Specifying the default database for psql to connect to?

Question

While using psql, I want to change the initial database connection.

I had a database named "test" as the initial connection.

When running psql from the command line my prompt would be test=#

After deleting the "test" database, and running psql in command line, I get the following error:

psql: FATAL:  database "test" does not exist

I understand what this means, but how do I go about setting the "postgres" database as the default?

Instead of typing psql postgres each time.

Solution

You can configure the default behavior of psql -- and in fact any program using the libpq client library -- through environment variables.

In your ~/.bashrc or similar:

export PGDATABASE=postgres

The PostgreSQL documentation contains a complete list.