Who says PostgreSQL can't Pub/Sub like Redis?

README.md

Pub/Sub pattern with PostgreSQL's LISTEN/NOTIFY command

This is a simple chat-like program using pub-sub pattern, backed by PostgreSQL's LISTEN/NOTIFY command.

Publish

publish message to foo channel from user nickname.

$ python pub.py foo nickname
PUBLISH to channel #foo
test message
what's up?
<Ctrl-D>
$

publish message to bar channel from user mike.

$ python pub.py bar mike
PUBLISH to channel #bar
pub/sub rules!
<Ctrl-D>
$

Subscribe

subscribe to foo or bar channel.

$ python sub.py foo bar
SUBSCRIBE TO channel #foo
SUBSCRIBE TO channel #bar
#foo - [nickname]:test message
#foo - [nickname]:what's up?
#bar - [mike]:pub/sub rules!
<Ctrl-C>
UNSUBSCRIBE FROM channel #foo
UNSUBSCRIBE FROM channel #bar
$

pub.py

# vim: set fileencoding=utf8
# publisher of pub/sub pattern
# Usage:
# $ python pub.py <channel> <nickname>
# http://initd.org/psycopg/docs/advanced.html#asynchronous-notifications

import sys
import psycopg2
import psycopg2.extensions

DSN = "dbname=dev user=jsmith"
conn = psycopg2.connect(DSN)
conn.set_isolation_level(psycopg2.extensions.ISOLATION_LEVEL_AUTOCOMMIT)
curs = conn.cursor()

channel  = sys.argv[1]
nickname = sys.argv[2]

print "PUBLISH to channel #%s" % channel

while True:
    try:
        message = raw_input()
        chat_message = psycopg2.extensions.QuotedString(
                '[%s]:%s' % (nickname, message)).getquoted()
        curs.execute("NOTIFY %s, %s;" % (channel, chat_message))
        # If you want to use pg_notify function
        #curs.execute("SELECT pg_notify('%s', %s);" % (channel, chat_message))
    except EOFError:
        break

sub.py

# vim: set fileencoding=utf8
# subscriber of pub/sub pattern
# Usage:
# $ python sub.py <channel> <channel> ...
# http://initd.org/psycopg/docs/advanced.html#asynchronous-notifications

import select
import sys

import psycopg2
import psycopg2.extensions

DSN = "dbname=dev user=jsmith"
conn = psycopg2.connect(DSN)
conn.set_isolation_level(psycopg2.extensions.ISOLATION_LEVEL_AUTOCOMMIT)

curs = conn.cursor()

for channel in sys.argv[1:]:
    print 'SUBSCRIBE TO channel #%s' % channel
    curs.execute("LISTEN %s;" % channel)

epoll = select.epoll()
epoll.register(conn, select.EPOLLIN)

while True:
    try:
        events = epoll.poll()
        conn.poll()
        while conn.notifies:
            notify = conn.notifies.pop()
            print "#%s - %s" % (notify.channel, notify.payload)
    except BaseException, err:
        print err
        break

for channel in sys.argv[1:]:
    print 'UNSUBSCRIBE FROM channel #%s' % channel
    curs.execute("UNLISTEN %s;" % channel)