Postgres: Any ideas why auto-completion doesn't seem to work with psql through docker exec?

[rosenfeld]

try running psql from the container and completing with "select * from [TAB]". It doesn't work for some reason I don't understand. Any ideas?

[vr]

yes, i had the same problem and i have finally found why.

postgresql-client is built against libedit2 for licensing issue, this is why completion is rather limited as libedit2 doesn't have libreadline6 capabilities.
Andreas Barth have found a workaround for this problem in the pg_wrapper script for Debian, cf :
https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/pkg-postgresql/postgresql-common.git/commit/?id=6882564a14b74e83a8d7eb37e349bf7494476558

This script is installed already in this docker image, but it is not used as it is not the first in the PATH : https://github.com/docker-library/postgres/blob/master/9.6/Dockerfile#L50

so for a quick solution and for TL;DR you can use /usr/bin/psql instead of just psql and enjoy the completion

[rosenfeld]

Thank you, @vr, this is awesome! @tianon, shouldn't this Docker image set /usr/bin first in PATH?

[tianon]

Yeah, I suppose I'm +1 to explicitly adding "/usr/bin" to the front of that
PATH with a comment explaining why we're doing so (perhaps even pointing
back to this issue).

[rosenfeld]

Maybe it would make more sense to invert the order here:

https://github.com/docker-library/postgres/blob/master/Dockerfile-debian.template#L50

In addition of adding a comment.

[syurchenko]

Yes, it would be very convenient to be able to use auto completion :
Now I use "docker exec -it my_id /usr/bin/psql" instead of "docker exec -it my_id psql" :(

[andershermansen]

I build my own image on top of postgresql, and then just including this in the Dockerfile did the trick:
ENV PATH /usr/bin:$PATH