<!--
-$PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/postgres-ref.sgml,v 1.47 2006/06/18 15:38:36 petere Exp $
+$PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/postgres-ref.sgml,v 1.48 2007/01/04 00:57:51 tgl Exp $
PostgreSQL documentation
-->
<option>-D</option> option or the <envar>PGDATA</envar> environment
variable; there is no default. Typically, <option>-D</option> or
<envar>PGDATA</envar> points directly to the data area directory
- created by <application>initdb</>. Other possible file layouts are
- discussed in <xref linkend="runtime-config-file-locations">. A
- data area is created with <xref linkend="app-initdb">.
+ created by <xref linkend="app-initdb">. Other possible file layouts are
+ discussed in <xref linkend="runtime-config-file-locations">.
</para>
<para>
By default <command>postgres</command> starts in the
foreground and prints log messages to the standard error stream. In
- practical applications the <command>postgres</command>
+ practical applications <command>postgres</command>
should be started as a background process, perhaps at boot time.
</para>
The <command>postgres</command> command can also be called in
single-user mode. The primary use for this mode is during
bootstrapping by <xref linkend="app-initdb">. Sometimes it is used
- for debugging or disaster recovery. When invoked in interactive
+ for debugging or disaster recovery (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).
+ When invoked in single-user
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. 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 single-user
- mode.
+ for developers than end users. In the single-user mode,
+ the session user will be set to the user with ID 1, and implicit
+ superuser powers are granted to this user.
+ This user does not actually have to exist, so the single-user mode
+ can be used to manually recover from certain
+ kinds of accidental damage to the system catalogs.
</para>
</refsect1>
<term><option>-B <replaceable class="parameter">nbuffers</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Sets the number of shared buffers for use by the server
- processes. The default value of this parameter is chosen
- automatically by <application>initdb</application>; refer to <xref
- linkend="runtime-config-resource-memory"> for more information.
+ Sets the number of shared buffers for use by the server
+ processes. The default value of this parameter is chosen
+
automatically by <application>initdb</application>; refer to <xref
+ linkend="runtime-config-resource-memory"> for more information.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
debugging output is written to the server log. Values are
from 1 to 5. It is also possible to pass <literal>-d
0</literal> for a specific session, which will prevent the
- server log level of the <command>postgres</> from being
+ server log level of the parent <command>postgres</> process from being
propagated to this session.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Sets the default date style to <quote>European</quote>, that is
- <literal>DMY</> ordering of input date fields. This also causes
- the day to be printed before the month in certain date output formats.
- See <xref linkend="datatype-datetime"> for more information.
+ <literal>DMY</> ordering of input date fields. This also causes
+ the day to be printed before the month in certain date output formats.
+ See <xref linkend="datatype-datetime"> for more information.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
disabling the <xref linkend="guc-fsync"> configuration
parameter. Read the detailed documentation before using this!
</para>
-
- <para>
- <option>--fsync=true</option> has the opposite effect
- of this option.
- </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
listening on all available interfaces. An empty value
specifies not listening on any IP addresses, in which case
only Unix-domain sockets can be used to connect to the
- <command>postgres</command>. Defaults to listening only on
+ server. Defaults to listening only on
<systemitem class="systemname">localhost</systemitem>.
Specifying this option is equivalent to setting the <xref
linkend="guc-listen-addresses"> configuration parameter.
<term><option>-k <replaceable class="parameter">directory</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Specifies the directory of the Unix-domain socket on which
- <command>postgres</command> is to listen for
- connections from client applications. The default is normally
- <filename>/tmp</filename>, but can be changed at build time.
+ Specifies the directory of the Unix-domain socket on which
+ <command>postgres</command> is to listen for
+ connections from client applications. The default is normally
+ <filename>/tmp</filename>, but can be changed at build time.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term><option>-l</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Enables secure connections using <acronym>SSL</acronym>.
- <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> must have been compiled with
- support for <acronym>SSL</acronym> for this option to be
- available. For more information on using <acronym>SSL</acronym>,
- refer to <xref linkend="ssl-tcp">.
+
Enables secure connections using <acronym>SSL</acronym>.
+
<productname>PostgreSQL</productname> must have been compiled with
+
support for <acronym>SSL</acronym> for this option to be
+
available. For more information on using <acronym>SSL</acronym>,
+ refer to <xref linkend="ssl-tcp">.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term><option>-N <replaceable class="parameter">max-connections</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Sets the maximum number of client connections that this
- <command>postgres</command> will accept. By
- default, this value is 32, but it can be set as high as your
- system will support. (Note that
- <option>-B</option> is required to be at least twice
- <option>-N</option>. See <xref linkend="kernel-resources"> for a discussion of
- system resource requirements for large numbers of client
- connections.) Specifying this option is equivalent to setting the
- <xref linkend="guc-max-connections"> configuration parameter.
+ Sets the maximum number of client connections that this
+ server will accept. By
+ default, this value is 32, but it can be set as high as your
+ system will support. (Note that
+ <option>-B</option> is required to be at least twice
+ <option>-N</option>. See <xref linkend="kernel-resources"> for a discussion of
+ system resource requirements for large numbers of client
+ connections.) Specifying this option is equivalent to setting the
+ <xref linkend="guc-max-connections"> configuration parameter.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term><option>-o <replaceable class="parameter">extra-options</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
- The command line-style options specified in <replaceable
- class="parameter">extra-options</replaceable> are passed to
- all server processes started by this
- <command>postgres</command>. If the option string contains
- any spaces, the entire string must be quoted.
