Question 113680 in PostgreSQL Question posted in
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Postgresql – Errors ("invalid command") when opening a .sql file

I am trying to open a random .sql file off the internet using the following command:

psql -h localhost -d database_name -U postgres < file_name.sql

But when I run this command I just get errors like the following:

invalid command ‘s

invalid command ‘s

invalid command ‘ll

invalid command ‘Moving

invalid command ‘s

invalid command "frequently

It just continuously prints out these invalid command error messages. I thought it might be an encoding problem but I confirmed the file is UTF-8 encoded.

Any suggestions on how I can open this file

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3

Answers


  1. Chosen as BEST ANSWER
    0

    Apparently the .sql file was generated through a MySQL dump. I thought it would not matter whether I used PostgreSQL or MySQL but it did. Once I installed MySQL my problem got resolved and I now have a Database ready :)


  2. 0

    To expand and clarify on a_horse_with_no_name’s comment – the psql command you are running should be run directly in your shell, not inside pgadmin4.

    youruser@yourmachine:~$ psql -h localhost -d database_name -U postgres < file_name.sql

    That command should load the contents of file_name.sql in to database_name. Once it’s complete, you can use pgadmin4 as normal to interact with the database.

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  3. 0

    One possibility is that the file contains tabulator keys, which are expanded if you read redirect standard input to the SQL script.

    Try using the -f option:

    psql -h localhost -d database_name -U postgres -f file_name.sql
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