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><H1
><A
NAME="APP-POSTGRES"
></A
><SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>postgres</SPAN
></H1
><DIV
CLASS="REFNAMEDIV"
><A
NAME="AEN50929"
></A
><H2
>Name</H2
>postgres -- run a <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> server in single-user mode</DIV
><A
NAME="AEN50933"
></A
><DIV
CLASS="REFSYNOPSISDIV"
><A
NAME="AEN50935"
></A
><H2
>Synopsis</H2
><P
><TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postgres</TT
> [-A 0 | 1 ] [-B <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>nbuffers</I
></TT
>] [-c <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>name</I
></TT
>=<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>value</I
></TT
>] [-d <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>debug-level</I
></TT
>] [--describe-config] [-D <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>datadir</I
></TT
>] [-e] [-E] [-f s | i | t | n | m | h ] [-F] [-N] [-o <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>filename</I
></TT
>] [-O] [-P] [-s | -t pa | pl | ex ] [-S <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>work-mem</I
></TT
>] [-W <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>seconds</I
></TT
>] [--<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>name</I
></TT
>=<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>value</I
></TT
>] <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>database</I
></TT
> <BR><TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>postgres</TT
> [-A 0 | 1 ] [-B <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>nbuffers</I
></TT
>] [-c <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>name</I
></TT
>=<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>value</I
></TT
>] [-d <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>debug-level</I
></TT
>] [-D <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>datadir</I
></TT
>] [-e] [-f s | i | t | n | m | h ] [-F] [-o <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>filename</I
></TT
>] [-O] [-p <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>database</I
></TT
>] [-P] [-s | -t pa | pl | ex ] [-S <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>work-mem</I
></TT
>] [-v <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>protocol</I
></TT
>] [-W <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>seconds</I
></TT
>] [--<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>name</I
></TT
>=<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>value</I
></TT
>]</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
NAME="AEN51031"
></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="AEN51045"
></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
<TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-o</TT
> 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="AEN51058"
></A
><H3
>General Purpose</H3
><P
> The options <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-A</TT
>, <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-B</TT
>,
<TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-c</TT
>, <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-d</TT
>, <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-D</TT
>,
<TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-F</TT
>, and <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>name</I
></TT
></TT
> 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
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-e</TT
></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
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-o</TT
> <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>filename</I
></TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Send all server log output to
<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>filename</I
></TT
>.
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
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-P</TT
></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
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-s</TT
></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
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-S</TT
> <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>work-mem</I
></TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Specifies the amount of memory to be used by internal sorts and hashes
before resorting to temporary disk files. See the description of the
<TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>work_mem</TT
> configuration parameter in <A
HREF="runtime-config.html#RUNTIME-CONFIG-RESOURCE-MEMORY"
>Section 16.4.3.1</A
>.
</P
></DD
></DL
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN51111"
></A
><H3
>Options for stand-alone mode</H3
><P
></P
><DIV
CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
><DL
><DT
><TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>database</I
></TT
></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
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-E</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Echo all commands.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-N</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Disables use of newline as a statement delimiter.
</P
></DD
></DL
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN51129"
></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
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-f</TT
> <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
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-O</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Allows the structure of system tables to be modified. This is
used by <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>initdb</TT
>.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-p</TT
> <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>database</I
></TT
></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
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-t</TT
> <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 <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-s</TT
> option.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-v</TT
> <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>protocol</I
></TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Specifies the version number of the frontend/backend protocol
to be used for this particular session.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-W</TT
> <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>seconds</I
></TT
></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
><TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>--describe-config</TT
></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="AEN51188"
></A
><H2
>Environment</H2
><P
></P
><DIV
CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
><DL
><DT
><TT
CLASS="ENVAR"
>PGDATA</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Default data directory 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="AEN51198"
></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="AEN51222"
></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 <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>other-options</I
></TT
> my_database</KBD
></PRE
><P>
Provide the correct path to the database directory with <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-D</TT
>, 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 <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-N</TT
> 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 <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-N</TT
>, 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="AEN51243"
></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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