Prettier psql Output with .psqlrc

I mostly use IntelliJ IDEA's Database tools for Postgres, but occasionally drop into psql. The default output is ugly: misaligned columns, no borders, hard to read.

A few lines in ~/.psqlrc fixes it:

\set QUIET 1
\pset linestyle unicode
\pset border 2
\pset null 'NULL'
\timing on
\x auto
\set QUIET 0

• linestyle unicode — clean box-drawing characters instead of +---+
• border 2 — full border around results
• null 'NULL' — makes NULLs visible instead of blank
• \timing on — shows query execution time
• \x auto — switches to expanded (vertical) format automatically when rows are wide

Drop it in ~/.psqlrc and it applies to every psql session automatically.

Full config: gist