+ The command line-style options specified in <replaceable
+ class="parameter">extra-options</replaceable> are passed to
+ all server processes started by this
+ <command>postgres</command> process. If the option string contains
+ any spaces, the entire string must be quoted.
</para>
<para>
The use of this option is obsolete; all command-line options
for server processes can be specified directly on the
- <command>postgres</command> command line
+ <command>postgres</command> command line.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term><option>-p <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Specifies the TCP/IP port or local Unix domain socket file
- extension on which <command>postgres</command>
- is to listen for connections from client applications.
- Defaults to the value of the <envar>PGPORT</envar> environment
- variable, or if <envar>PGPORT</envar> is not set, then
- defaults to the value established during compilation (normally
- 5432). If you specify a port other than the default port,
- then all client applications must specify the same port using
- either command-line options or <envar>PGPORT</envar>.
+ Specifies the TCP/IP port or local Unix domain socket file
+ extension on which <command>postgres</command>
+ is to listen for connections from client applications.
+ Defaults to the value of the <envar>PGPORT</envar> environment
+ variable, or if <envar>PGPORT</envar> is not set, then
+ defaults to the value established during compilation (normally
+ 5432). If you specify a port other than the default port,
+ then all client applications must specify the same port using
+ either command-line options or <envar>PGPORT</envar>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term><option>-s</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
- 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.
+ 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.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term><option>-S</option></term>
+ <term><option>-S</option> <replaceable class="parameter">work-mem</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Specifies that the <command>postgres</command>
- process should start up in silent mode. That is, it will
- disassociate from the user's (controlling) terminal, start its
- own process group, and redirect its standard output and
- standard error to <filename>/dev/null</filename>.
- </para>
- <para>
- Using this switch discards all logging output, which is
- probably not what you want, since it makes it very difficult
- to troubleshoot problems. See below for a better way to start
- <command>postgres</command> in the background.
- </para>
- <para>
- <option>--silent-mode=false</option> has the opposite effect
- of this option.
+ Specifies the amount of memory to be used by internal sorts and hashes
+ before resorting to temporary disk files. See the description of the
+ <varname>work_mem</> configuration parameter in <xref
+ linkend="runtime-config-resource-memory">.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term><option>-f</option> <literal>{ s | i | m | n | h }</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Forbids the use of particular scan and join methods:
- <literal>s</literal> and <literal>i</literal>
- disable sequential and index scans respectively, while
- <literal>n</literal>, <literal>m</literal>, and <literal>h</literal>
- disable nested-loop, merge and hash joins respectively.
+ Forbids the use of particular scan and join methods:
+ <literal>s</literal> and <literal>i</literal>
+ disable sequential and index scans respectively, while
+ <literal>n</literal>, <literal>m</literal>, and <literal>h</literal>
+ disable nested-loop, merge and hash joins respectively.
</para>
-
+
<para>
Neither sequential scans nor nested-loop joins can be disabled
completely; the <literal>-fs</literal> and
<term><option>-O</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Allows the structure of system tables to be modified. This is
- used by <command>initdb</command>.
+ Allows the structure of system tables to be modified. This is
+ used by <command>initdb</command>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term><option>-P</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
- 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.
+ 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.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term><option>-t</option> <literal>pa[rser] | pl[anner] | e[xecutor]</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Print timing statistics for each query relating to each of the
- major system modules. This option cannot be used together
- with the <option>-s</option> option.
+ Print timing statistics for each query relating to each of the
+ major system modules. This option cannot be used together
+ with the <option>-s</option> option.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term><option>-v</option> <replaceable class="parameter">protocol</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Specifies the version number of the frontend/backend protocol
- to be used for a particular session. This option is for
- internal use only.
+ Specifies the version number of the frontend/backend protocol
+ to be used for a particular session. This option is for
+ internal use only.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term><option>-y</option> <replaceable class="parameter">database</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Indicates that this is a subprocess started by
- <command>postgres</command> and specifies the database to
- use. This option is for internal use only.
+ Indicates that this is a subprocess started by a parent
+ <command>postgres</command> process, and specifies the database to
+ use. This option is for internal use only.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term><option>--single</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Selects the single-user mode. This must be the first argument
- on the command line.
+ Selects the single-user mode. This must be the first argument
+ on the command line.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="parameter">database</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Specifies the name of the database to be accessed. If it is
- omitted it defaults to the user name.
+ Specifies the name of the database to be accessed. If it is
+ omitted it defaults to the user name.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term><option>-E</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Echo all commands.
+ Echo all commands.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term><option>-j</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Disables use of newline as a statement delimiter.
+ Disables use of newline as a statement delimiter.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term><option>-r</option> <replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Send all server log output to <replaceable
- class="parameter">filename</replaceable>. In normal multiuser
- mode, this option is ignored, and <systemitem>stderr</> is
- used by all processes.
+ Send all server log output to <replaceable
+ class="parameter">filename</replaceable>. In normal multiuser
+ mode, this option is ignored, and <systemitem>stderr</> is
+ used by all processes.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</screen>
This command will start up <command>postgres</command>
communicating through the port 1234. In order to connect to this
- <command>postgres</command> using <application>psql</>, you would need to
- run it as
+ server using <application>psql</>, you would need to run it as
<screen>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>psql -p 1234</userinput>
</screen>
projects / postgresql.git / commitdiff