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>PostgreSQL 7.4.1 Documentation</TH
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><H1
><A
NAME="APP-POSTGRES"
></A
><SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>postgres</SPAN
></H1
><DIV
CLASS="REFNAMEDIV"
><A
NAME="AEN47798"
></A
><H2
>Name</H2
>postgres -- run a <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> server in single-user mode</DIV
><A
NAME="AEN47802"
></A
><DIV
CLASS="REFSYNOPSISDIV"
><A
NAME="AEN47804"
></A
><H2
>Synopsis</H2
><P
><TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postgres</TT
> [-A 0 | 1 ] [-B <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>nbuffers</VAR
>] [-c <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>name</VAR
>=<VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>value</VAR
>] [-d <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>debug-level</VAR
>] [--describe-config] [-D <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>datadir</VAR
>] [-e] [-E] [-f s | i | t | n | m | h ] [-F] [-N] [-o <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>filename</VAR
>] [-O] [-P] [-s | -t pa | pl | ex ] [-S <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>sort-mem</VAR
>] [-W <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>seconds</VAR
>] [--<VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>name</VAR
>=<VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>value</VAR
>] <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>database</VAR
> <BR><TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postgres</TT
> [-A 0 | 1 ] [-B <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>nbuffers</VAR
>] [-c <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>name</VAR
>=<VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>value</VAR
>] [-d <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>debug-level</VAR
>] [-D <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>datadir</VAR
>] [-e] [-f s | i | t | n | m | h ] [-F] [-o <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>filename</VAR
>] [-O] [-p <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>database</VAR
>] [-P] [-s | -t pa | pl | ex ] [-S <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>sort-mem</VAR
>] [-v <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>protocol</VAR
>] [-W <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>seconds</VAR
>] [--<VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>name</VAR
>=<VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>value</VAR
>]</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
NAME="AEN47900"
></A
><H2
>Description</H2
><P
> The <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postgres</TT
> executable is the actual
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> server process that processes
queries. It is normally not called directly; instead a <A
HREF="app-postmaster.html"
><SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>postmaster</SPAN
></A
> multiuser server is started.
</P
><P
> The second form above is how
<TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postgres</TT
> is invoked by the <A
HREF="app-postmaster.html"
><SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>postmaster</SPAN
></A
> (only
conceptually, since both <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>postmaster</TT
> and
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>postgres</TT
> are in fact the same program); it
should not be invoked directly this way. The first form invokes
the server directly in interactive single-user mode. The primary use
for this mode is during bootstrapping by <A
HREF="app-initdb.html"
>initdb</A
>.
Sometimes it is used for debugging or disaster recovery.
</P
><P
> When invoked in interactive mode from the shell, the user can enter
queries and the results will be printed to the screen, but in a
form that is more useful for developers than end users. But note
that running a single-user server is not truly suitable for
debugging the server since no realistic interprocess communication
and locking will happen.
</P
><P
> When running a stand-alone server, the session user will be set to
the user with ID 1. This user does not actually have to exist, so
a stand-alone server can be used to manually recover from certain
kinds of accidental damage to the system catalogs. Implicit
superuser powers are granted to the user with ID 1 in stand-alone
mode.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
NAME="AEN47914"
></A
><H2
>Options</H2
><P
> When <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postgres</TT
> is started by a <A
HREF="app-postmaster.html"
><SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>postmaster</SPAN
></A
> then it
inherits all options set by the latter. Additionally,
<TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postgres</TT
>-specific options can be passed
from the <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postmaster</TT
> with the
<VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-o</VAR
> switch.
</P
><P
> You can avoid having to type these options by setting up a
configuration file. See <A
HREF="runtime-config.html"
>Section 16.4</A
> for details. Some
(safe) options can also be set from the connecting client in an
application-dependent way. For example, if the environment
variable <TT
CLASS="ENVAR"
>PGOPTIONS</TT
> is set, then
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>libpq</SPAN
>-based clients will pass that string to the
server, which will interpret it as
<TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postgres</TT
> command-line options.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN47927"
></A
><H3
>General Purpose</H3
><P
> The options <VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-A</VAR
>, <VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-B</VAR
>,
<VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-c</VAR
>, <VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-d</VAR
>, <VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-D</VAR
>,
<VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-F</VAR
>, and <VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>--<VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>name</VAR
></VAR
> have the same meanings
as the <A
HREF="app-postmaster.html"
><SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>postmaster</SPAN
></A
> except that
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>-d 0</TT
> prevents the server log level of
the <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postmaster</TT
> from being propagated to <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postgres</TT
>.
