How to execute postgres' sql queries from batch file?

if running on Linux, this is what worked for me (need to update values below with your user, db name etc)

psql "host=YOUR_HOST port=YOUR_PORT dbname=YOUR_DB_NAME user=YOUR_USER_NAME password=YOUR_PASSWORD" -f "fully_qualified_path_to_your_script.sql"

You cannot put the query on separate line, batch interpreter will assume it's another command instead of a query for psql. I believe you will need to quote it as well.

You could pipe it into psql

(
echo select * from test;
) | C:/pgsql/bin/psql -h %DB_HOST% -p 5432 -U %DB_USER% -d %DB_NAME% 

When closing parenthesis are part of the SQL query they have to be escaped with three carets.

( 
echo insert into testconfig(testid,scenarioid,testname ^^^) values( 1,1,'asdf'^^^);
) | psql -h %DB_HOST% -p 5432 -U %DB_USER% -d %DB_NAME%

Use the -f parameter to pass the batch file name

C:/pgsql/bin/psql -h %DB_HOST% -p 5432 -U %DB_USER% -d %DB_NAME% -f 'sql_batch_file.sql'

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/app-psql.html

-f filename

--file=filename

Use the file filename as the source of commands instead of reading commands interactively. After the file is processed, psql terminates. This is in many ways equivalent to the meta-command \i.

If filename is - (hyphen), then standard input is read until an EOF indication or \q meta-command. Note however that Readline is not used in this case (much as if -n had been specified).