Useful PostgreSQL Queries and Commands

postgres_queries_and_commands.sql

-- show running queries (pre 9.2)
SELECT procpid, age(clock_timestamp(), query_start), usename, current_query 
FROM pg_stat_activity 
WHERE current_query != '<IDLE>' AND current_query NOT ILIKE '%pg_stat_activity%' 
ORDER BY query_start desc;

-- show running queries (9.2)
SELECT pid, age(clock_timestamp(), query_start), usename, query 
FROM pg_stat_activity 
WHERE query != '<IDLE>' AND query NOT ILIKE '%pg_stat_activity%' 
ORDER BY query_start desc;

-- kill running query
SELECT pg_cancel_backend(procpid);

-- kill idle query
SELECT pg_terminate_backend(procpid);

-- vacuum command
VACUUM (VERBOSE, ANALYZE);

-- all database users
select * from pg_stat_activity where current_query not like '<%';

-- all databases and their sizes
select * from pg_user;

-- all tables and their size, with/without indexes
select datname, pg_size_pretty(pg_database_size(datname))
from pg_database
order by pg_database_size(datname) desc;

-- cache hit rates (should not be less than 0.99)
SELECT sum(heap_blks_read) as heap_read, sum(heap_blks_hit)  as heap_hit, (sum(heap_blks_hit) - sum(heap_blks_read)) / sum(heap_blks_hit) as ratio
FROM pg_statio_user_tables;

-- table index usage rates (should not be less than 0.99)
SELECT relname, 100 * idx_scan / (seq_scan + idx_scan) percent_of_times_index_used, n_live_tup rows_in_table
FROM pg_stat_user_tables 
ORDER BY n_live_tup DESC;

-- how many indexes are in cache
SELECT sum(idx_blks_read) as idx_read, sum(idx_blks_hit)  as idx_hit, (sum(idx_blks_hit) - sum(idx_blks_read)) / sum(idx_blks_hit) as ratio
FROM pg_statio_user_indexes;

-- Dump database on remote host to file
$ pg_dump -U username -h hostname databasename > dump.sql

-- Import dump into existing database
$ psql -d newdb -f dump.sql

@tychodaimon yes I used state != 'idle' in that query too.

I documented my scripts with the versions of Postgres they work on.

You can then copy/paste or source from live psql prompt for the version of Postgres you're running.

The default scripts work on the latest versions of Postgres while the version suffixed scripts are maintained for older versions.

I also have other scripts there to run the latest scripts all on new versions to check if anything has changed/broken.

@HariSekhon Thank you very much. You did a great job! I am studying your repository now. I commented here because this is the page that google gives me for "postgres running queries" which I am used to