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$PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/postmaster.sgml,v 1.56 2006/01/06 01:35:09 tgl Exp $
PostgreSQL documentation
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<refentry id="app-postmaster">
 <refmeta>
  <refentrytitle id="APP-POSTMASTER-TITLE"><application>postmaster</application></refentrytitle>
  <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
  <refmiscinfo>Application</refmiscinfo>
 </refmeta>

 <refnamediv>
  <refname id="postmaster-ref">postmaster</refname>
  <refpurpose><productname>PostgreSQL</productname> multiuser database server</refpurpose>
 </refnamediv>

 <indexterm zone="app-postmaster">
  <primary>postmaster</primary>
 </indexterm>

 <refsynopsisdiv>
  <cmdsynopsis>
   <command>postmaster</command>
   <arg rep="repeat"><replaceable>option</></arg>
  </cmdsynopsis>
 </refsynopsisdiv>

 <refsect1>
  <title>Description</title>

  <para>
   <command>postmaster</command> is the
   <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> multiuser database server.
   In order for a client application to access a database it connects
   (over a network or locally) to a running
   <command>postmaster</command>.  The
   <command>postmaster</command> then starts a separate server
   process (<quote><xref linkend="app-postgres"></quote>) to handle
   the connection.  The <command>postmaster</command> also
   manages the communication among server processes.
  </para>

  <para>
   By default the <command>postmaster</command> starts in the
   foreground and prints log messages to the standard error stream.  In
   practical applications the <command>postmaster</command>
   should be started as a background process, perhaps at boot time.
  </para>

  <para>
   One <command>postmaster</command> always manages the data
   from exactly one database cluster.  A database cluster is a
   collection of databases that is stored at a common file system
   location (the <quote>data area</quote>).
   More than one <command>postmaster</command> process can run on a system
   at one time, so long as they use different data areas and different
   communication ports (see below).
  </para>

  <para>
   When the <command>postmaster</command> starts it needs 
   to know the location of the data area.
   The location must be specified by the <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">.
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 id="app-postmaster-options">
  <title>Options</title>

   <para>
    <command>postmaster</command> accepts the following
    command line arguments.  For a detailed discussion of the options
    consult <xref linkend="runtime-config">.  You can save typing most of these
    options by setting up a configuration file.
   </para>

   <refsect2>
    <title>General Purpose</title>
    
    <variablelist>
     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-A 0|1</option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Enables run-time assertion checks, which is a debugging aid to
        detect programming mistakes.  This option is only available if
        assertions were enabled when <productname>PostgreSQL</> was
        compiled. If so, the default is on.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <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.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-c <replaceable>name</replaceable>=<replaceable>value</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Sets a named run-time parameter. The configuration parameters
        supported by <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> are
        described in <xref linkend="runtime-config">. Most of the
        other command line options are in fact short forms of such a
        parameter assignment.  <option>-c</> can appear multiple times
        to set multiple parameters.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-d <replaceable>debug-level</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Sets the debug level.  The higher this value is set, the more
        debugging output is written to the server log.  Values are from
        1 to 5.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-D <replaceable class="parameter">datadir</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Specifies the file system location of the data directory or
        configuration file(s).  See
        <xref linkend="runtime-config-file-locations"> for details.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-e</option></term>
      <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.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-F</option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Disables <function>fsync</function> calls for improved
        performance, at the risk of data corruption in the event of a
        system crash.  Specifying this option is equivalent to
        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>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-h <replaceable class="parameter">hostname</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Specifies the IP host name or address on which the
        <command>postmaster</command> is to listen for TCP/IP
        connections from client applications.  The value can also be a
        comma-separated list of addresses, or <literal>*</> to specify
        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>postmaster</command>.  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.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-i</option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Allows remote clients to connect via TCP/IP (Internet domain)
        connections.  Without this option, only local connections are
        accepted.  This option is equivalent to setting
        <varname>listen_addresses</> to <literal>*</> in
        <filename>postgresql.conf</> or via <option>-h</>.
       </para>
       <para>
        This option is deprecated since it does not allow access to the
        full functionality of <xref linkend="guc-listen-addresses">.
        It's usually better to set <varname>listen_addresses</> directly.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-k <replaceable class="parameter">directory</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
	Specifies the directory of the Unix-domain socket on which the
	<command>postmaster</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>

