In JDBC for PostgreSQL, can I execute commands of psql?

Question

When using a JDBC driver for PostgreSQL in a Java program, is it correct that I can only execute SQL commands?

Can I execute psql-specific commands, such as \\conninfo , \\l ...?

Does JDBC directly connect to PostgreSQL server, not to any client such as psql?

Thanks.

Answer 1

The PostgreSQL JDBC driver does not use psql at all. It is implemented in Java and does not even use the C client shared library libpq .

There is no way to use psql commands with JDBC.

If you start psql with the -E option, you can see the SQL commands that psql sends to the server during processing its commands. That might give you a clue how you can emulate psql functionality using JDBC.