linkend="client-authentication-problems">.) Other error messages
such as Connection timed out may
indicate more fundamental problems, like lack of network
- There are a lot of configuration parameters that affect the
- behavior of the database system in some way or other. Here we
- describe how to set them and the following subsections will
- discuss each of them.
+ There are a lot of configuration parameters that affect the behavior
+ of the database system. Here we describe how to set them and the
+ following subsections will discuss each in detail.
All parameter names are case-insensitive. Every parameter takes a
- value of one of the four types Boolean, integer, floating point,
- string as described below. Boolean values are
- ON, OFF,
- TRUE, FALSE,
- YES, NO,
- 1, 0 (case-insensitive) or
- any non-ambiguous prefix of these.
+ value of one of the four types: boolean, integer, floating point,
+ and string. Boolean values are ON,
+ OFF, TRUE,
+ FALSE, YES,
+ NO, 1, 0
+ (case-insensitive) or any non-ambiguous prefix of these.
One way to set these options is to edit the file
- postgresql.conf in the data directory.
- (A default file is installed there.) An example of what
- this file could look like is:
+ postgresql.conf in the data directory. (A
+ default file is installed there.) An example of what this file might
+ look like is:
# This is a comment
log_connections = yes
syslog = 2
As you see, options are one per line. The equal sign between name
- and value is optional. Whitespace is insignificant, blank lines
+ and value is optional. Whitespace is insignificant and blank lines
are ignored. Hash marks (#
) introduce comments
anywhere.
- The configuration file is reread whenever the postmaster receives
- a SIGHUP> signal (which is most easily sent by means
- of pg_ctl reload>). The postmaster also propagates
- this signal to all already-running backend processes, so that
- existing sessions also get the new default.
- Alternatively, you can send the signal to only one backend process
- directly.
+ The configuration file is reread whenever the postmaster receives a
+ SIGHUP> signal (which is most easily sent by means of
+ pg_ctl reload>). The postmaster also propagates this
+ signal to all currently running backend processes so that existing
+ sessions also get the new value. Alternatively, you can send the
+ signal to a single backend process directly.
A second way to set these configuration parameters is to give them
- as a command line option to the postmaster, such as
+ as a command line option to the postmaster, such as:
postmaster -c log_connections=yes -c syslog=2
(This works for any client application, not just
psql.) Note that this won't work for
- options that are necessarily fixed once the server is started,
- such as the port number.
+ options that are fixed when the server is started, such as the port
+ number.
Some options can be changed in individual SQL sessions with the
- SET command, for example
+ SET command, for example:
=> SET ENABLE_SEQSCAN TO OFF;
a user or a database. Whenever a session is started, the default
settings for the user and database involved are loaded. The
commands ALTER DATABASE and ALTER
- USER, respectively, are used to set this up.
+ USER, respectively, are used to configure these.
EFFECTIVE_CACHE_SIZE (floating point)
- Sets the optimizer's assumption about the effective size of
- the disk cache (that is, the portion of the kernel's disk
- cache that will be used for
-
PostgreSQL data files). This is
- measured in disk pages, which are normally 8 kB apiece.
+ Sets the optimizer's assumption about the effective size of the
+ disk cache (that is, the portion of the kernel's disk cache that
+ will be used for
PostgreSQL data
+ files). This is measured in disk pages, which are normally 8 kB
+ each.
Enables or disables the query planner's use of hash-join plan
- types. The default is on. This is mostly useful to debug the
+ types. The default is on. This is used for debugging the
query planner.
Enables or disables the query planner's use of index-scan plan
- types. The default is on. This is mostly useful to debug the
+ types. The default is on. This is used to debugging the
query planner.
Enables or disables the query planner's use of merge-join plan
- types. The default is on. This is mostly useful to debug the
+ types. The default is on. This is used for debugging the
query planner.
ENABLE_NESTLOOP (boolean)
- Enables or disables the query planner's use of nested-loop
- join plans. It's not possible to suppress nested-loop joins
- entirely, but turning this variable off discourages the
- planner from using one if there is any other method available.
- The default is on. This is mostly useful to debug the query
- planner.
+ Enables or disables the query planner's use of nested-loop join
+ plans. It's not possible to suppress nested-loop joins entirely,
+ but turning this variable off discourages the planner from using
+ one if there are other methods available. The default is
+ on. This is used for debugging the query planner.
