On 27/01/2026 04:46, Fujii Masao wrote:
> Yeah, I'm fine with switching back to the original proposal.
PFA v8 containing the original proposal.
It now only checks in_hot_standby to determine if the current state of
the connected server is "primary" or "standby".
psql (19devel)
Type "help" for help.
postgres=# \set PROMPT1 '[%i] # '
[standby] # SHOW in_hot_standby;
in_hot_standby
----------------
on
(1 row)
[standby] # SELECT pg_promote();
pg_promote
------------
t
(1 row)
[primary] # SHOW in_hot_standby;
in_hot_standby
----------------
off
(1 row)
[primary] #
The documentation was updated accordingly.
Thanks!
Best, Jim
From dc142e7f86c10e82621c3a086cad97701967b537 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jim Jones <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2026 09:21:22 +0100
Subject: [PATCH v8] Add %i prompt escape to indicate hot standby status
This patch introduces a new prompt escape %i for psql, which shows
whether the connected server is operating in hot standby mode. It
expands to standby if the server reports in_hot_standby = on, and
primary otherwise.
This is useful for distinguishing standby servers from primary ones
at a glance, especially when working with multiple connections in
replicated environments where libpq's multi-host connection strings
are used.
Author: Jim Jones <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: Fujii Masao <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: Greg Sabino Mullane <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: Srinath Reddy Sadipiralla <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: Nathan Bossart <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: Chao Li <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: Andreas Karlsson <[email protected]>
Discussion: https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/flat/[email protected]
---
doc/src/sgml/ref/psql-ref.sgml | 14 ++++++++++++++
src/bin/psql/prompt.c | 18 +++++++++++++++++-
2 files changed, 31 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/ref/psql-ref.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/ref/psql-ref.sgml
index e464e3b13d..2c6bf785fa 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/ref/psql-ref.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/ref/psql-ref.sgml
@@ -5075,6 +5075,20 @@ testdb=> <userinput>INSERT INTO my_table VALUES (:'content');</userinput>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry id="app-psql-prompting-i">
+ <term><literal>%i</literal></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Indicates whether the server is in hot standby mode.
+ The value is shown as <literal>standby</literal> if the server reports
+ <literal>in_hot_standby</literal> as <literal>on</literal>,
+ and <literal>primary</literal> otherwise.
+ This can be useful when connecting to multiple hosts to quickly identify
+ if the connected server is currently in recovery mode.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
<varlistentry id="app-psql-prompting-x">
<term><literal>%x</literal></term>
<listitem>
diff --git a/src/bin/psql/prompt.c b/src/bin/psql/prompt.c
index 44eae59641..8996b2fb94 100644
--- a/src/bin/psql/prompt.c
+++ b/src/bin/psql/prompt.c
@@ -258,7 +258,23 @@ get_prompt(promptStatus_t status, ConditionalStack cstack)
break;
}
break;
-
+ case 'i':
+ if (pset.db)
+ {
+ const char *hs = PQparameterStatus(pset.db, "in_hot_standby");
+ if (hs)
+ {
+ if (strcmp(hs, "on") == 0)
+ strlcpy(buf, "standby", sizeof(buf));
+ else
+ strlcpy(buf, "primary", sizeof(buf));
+ }
+ else
+ buf[0] = '\0';
+ }
+ else
+ buf[0] = '\0';
+ break;
case 'x':
if (!pset.db)
buf[0] = '?';
--
2.43.0
