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@postgrespedia

pg_ctl

pg_ctl is a server utility for starting, stopping and restarting the PostgreSQL server; it can also be used to execute initdb, reload the server configuration, promote a standby to primary, and display the server status. On Windows systems pg_ctl can also be used to register/unregister PostgreSQL as a service.

pg_ctl was added in PostgreSQL 7.0.

Usage

Shutdown modes

The basic command to shut down a PostgreSQL instance is:

pg_ctl -D /path/to/data/directory stop [ -m mode ]

note that pgctl stop shuts down a running PostgreSQL server in one of three modes - fast, smart, and immediate, which can optionally be specified via the -m option

• fast rolls back active transactions, forcibly disconnects clients and stops any online backup; this is the default from PostgreSQL 9.5 and should execute quite quickly.
• smart waits for until all active clients are disconnects and any online backups completed before shutting down; depending on system activity it can therefore take some time before the shutdown finally takes place. This was the default up until PostgreSQL 9.4.
• immediate aborts all processes immediately and is effectively a server crash; PostgreSQL will initially run in crash recovery mode when next started. There is a risk of data loss when using this shutdown mode and it should only be used in emergencies.

Change history

• PostgreSQL 12
  • logrotate option added (commit ec743699)
  • PostgreSQL server process will properly detatch after pg_ctl start (commit bb24439c)
• PostgreSQL 11
  • kill option added (commit 2e83db3a)
• PostgreSQL 10
  • defaults to waiting (command line option -w/--wait) for all actions, including start (commit 05cd12ed)
  • long option --option for existing option -o added (commit caf936b0)
  • now checks for postmaster startup 10 times per second, instead of once (commit c61559ec)
  • checks postmaster.pid for postmaster status, rather than attempting to connect (commit f13ea95f)
  • always exits with a non-zero status if an operation does not complete within the specified timeout (commit 1bac5f55)
• PostgreSQL 9.5
  • environment variable PGCTLTIMEOUT added (commit 725f0ce2)
  • default shutdown mode changed from smart to fast (commit 0badb069)
  • support for multiple -o options (commit ebe30ad5)
• PostgreSQL 9.4
  • now returns exit code 4 if the specified data directory is inaccessible (commit 11d205e2)
• PostgreSQL 9.1
  • promote option added (commit 4695da5a)
• PostgreSQL 9.0
  • init/initdb option added (commit a37b001b)
  • can be used safely to start the postmaster during a system reboot (commit 8f5500e6)
• PostgreSQL 8.4
  • restart option preserves command-line arguments (commit 067f1e5f)
• PostgreSQL 8.3
  • option -c added to allow server crashes to produce core files (commit 226e9fff)
  • option -t added to control timeouts for server startup/shutdown; default: 60 seconds (commit 6e414a17)
• PostgreSQL 8.0
  • converted from a shell script to a fully-fledged C program (commit f3d6d948)
  • pg_ctl can no longer be executed by the root user (commit c58675b4)
  • register and kill options added for Windows support (commit f8dd00c3)
• PostgreSQL 7.2
  • reload option added to to send SIGHUP (commit 196700c3)
• PostgreSQL 7.0
  • added (commit 5b912b08)

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