pg_ctl

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z _

PG_CTL(1) PostgreSQL Server Applications PG_CTL(1)

NAME
pg_ctl - start, stop, or restart a PostgreSQL server

SYNOPSIS
pg_ctl start [ -w ] [ -s ] [ -D datadir ] [ -l filename ] [ -o
options ] [ -p path ]

pg_ctl stop [ -W ] [ -s ] [ -D datadir ] [ -m
[ s[mart] ] [ f[ast] ] [ i[mmediate] ]
]

pg_ctl restart [ -w ] [ -s ] [ -D datadir ] [ -m
[ s[mart] ] [ f[ast] ] [ i[mmediate] ]
] [ -o options ]

pg_ctl reload [ -s ] [ -D datadir ]

pg_ctl status [ -D datadir ]

DESCRIPTION
pg_ctl is a utility for starting, stopping, or restarting the Post-
greSQL backend server (postmaster(1)), or displaying the status of a
running server. Although the server can be started manually, pg_ctl
encapsulates tasks such as redirecting log output and properly detach-
ing from the terminal and process group. It also provides convenient
options for controlled shutdown.

In start mode, a new server is launched. The server is started in the
background, and standard input is attached to /dev/null. The standard
output and standard error are either appended to a log file (if the -l
option is used), or redirected to pg_ctl’s standard output (not stan-
dard error). If no log file is chosen, the standard output of pg_ctl
should be redirected to a file or piped to another process, for exam-
ple a log rotating program, otherwise postmaster will write its output
to the controlling terminal (from the background) and will not leave
the shell’s process group.

In stop mode, the server that is running in the specified data direc-
tory is shut down. Three different shutdown methods can be selected
with the -m option: ‘‘Smart’’ mode waits for all the clients to dis-
connect. This is the default. ‘‘Fast’’ mode does not wait for clients
to disconnect. All active transactions are rolled back and clients are
forcibly disconnected, then the server is shut down. ‘‘Immediate’’
mode will abort all server processes without a clean shutdown. This
will lead to a recovery run on restart.

restart mode effectively executes a stop followed by a start. This
allows changing the postmaster command-line options.

reload mode simply sends the postmaster process a SIGHUP signal, caus-
ing it to reread its configuration files (postgresql.conf,
pg_hba.conf, etc.). This allows changing of configuration-file options
that do not require a complete restart to take effect.

status mode checks whether a server is running in the specified data
directory. If it is, the PID and the command line options that were
used to invoke it are displayed.

OPTIONS
-D datadir
Specifies the file system location of the database files. If
this is omitted, the environment variable PGDATA is used.

-l filename
Append the server log output to filename. If the file does not
exist, it is created. The umask is set to 077, so access to the
log file from other users is disallowed by default.

-m mode
Specifies the shutdown mode. mode may be smart, fast, or imme-
diate, or the first letter of one of these three.

-o options
Specifies options to be passed directly to the postmaster com-
mand.

The options are usually surrounded by single or double quotes
to ensure that they are passed through as a group.

-p path
Specifies the location of the postmaster executable. By default
the postmaster executable is taken from the same directory as
pg_ctl, or failing that, the hard-wired installation directory.
It is not necessary to use this option unless you are doing
something unusual and get errors that the postmaster executable
was not found.

-s Only print errors, no informational messages.

-w Wait for the start or shutdown to complete. Times out after 60
seconds. This is the default for shutdowns. A successful shut-
down is indicated by removal of the PID file. For starting up,
a successful psql -l indicates success. pg_ctl will attempt to
use the proper port for psql. If the environment variable
PGPORT exists, that is used. Otherwise, it will see if a port
has been set in the postgresql.conf file. If neither of those
is used, it will use the default port that PostgreSQL was com-
piled with (5432 by default).

-W Do not wait for start or shutdown to complete. This is the
default for starts and restarts.

ENVIRONMENT
PGDATA Default data directory location.

PGPORT Default port for psql(1) (used by the -w option).

For others, see postmaster(1).

FILES
postmaster.pid
The existence of this file in the data directory is used to
help pg_ctl determine if the server is currently running or
not.

postmaster.opts.default
If this file exists in the data directory, pg_ctl (in start
mode) will pass the contents of the file as options to the
postmaster command, unless overridden by the -o option.

postmaster.opts
If this file exists in the data directory, pg_ctl (in restart
mode) will pass the contents of the file as options to the
postmaster, unless overridden by the -o option. The contents of
this file are also displayed in status mode.

postgresql.conf
This file, located in the data directory, is parsed to find the
proper port to use with psql when the -w is given in start
mode.

NOTES
Waiting for complete start is not a well-defined operation and may
fail if access control is set up so that a local client cannot connect
without manual interaction (e.g., password authentication).

EXAMPLES
STARTING THE SERVER
To start up a server:

$ pg_ctl start

An example of starting the server, blocking until the server has come
up is:

$ pg_ctl -w start

For a server using port 5433, and running without fsync, use:

$ pg_ctl -o "-F -p 5433" start

STOPPING THE SERVER
$ pg_ctl stop

stops the server. Using the -m switch allows one to control how the
backend shuts down.

RESTARTING THE SERVER
Restarting the server is almost equivalent to stopping the server and
starting it again except that pg_ctl saves and reuses the command line
options that were passed to the previously running instance. To
restart the server in the simplest form, use:

$ pg_ctl restart

To restart server, waiting for it to shut down and to come up:

$ pg_ctl -w restart

To restart using port 5433 and disabling fsync after restarting:

$ pg_ctl -o "-F -p 5433" restart

SHOWING THE SERVER STATUS
Here is a sample status output from pg_ctl:

$ pg_ctl status
pg_ctl: postmaster is running (pid: 13718)
Command line was:
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postmaster ’-D’ ’/usr/local/pgsql/data’ ’-p’ ’5433’ ’-B’ ’128’

This is the command line that would be invoked in restart mode.