SHOW (session settings)

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Warning:
As of April 30, 2020, CockroachDB v2.1 is no longer supported. For more details, refer to the Release Support Policy.

The SHOW statement can display the value of either one or all of the session setting variables. Some of these can also be configured via SET.

Required privileges

No privileges are required to display the session settings.

Synopsis

SHOW SESSION var_name ALL
Note:
The SHOW statement for session settings is unrelated to the other SHOW statements: SHOW CLUSTER SETTING, SHOW CREATE, SHOW USERS, SHOW DATABASES, SHOW COLUMNS, SHOW GRANTS, and SHOW CONSTRAINTS.

Parameters

The SHOW <session variable> statement accepts a single parameter: the variable name.

The variable name is case insensitive. It may be enclosed in double quotes; this is useful if the variable name itself contains spaces.

Supported variables

Variable name Description Initial value Can be modified with SET?
application_name The current application name for statistics collection. Empty string, or cockroach for sessions from the built-in SQL client Yes
bytea_output The mode for conversions from STRING to BYTES. hex Yes
database The current database. Database in connection string, or empty if not specified Yes
default_transaction_isolation All transactions execute with SERIALIZABLE isolation. See Transactions: Isolation levels. SERIALIZABLE No
default_transaction_read_only The default transaction access mode for the current session. If set to on, only read operations are allowed in transactions in the current session; if set to off, both read and write operations are allowed. See SET TRANSACTION for more details. off Yes
distsql New in v2.1: The query distribution mode for the session. By default, CockroachDB determines which queries are faster to execute if distributed across multiple nodes, and all other queries are run through the gateway node. auto Yes
extra_float_digits New in v2.1: The number of digits displayed for floating-point values. Only values between -15 and 3 are supported. 0 Yes
node_id The ID of the node currently connected to.

This variable is particularly useful for verifying load balanced connections.		 Node-dependent No
optimizer New in v2.1: The mode in which a query execution plan is generated. If set to on, the cost-based optimizer is enabled by default and the heuristic planner will only be used if the query is not supported by the cost-based optimizer; if set to off, all queries are run through the legacy heuristic planner. on Yes
search_path A list of schemas that will be searched to resolve unqualified table or function names. For more details, see Name Resolution. {public} Yes
server_version The version of PostgreSQL that CockroachDB emulates. Version-dependent No
server_version_num The version of PostgreSQL that CockroachDB emulates. Version-dependent Yes
session_user The user connected for the current session. User in connection string No
sql_safe_updates If false, potentially unsafe SQL statements are allowed, including DROP of a non-empty database and all dependent objects, DELETE without a WHERE clause, UPDATE without a WHERE clause, and ALTER TABLE .. DROP COLUMN. See Allow Potentially Unsafe SQL Statements for more details. true for interactive sessions from the built-in SQL client,
false for sessions from other clients		 Yes
statement_timeout New in v2.1: The amount of time a statement can run before being stopped.

This value can be an int (e.g., 10) and will be interpreted as milliseconds. It can also be an interval or string argument, where the string can be parsed as a valid interval (e.g., '4s'). A value of 0 turns it off.		 0s Yes
timezone The default time zone for the current session.

This session variable was named "time zone" (with a space) in CockroachDB 1.x. It has been renamed for compatibility with PostgreSQL.		 UTC Yes
tracing off
transaction_isolation All transactions execute with SERIALIZABLE isolation. See Transactions: Isolation levels.

This session variable was called transaction isolation level (with spaces) in CockroachDB 1.x. It has been renamed for compatibility with PostgreSQL.		 SERIALIZABLE No
transaction_priority The priority of the current transaction. See Transactions: Isolation levels for more details.

This session variable was called transaction priority (with a space) in CockroachDB 1.x. It has been renamed for compatibility with PostgreSQL.		 NORMAL Yes
transaction_read_only The access mode of the current transaction. See Set Transaction for more details. off Yes
transaction_status The state of the current transaction. See Transactions for more details.

This session variable was called transaction status (with a space) in CockroachDB 1.x. It has been renamed for compatibility with PostgreSQL.		 NoTxn No
client_encoding (Reserved; exposed only for ORM compatibility.) UTF8 No
client_min_messages (Reserved; exposed only for ORM compatibility.) notice No
datestyle (Reserved; exposed only for ORM compatibility.) ISO No
integer_datetimes (Reserved; exposed only for ORM compatibility.) on No
intervalstyle (Reserved; exposed only for ORM compatibility.) postgres No
max_index_keys (Reserved; exposed only for ORM compatibility.) 32 No
standard_conforming_strings (Reserved; exposed only for ORM compatibility.)
on No
server_encoding (Reserved; exposed only for ORM compatibility.) UTF8 Yes

Special syntax cases supported for compatibility:

Syntax Equivalent to
SHOW TRANSACTION PRIORITY SHOW "transaction priority"
SHOW TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SHOW "transaction isolation level"
SHOW TIME ZONE SHOW "timezone"
SHOW TRANSACTION STATUS SHOW "transaction status"

Examples

Showing the value of a single session variable

icon/buttons/copy 
> SHOW DATABASE;

+----------+
| database |
+----------+
| test     |
+----------+
(1 row)

Showing the value of all session variables

icon/buttons/copy 
> SHOW ALL;

+--------------------------------+----------------+
|            variable            |     value      |
+--------------------------------+----------------+
| application_name               | cockroach demo |
| bytea_output                   | hex            |
| client_encoding                | UTF8           |
| client_min_messages            | notice         |
| database                       | defaultdb      |
| datestyle                      | ISO            |
| default_transaction_isolation  | serializable   |
| default_transaction_read_only  | off            |
| distsql                        | auto           |
| experimental_force_lookup_join | off            |
| experimental_force_zigzag_join | off            |
| experimental_opt               | on             |
| extra_float_digits             | 0              |
| integer_datetimes              | on             |
| intervalstyle                  | postgres       |
| max_index_keys                 | 32             |
| node_id                        | 1              |
| search_path                    | public         |
| server_encoding                | UTF8           |
| server_version                 | 9.5.0          |
| server_version_num             | 90500          |
| session_user                   | root           |
| sql_safe_updates               | true           |
| standard_conforming_strings    | on             |
| statement_timeout              | 0s             |
| timezone                       | UTC            |
| tracing                        | off            |
| transaction_isolation          | serializable   |
| transaction_priority           | normal         |
| transaction_read_only          | off            |
| transaction_status             | NoTxn          |
+--------------------------------+----------------+
(31 rows)

See also


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