DATA "the_geom from xyz using unique id using SRID=xxxx"

/usr/local/pgsql/bin/pgsql2shp -f /home/name/public_html/proj/data/xyz -h xxx.xxx.xx.xx -u username -P passwrd dbname "select the_geom from xyz"

LAYER
  NAME "province"
  STATUS ON
  TYPE POLYGON
  CONNECTIONTYPE POSTGIS
  CONNECTION "host=127.0.0.1 port=5432 dbname=xyz user=postgres password=postgres"
  DATA "the_geom from xyz"
  CLASS
    STYLE
      COLOR 128 128 128
      ANTIALIAS true
    END
  END
END

$ pgsql2shp -f <path to output shapefile> -h <hostname> -u <username> -P <password> databasename "<query>"

$ pgsql2shp -f xyz -h 127.0.0.1 -u postgres -P password postgres "SELECT name, the_geom FROM xyz"

Initializing...
Done (postgis major version: 2).
Output shape: Polygon
Dumping: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX [23 rows].

MAP
  IMAGETYPE      GIF
  EXTENT         23.49 59.3 23.60 59.68
  SIZE           400 400
  SHAPEPATH      "/home/name/public_html/proj/data/"
  IMAGECOLOR     255 255 255

  LAYER
    NAME         veget
    DATA         Poltava10_Vegetation_region
    STATUS       ON
    TYPE         POLYGON
    CLASS
      STYLE
        COLOR    25 210 12
      END
    END
  END
END