Unable to run a postgresql script from bash - sql

Question

I am learning the shell language. I have creating a shell script whose function is to login into the DB and run a .sql file. Following are the contents of the script -
#!/bin/bash
set -x
echo "Login to postgres user for autoqa_rpt_production"
$DB_PATH -U $POSTGRESS_USER $Auto_rpt_production$TARGET_DB -p $TARGET_PORT
echo "Running SQL Dump - auto_qa_db_sync"
\\i auto_qa_db_sync.sql
After running the above script, I get the following error
./autoqa_script.sh: 39: ./autoqa_script.sh: /i: not found
Following one article, I tried reversing the slash but it didn't worked.
I don't understand why this is happening. Because when I try manually running the sql file, it works properly. Can anyone help?

Answer 1

#!/bin/bash
set -x
echo "Login to postgres user for autoqa_rpt_production and run script"
$DB_PATH -U $POSTGRESS_USER $Auto_rpt_production$TARGET_DB -p $TARGET_PORT -f auto_qa_db_sync.sql
The lines you put in a shell script are (moreless, let's say so for now) equivalent to what you would put right to the Bash prompt (the one ending with '$' or '#' if you're a root). When you execute a script (a list of commands), one command will be run after the previous terminates.
What you wanted to do is to run the client and issue a "\i ./autoqa_script.sh" comand in it.
What you did was to run the client, and after the client terminated, issue that command in Bash.
You should read about Bash pipelines - these are the way to run programs and input text inside them. Following your original idea to solving the problem, you'd write something like:
echo '\i auto_qa_db_sync.sql' | $DB_PATH -U $POSTGRESS_USER $Auto_rpt_production$TARGET_DB -p $TARGET_PORT
Hope that helps to understand.