     <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">.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-N <replaceable class="parameter">max-connections</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
	Sets the maximum number of client connections that this
	<command>postmaster</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.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <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>postmaster</command>.  See <xref
	linkend="app-postgres"> for possibilities.  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>postmaster</command> command line
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <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 the <command>postmaster</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>

     <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.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-S</option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
	Specifies that the <command>postmaster</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
	the <command>postmaster</command> in the background.
       </para>
       <para>
        <option>--silent-mode=false</option> has the opposite effect
        of this option.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>--<replaceable>name</replaceable>=<replaceable>value</replaceable></option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Sets a named run-time parameter; a shorter form of
        <option>-c</>.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

    </variablelist>
   </refsect2>

   <refsect2>
    <title>Semi-internal Options</title>

    <para>
     There are several other options that may be specified, used
     mainly for debugging purposes and in some cases to assist with
     recovery of severely damaged databases. There should be no reason
     to use them in a production database setup.  These are listed
     here only for the use by <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
     system developers.  <emphasis>Use of any of these options is
     highly discouraged.</emphasis>  Furthermore, any of these options
     may disappear or change in a future release without notice.
    </para>

    <variablelist>
     <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.
       </para>
	
       <para>
        Neither sequential scans nor nested-loop joins can be disabled
        completely; the <literal>-fs</literal> and
        <literal>-fn</literal> options simply discourage the optimizer
        from using those plan types if it has any other alternative.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-n</option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        This option is for debugging problems that cause a server
        process to die abnormally.  The ordinary strategy in this
        situation is to notify all other server processes that they
        must terminate and then reinitialize the shared memory and
        semaphores.  This is because an errant server process could
        have corrupted some shared state before terminating.  This
        option specifies that the <command>postmaster</command> will
        not reinitialize shared data structures.  A knowledgeable
        system programmer can then use a debugger to examine shared
        memory and semaphore state.
       </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-O</option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
	Allows the structure of system tables to be modified.  This is
	used by <command>initdb</command>.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <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.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <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.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-T</option></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        This option is for debugging problems that cause a server
        process to die abnormally.  The ordinary strategy in this
        situation is to notify all other server processes that they
        must terminate and then reinitialize the shared memory and
        semaphores.  This is because an errant server process could
        have corrupted some shared state before terminating.  This
        option specifies that the <command>postmaster</command> will
        stop all other server processes by sending the signal
        <literal>SIGSTOP</literal>, but will not cause them to
        terminate.  This permits system programmers to collect core
        dumps from all server processes by hand.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>

     <varlistentry>
      <term><option>-W</option> <replaceable class="parameter">seconds</replaceable></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        A delay of this many seconds occurs when a new server process
        is started, after it conducts the authentication procedure.
        This is intended to give an opportunity to attach to the
        server process with a debugger.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>
    </variablelist>
   </refsect2>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1>
  <title>Environment</title>

  <variablelist>
   <varlistentry>
    <term><envar>PGCLIENTENCODING</envar></term>

    <listitem>
     <para>
      Default character encoding used by clients.  (The clients may
      override this individually.)  This value can also be set in the
      configuration file.
     </para>
    </listitem>
   </varlistentry>

   <varlistentry>
    <term><envar>PGDATA</envar></term>

    <listitem>
     <para>
      Default data directory location
     </para>
    </listitem>
   </varlistentry>

   <varlistentry>
    <term><envar>PGDATESTYLE</envar></term>

    <listitem>
     <para>
      Default value of the <xref linkend="guc-datestyle"> run-time
      parameter.  (The use of this environment variable is deprecated.)
     </para>
    </listitem>
   </varlistentry>

   <varlistentry>
    <term><envar>PGPORT</envar></term>

    <listitem>
     <para>
      Default port (preferably set in the configuration file)
     </para>
    </listitem>
   </varlistentry>

   <varlistentry>
    <term><envar>TZ</envar></term>

    <listitem>
     <para>
      Server time zone
     </para>
    </listitem>
   </varlistentry>

  </variablelist>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1>
   <title>Diagnostics</title>

   <para>
    A failure message mentioning <literal>semget</> or <literal>shmget</>
    probably indicates you need to configure your kernel to provide adequate
    shared memory and semaphores.  For more discussion see <xref
    linkend="kernel-resources">.
   </para>

