Provided by:
postgresql-8.0_8.0.7-2build1_i386 
NAME
postgres - run a PostgreSQL server in single-user mode
SYNOPSIS
postgres [ -A [ 0 ] [ 1 ] ] [ -B nbuffers ] [ -c name=value ] [
-d debug-level ] [ --describe-config ] [ -D datadir ] [ -e ] [ -E ]
[ -f [ s ] [ i ] [ t ] [ n ] [ m ] [ h ] ] [ -F ] [ -N ] [ -o
filename ] [ -O ] [ -P ] [ [ -s ] [ -t [ pa ] [ pl ] [ ex ] ]
] [ -S work-mem ] [ -W seconds ] [ --name=value ] database
postgres [ -A [ 0 ] [ 1 ] ] [ -B nbuffers ] [ -c name=value ] [
-d debug-level ] [ -D datadir ] [ -e ] [ -f [ s ] [ i ] [ t ] [
n ] [ m ] [ h ] ] [ -F ] [ -o filename ] [ -O ] [ -p database ]
[ -P ] [ [ -s ] [ -t [ pa ] [ pl ] [ ex ] ] ] [ -S work-mem ]
[ -v protocol ] [ -W seconds ] [ --name=value ]
DESCRIPTION
The postgres executable is the actual PostgreSQL server process that
processes queries. It is normally not called directly; instead a
postmaster(1) multiuser server is started.
The second form above is how postgres is invoked by the postmaster(1)
(only conceptually, since both postmaster and postgres 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 initdb(1).
Sometimes it is used for debugging or disaster recovery.
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.
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.
OPTIONS
When postgres is started by a postmaster(1) then it inherits all
options set by the latter. Additionally, postgres-specific options can
be passed from the postmaster with the -o switch.
You can avoid having to type these options by setting up a
configuration file. See the documentation for details. Some (safe)
options can also be set from the connecting client in an application-
dependent way. For example, if the environment variable PGOPTIONS is
set, then libpq-based clients will pass that string to the server,
which will interpret it as postgres command-line options.
GENERAL PURPOSE
The options -A, -B, -c, -d, -D, -F, and --name have the same meanings
as the postmaster(1) except that -d 0 prevents the server log level of
the postmaster from being propagated to postgres.
-e Sets the default date style to ‘‘European’’, that is DMY
ordering of input date fields. This also causes the day to be
printed before the month in certain date output formats. See
the documentation for more information.
-o filename
Send all server log output to filename. If postgres is running
under the postmaster, this option is ignored, and the stderr
inherited from the postmaster is used.
-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.
-s 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.
-S work-mem
Specifies the amount of memory to be used by internal sorts and
hashes before resorting to temporary disk files. See the
description of the work_mem configuration parameter in the
documentation.
OPTIONS FOR STAND-ALONE MODE
database
Specifies the name of the database to be accessed. If it is
omitted it defaults to the user name.
-E Echo all commands.
-N Disables use of newline as a statement delimiter.
SEMI-INTERNAL OPTIONS
There are several other options that may be specified, used mainly for
debugging purposes. These are listed here only for the use by
PostgreSQL system developers. Use of any of these options is highly
discouraged. Furthermore, any of these options may disappear or change
in a future release without notice.
-f { s | i | m | n | h }
Forbids the use of particular scan and join methods: s and i
disable sequential and index scans respectively, while n, m, and
h disable nested-loop, merge and hash joins respectively.
Note: Neither sequential scans nor nested-loop joins can be
disabled completely; the -fs and -fn options simply discourage
the optimizer from using those plan types if it has any other
alternative.
-O Allows the structure of system tables to be modified. This is
used by initdb.
-p database
Indicates that this process has been started by a postmaster and
specifies the database to use. etc.
-t pa[rser] | pl[anner] | e[xecutor]
Print timing statistics for each query relating to each of the
major system modules. This option cannot be used together with
the -s option.
-v protocol
Specifies the version number of the frontend/backend protocol to
be used for this particular session.
-W seconds
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.
--describe-config
This option dumps out the server’s internal configuration
variables, descriptions, and defaults in tab-delimited COPY
format. It is designed primarily for use by administration
tools.
ENVIRONMENT
PGDATA Default data directory location
For others, which have little influence during single-user mode, see
postmaster(1).
NOTES
To cancel a running query, send the SIGINT signal to the postgres
process running that command.
To tell postgres to reload the configuration files, send a SIGHUP
signal. Normally it’s best to SIGHUP the postmaster instead; the
postmaster will in turn SIGHUP each of its children. But in some cases
it might be desirable to have only one postgres process reload the
configuration files.
The postmaster uses SIGTERM to tell a postgres process to quit normally
and SIGQUIT to terminate without the normal cleanup. These signals
should not be used by users. It is also unwise to send SIGKILL to a
postgres process — the postmaster will interpret this as a crash in
postgres, and will force all the sibling postgres processes to quit as
part of its standard crash-recovery procedure.
USAGE
Start a stand-alone server with a command like
postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql/data other-options my_database
Provide the correct path to the database directory with -D, or make
sure that the environment variable PGDATA is set. Also specify the
name of the particular database you want to work in.
Normally, the stand-alone server treats newline as the command entry
terminator; there is no intelligence about semicolons, as there is in
psql. To continue a command across multiple lines, you must type
backslash just before each newline except the last one.
But if you use the -N 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 (EOF) marker, then process the
input as a single command string. Backslash-newline is not treated
specially in this case.
To quit the session, type EOF (Control+D, usually). If you’ve used -N,
two consecutive EOFs are needed to exit.
Note that the stand-alone server does not provide sophisticated line-
editing features (no command history, for example).
SEE ALSO
initdb(1), ipcclean(1), postmaster(1)