PostgreSQL - query from bash script as database user 'postgres'

Try this one:

#!/bin/bash
psql -U postgres -d database_name -c "SELECT c_defaults  FROM user_info WHERE c_uid = 'testuser'"

Or using su:

#!/bin/bash
su -c "psql -d database_name -c \"SELECT c_defaults  FROM user_info WHERE c_uid = 'testuser'\"" postgres

And also sudo:

#!/bin/bash
sudo -u postgres -H -- psql -d database_name -c "SELECT c_defaults  FROM user_info WHERE c_uid = 'testuser'"

if you are planning to run it from a separate sql file. here is a good example (taken from a great page to learn how to bash with postgresql http://www.manniwood.com/postgresql_and_bash_stuff/index.html

#!/bin/bash
set -e
set -u
if [ $# != 2 ]; then
   echo "please enter a db host and a table suffix"
   exit 1
fi

export DBHOST=$1
export TSUFF=$2
psql \
  -X \
  -U user \
  -h $DBHOST \
  -f /path/to/sql/file.sql \
  --echo-all \
  --set AUTOCOMMIT=off \
  --set ON_ERROR_STOP=on \
  --set TSUFF=$TSUFF \
  --set QTSTUFF=\'$TSUFF\' \
   mydatabase

   psql_exit_status = $?

   if [ $psql_exit_status != 0 ]; then
     echo "psql failed while trying to run this sql script" 1>&2
     exit $psql_exit_status
   fi

   echo "sql script successful"
exit 0

You can connect to psql as below and write your sql queries like you do in a regular postgres function within the block. There, bash variables can be used. However, the script should be strictly sql, even for comments you need to use -- instead of #:

#!/bin/bash
psql postgresql://<user>:<password>@<host>/<db> << EOF
       <your sql queries go here>
EOF

Once you're logged in as postgres, you should be able to write:

psql -t -d database_name -c $'SELECT c_defaults FROM user_info WHERE c_uid = \'testuser\';'

to print out just the value of that field, which means that you can capture it to (for example) save in a Bash variable:

testuser_defaults="$(psql -t -d database_name -c $'SELECT c_defaults FROM user_info WHERE c_uid = \'testuser\';')"

To handle the logging in as postgres, I recommend using sudo. You can give a specific user the permission to run

sudo -u postgres /path/to/this/script.sh

so that they can run just the one script as postgres.