</P
><P
></P
><DIV
CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
><DL
><DT
><VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-e</VAR
></DT
><DD
><P
> Sets the default date style to <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"European"</SPAN
>, that is
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>DMY</TT
> ordering of input date fields. This also causes
the day to be printed before the month in certain date output formats.
See <A
HREF="datatype-datetime.html"
>Section 8.5</A
> for more information.
</P
></DD
><DT
><VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-o</VAR
> <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>filename</VAR
></DT
><DD
><P
> Send all server log output to
<VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>filename</VAR
>.
If <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postgres</TT
> is running under the
<TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postmaster</TT
>, this option is ignored,
and the <SPAN
CLASS="SYSTEMITEM"
>stderr</SPAN
> inherited from the
<TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postmaster</TT
> is used.
</P
></DD
><DT
><VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-P</VAR
></DT
><DD
><P
> Ignore system indexes when reading system tables (but still update
the indexes when modifying the tables). This is useful when
recovering from damaged system indexes.
</P
></DD
><DT
><VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-s</VAR
></DT
><DD
><P
> Print time information and other statistics at the end of each command.
This is useful for benchmarking or for use in tuning the number of
buffers.
</P
></DD
><DT
><VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-S</VAR
> <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>sort-mem</VAR
></DT
><DD
><P
> Specifies the amount of memory to be used by internal sorts and hashes
before resorting to temporary disk files. The value is specified in
kilobytes, and defaults to 1024. Note that for a complex query,
several sorts and/or hashes might be running in parallel, and each one
will be allowed to use as much as
<VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>sort-mem</VAR
> kilobytes
before it starts to put data into temporary files.
</P
></DD
></DL
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN47979"
></A
><H3
>Options for stand-alone mode</H3
><P
></P
><DIV
CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
><DL
><DT
><VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>database</VAR
></DT
><DD
><P
> Specifies the name of the database to be accessed. If it is
omitted it defaults to the user name.
</P
></DD
><DT
><VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-E</VAR
></DT
><DD
><P
> Echo all commands.
</P
></DD
><DT
><VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-N</VAR
></DT
><DD
><P
> Disables use of newline as a statement delimiter.
</P
></DD
></DL
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN47997"
></A
><H3
>Semi-internal Options</H3
><P
> There are several other options that may be specified, used
mainly for debugging purposes. These are listed here only for
the use by <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> system
developers. <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>Use of any of these options is highly
discouraged.</I
></SPAN
> Furthermore, any of these options may
disappear or change in a future release without notice.
</P
><P
></P
><DIV
CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
><DL
><DT
><VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-f</VAR
> <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>{ s | i | m | n | h }</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Forbids the use of particular scan and join methods:
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>s</TT
> and <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>i</TT
>
disable sequential and index scans respectively, while
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>n</TT
>, <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>m</TT
>, and <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>h</TT
>
disable nested-loop, merge and hash joins respectively.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="NOTE"
><BLOCKQUOTE
CLASS="NOTE"
><P
><B
>Note: </B
> Neither sequential scans nor nested-loop joins can be disabled completely;
the <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>-fs</TT
> and <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>-fn</TT
>
options simply discourage the optimizer from using those
plan types if it has any other alternative.
</P
></BLOCKQUOTE
></DIV
></DD
><DT
><VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-O</VAR
></DT
><DD
><P
> Allows the structure of system tables to be modified. This is
used by <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>initdb</TT
>.
</P
></DD
><DT
><VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-p</VAR
> <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>database</VAR
></DT
><DD
><P
> Indicates that this process has been started by a
<TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postmaster</TT
> and specifies the database to use.
etc.
</P
></DD
><DT
><VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-t</VAR
> <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>pa[rser] | pl[anner] | e[xecutor]</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Print timing statistics for each query relating to each of the
major system modules. This option cannot be used together
with the <VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-s</VAR
> option.