   <tip>
    <para>
     You may be able to postpone reconfiguring your kernel by
     decreasing <xref linkend="guc-shared-buffers"> to reduce the
     shared memory consumption of <productname>PostgreSQL</>, and/or
     by reducing <xref linkend="guc-max-connections"> to reduce the
     semaphore consumption.
    </para>
   </tip>

   <para>
    A failure message suggesting that another postmaster is already running
    should be checked carefully, for example by using the command
<screen>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>ps ax | grep postmaster</userinput>
</screen>
        or
<screen>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>ps -ef | grep postmaster</userinput>
</screen>
    depending on your system.  If you are certain that no conflicting
    postmaster is running, you may remove the lock file mentioned in the
    message and try again.
   </para>

   <para>
    A failure message indicating inability to bind to a port may
    indicate that that port is already in use by some
    non-<productname>PostgreSQL</productname> process.  You may also
    get this error if you terminate the <command>postmaster</command>
    and immediately restart it using the same port; in this case, you
    must simply wait a few seconds until the operating system closes
    the port before trying again.  Finally, you may get this error if
    you specify a port number that your operating system considers to
    be reserved.  For example, many versions of Unix consider port
    numbers under 1024 to be <quote>trusted</quote> and only permit
    the Unix superuser to access them.
   </para>

 </refsect1>

 <refsect1>
  <title>Notes</title>
  
  <para>
   If at all possible, <emphasis>do not</emphasis> use
   <literal>SIGKILL</literal> to kill the
   <command>postmaster</command>.  Doing so will prevent
   <command>postmaster</command> from freeing the system
   resources (e.g., shared memory and semaphores) that it holds before
   terminating.  This may cause problems for starting a fresh
   <command>postmaster</command> run.
  </para>

  <para>
   To terminate the <command>postmaster</command> normally,
   the signals <literal>SIGTERM</literal>, <literal>SIGINT</literal>,
   or <literal>SIGQUIT</literal> can be used.  The first will wait for
   all clients to terminate before quitting, the second will
   forcefully disconnect all clients, and the third will quit
   immediately without proper shutdown, resulting in a recovery run
   during restart.   The <literal>SIGHUP</literal> signal will 
   reload the server configuration files.
  </para>

  <para>
   The utility command <xref linkend="app-pg-ctl"> can be used to
   start and shut down the <command>postmaster</command>
   safely and comfortably.
  </para>

  <para>
   The <option>--</> options will not work on <systemitem
   class="osname">FreeBSD</> or <systemitem class="osname">OpenBSD</>.
   Use <option>-c</> instead. This is a bug in the affected operating
   systems; a future release of <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
   will provide a workaround if this is not fixed.
  </para>

 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 id="app-postmaster-examples">
  <title>Examples</title>
  <para>
   To start <command>postmaster</command> in the background
   using default values, type:

<screen>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>nohup postmaster &gt;logfile 2&gt;&amp;1 &lt;/dev/null &amp;</userinput>
</screen>
  </para>

  <para>
   To start <command>postmaster</command> with a specific
   port:
<screen>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>postmaster -p 1234</userinput>
</screen>
   This command will start up <command>postmaster</command>
   communicating through the port 1234. In order to connect to this
   <command>postmaster</command> using <application>psql</>, you would need to
   run it as
<screen>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>psql -p 1234</userinput>
</screen>
   or set the environment variable <envar>PGPORT</envar>:
<screen>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>export PGPORT=1234</userinput>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>psql</userinput>
</screen>
  </para>

  <para>
   Named run-time parameters can be set in either of these styles:
<screen>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>postmaster -c work_mem=1234</userinput>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>postmaster --work-mem=1234</userinput>
</screen>
   Either form overrides whatever setting might exist for <varname>work_mem</>
   in <filename>postgresql.conf</>.  Notice that underscores in parameter
   names can be written as either underscore or dash on the command line.
  </para>

  <tip>
  <para>
   Except for short-term experiments,
   it's probably better practice to edit the setting in
   <filename>postgresql.conf</> than to rely on a command-line switch
   to set a parameter.
  </para>
  </tip>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1>
  <title>See Also</title>

  <para>
   <xref linkend="app-initdb">,
   <xref linkend="app-pg-ctl">
  </para>
 </refsect1>
</refentry>

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