in \i US.txt or something similar first, or should it just get it from the present working directory?

Improve this question
0

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
18

Maybe a bit late, but hopefully useful:

Use \copy instead

https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/COPY

jvdw

Improve this answer
Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

15

A couple of misconceptions:

1.

I'm in the /~ directory of my server

There is no directory /~. It's either / (root directory) or ~ (home directory of current user). It's also irrelevant to the problem.

2.

I set the search_path variable to geochat, the name of the database I'm working in

The search_path has nothing to do with the name of the database. It's for schemas inside the current database. You probably need to reset this.

3.
You are required to use the absolute path for your file. As documented in the manual here:

filename

The absolute path name of the input or output file.

4.
DELIMITER: just noise.

The default is a tab character in text format

5.
NULL: It's rather uncommon to use the actual string 'NULL' for a NULL value. Are you sure?

The default is \N (backslash-N) in text format, and an unquoted empty string in CSV format.

My guess (after resetting search_path - or you schema-qualify the table name):

COPY geonames FROM '/path/to/file/US.txt';
Improve this answer

1 Comment

The manual you linked for point 3. actually states that a relative path is ok for input files: An input file name can be an absolute or relative path postgresql.org/docs/current/interactive/sql-copy.html Though it really doesn't seem to work with relative paths.
6

The paths are relative to the PostgreSQL server, not the psql client.

Assuming you are running PostgreSQL 9.4, you can put US.txt in the directory /var/lib/postgresql/9.4/main/.

Improve this answer

1 Comment

Ah, thanks! This really explains the "relative" part!
5

Another option is to pipe it in from stdin:

cat US.txt | psql -c "copy geonames from STDIN WITH (FORMAT csv);"
Improve this answer

1 Comment

Great. An old custom scripting mechanism stopped working (file not found) and this did the trick, MMD TY
2

if you're running your COPY command from a script, you can have a step in the script that creates the COPY command with the correct absolute path.

MYPWD=$(pwd)
echo "COPY geonames FROM '$MYPWD/US.txt', DELIMITER E'\t';"
MYPWD=

you can then run this portion into a file and execute it

./step_to_create_COPY_with_abs_path.sh >COPY_abs_path.sql
psql -f COPY_abs_path.sql -d your_db_name
Improve this answer

Comments

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.