</P
></DD
><DT
><VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-v</VAR
> <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>protocol</VAR
></DT
><DD
><P
> Specifies the version number of the frontend/backend protocol
to be used for this particular session.
</P
></DD
><DT
><VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-W</VAR
> <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>seconds</VAR
></DT
><DD
><P
> As soon as this option is encountered, the process sleeps for
the specified amount of seconds. This gives developers time
to attach a debugger to the server process.
</P
></DD
><DT
><VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>--describe-config</VAR
></DT
><DD
><P
> This option dumps out the server's internal configuration variables,
descriptions, and defaults in tab-delimited <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>COPY</TT
> format.
It is designed primarily for use by administration tools.
</P
></DD
></DL
></DIV
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
NAME="AEN48056"
></A
><H2
>Environment</H2
><P
></P
><DIV
CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
><DL
><DT
><TT
CLASS="ENVAR"
>PGDATA</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Default data direction location
</P
></DD
></DL
></DIV
><P
> For others, which have little influence during single-user mode,
see <A
HREF="app-postmaster.html"
><SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>postmaster</SPAN
></A
>.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
NAME="AEN48066"
></A
><H2
>Notes</H2
><P
> To cancel a running query, send the <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>SIGINT</TT
> signal
to the <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postgres</TT
> process running that command.
</P
><P
> To tell <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postgres</TT
> to reload the configuration files,
send a <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>SIGHUP</TT
> signal. Normally it's best to
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>SIGHUP</TT
> the <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postmaster</TT
> instead;
the <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postmaster</TT
> will in turn <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>SIGHUP</TT
>
each of its children. But in some cases it might be desirable to have only
one <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postgres</TT
> process reload the configuration files.
</P
><P
> The <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postmaster</TT
> uses <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>SIGTERM</TT
>
to tell a <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postgres</TT
> process to quit normally and
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>SIGQUIT</TT
> to terminate without the normal cleanup.
These signals <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>should not</I
></SPAN
> be used by users. It is also
unwise to send <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>SIGKILL</TT
> to a <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postgres</TT
>
process --- the <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postmaster</TT
> will interpret this as
a crash in <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postgres</TT
>, and will force all the sibling
<TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postgres</TT
> processes to quit as part of its standard
crash-recovery procedure.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
NAME="AEN48090"
></A
><H2
>Usage</H2
><P
> Start a stand-alone server with a command like
</P><PRE
CLASS="SCREEN"
><KBD
CLASS="USERINPUT"
>postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql/data <VAR
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
>other-options</VAR
> my_database</KBD
></PRE
><P>
Provide the correct path to the database directory with <VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-D</VAR
>, or
make sure that the environment variable <TT
CLASS="ENVAR"
>PGDATA</TT
> is set.
Also specify the name of the particular database you want to work in.
</P
><P
> Normally, the stand-alone server treats newline as the command
entry terminator; there is no intelligence about semicolons,
as there is in <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>psql</SPAN
>. To continue a command
across multiple lines, you must type backslash just before each
newline except the last one.
</P
><P
> But if you use the <VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-N</VAR
> command line switch, then newline does
not terminate command entry. In this case, the server will read the standard input
until the end-of-file (<ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>EOF</ACRONYM
>) marker, then
process the input as a single command string. Backslash-newline is not
treated specially in this case.
</P
><P
> To quit the session, type <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>EOF</ACRONYM
>
(<B
CLASS="KEYCAP"
>Control</B
>+<B
CLASS="KEYCAP"
>D</B
>, usually).
If you've
used <VAR
CLASS="OPTION"
>-N</VAR
>, two consecutive <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>EOF</ACRONYM
>s are needed to exit.
</P
><P
> Note that the stand-alone server does not provide sophisticated
line-editing features (no command history, for example).
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
NAME="AEN48111"
></A
><H2
>See Also</H2
><P
> <A
HREF="app-initdb.html"
>initdb</A
>,
<A
HREF="app-ipcclean.html"
><SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>ipcclean</SPAN
></A
>,
<A
HREF="app-postmaster.html"
><SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>postmaster</SPAN
></A
>
</P
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