Thread

Idea Feedback: psql \h misses -> Offers Links?

Kirk Wolak <wolakk@gmail.com> — 2024-04-17T17:47:05Z

  Hackers,
  I often use the ctrl-click on the link after getting help in psql.  A
great feature.

Challenge, when there is no help, you don't get any link.

  My thought process is to add a default response that would take them to
https://www.postgresql.org/search/?u=%2Fdocs%2F16%2F&q={TOKEN}
<https://www.postgresql.org/search/?u=%2Fdocs%2F16%2F&q=%7BTOKEN%7D>

*Example:*
\h current_setting
No help available for "current_setting".
Try \h with no arguments to see available help.

https://www.postgresql.org/search/?u=%2Fdocs%2F16%2F&q=current_setting

  To me, this is a huge step in helping me get to the docs.

This is Question 1: Do others see the potential value here?

Question 2: What if we allowed the users to set some extra link Templates
using \pset??

\pset help_assist_link_1 =  https://www.google.com/search?q={token}'
\pset help_assist_link_2 = '
https://wiki.postgresql.org/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search={token}&go=Go
<https://wiki.postgresql.org/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=%7Btoken%7D&go=Go>
'

Such that the output, this time would be:
*Example:*
\h current_setting
No help available for "current_setting".
Try \h with no arguments to see available help.

https://www.postgresql.org/search/?u=%2Fdocs%2F16%2F&q=current_setting

https://www.google.com/search?q=current_setting
https://wiki.postgresql.org/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=current_setting&go=Go

This Latter feature, I would consider applying to even successful searches?
[Based on Feedback here]

Thoughts?