Enables or disables the query planner's use of sequential scan
- plan types. It's not possible to suppress sequential scans
- entirely, but turning this variable off discourages the
- planner from using one if there is any other method available.
- The default is on. This is mostly useful to debug the query
- planner.
+ plan types. It's not possible to suppress sequential scans
+ entirely, but turning this variable off discourages the planner
+ from using one if there are other methods available. The
+ default is on. This is used for debugging the query planner.
Enables or disables the query planner's use of explicit sort
steps. It's not possible to suppress explicit sorts entirely,
but turning this variable off discourages the planner from
- using one if there is any other method available. The default
- is on. This is mostly useful to debug the query planner.
+ using one if there are other methods available. The default
+ is on. This is used for debugging the query planner.
Enables or disables the query planner's use of
TID> scan plan
- types. The default is on. This is mostly useful to debug the
+ types. The default is on. This is used for debugging the
query planner.
Enables or disables genetic query optimization, which is an
- algorithm that attempts to do query planning without
- exhaustive search. This is on by default. See also the various
- other GEQO_ settings.
+ algorithm that attempts to do query planning without exhaustive
+ searching. This is on by default. See also the various other
+ GEQO_ settings.
Various tuning parameters for the genetic query optimization
algorithm: The pool size is the number of individuals in one
- population. Valid values are between 128 and 1024. If it is
- set to 0 (the default) a pool size of 2^(QS+1), where QS
- is the number of FROM items in the query, is taken. The effort
- is used to calculate a default for generations. Valid values
- are between 1 and 80, 40 being the default. Generations
- specifies the number of iterations in the algorithm. The
- number must be a positive integer. If 0 is specified then
- Effort * Log2(PoolSize) is used. The run time of the algorithm
- is roughly proportional to the sum of pool size and
- generations. The selection bias is the selective pressure
- within the population. Values can be from 1.50 to 2.00; the
- latter is the default. The random seed can be set to get
- reproducible results from the algorithm. If it is set to -1
- then the algorithm behaves non-deterministically.
+ population. Valid values are between 128 and 1024. If it is set
+ to 0 (the default) a pool size of 2^(QS+1), where QS is the
+ number of FROM items in the query, is taken. The effort is used
+ to calculate a default for generations. Valid values are between
+ 1 and 80, 40 being the default. Generations specifies the number
+ of iterations in the algorithm. The number must be a positive
+ integer. If 0 is specified then Effort *
+ Log2(PoolSize) is used. The run time of the algorithm
+ is roughly proportional to the sum of pool size and generations.
+ The selection bias is the selective pressure within the
+ population. Values can be from 1.50 to 2.00; the latter is the
+ default. The random seed can be set to get reproducible results
+ from the algorithm. If it is set to -1 then the algorithm
+ behaves non-deterministically.
Use genetic query optimization to plan queries with at least
- this many FROM> items involved. (Note that a JOIN> construct
- counts as only one FROM> item.) The default is 11. For simpler
- queries it is usually best to use the
- deterministic, exhaustive planner. This parameter also controls
- how hard the optimizer will try to merge subquery
+ this many FROM> items involved. (Note that a
+ JOIN> construct counts as only one FROM>
+ item.) The default is 11. For simpler queries it is usually best
+ to use the deterministic, exhaustive planner. This parameter
+ also controls how hard the optimizer will try to merge subquery
FROM clauses into the upper query.
The Key Set Query Optimizer
(
KSQO) causes the query planner to convert
- queries whose WHERE> clause contains many OR'ed AND clauses
- (such as WHERE (a=1 AND b=2) OR (a=2 AND b=3)
+ queries whose WHERE> clause contains many OR'ed AND
+ clauses (such as WHERE (a=1 AND b=2) OR (a=2 AND b=3)
...) into a union query. This method can be faster
- than the default implementation, but it doesn't necessarily
- give exactly the same results, since UNION> implicitly adds a
- SELECT DISTINCT> clause to eliminate identical output rows.
-
KSQO is commonly used when working with products like
-
Microsoft Access, which tend to
- generate queries of this form.
+ than the default implementation, but it doesn't necessarily give
+ exactly the same results, since UNION> implicitly
+ adds a SELECT DISTINCT> clause to eliminate identical
+ output rows.
KSQO is commonly used when
+ working with products like
Microsoft
+ Access, which tend to generate queries of this
+ form.
- The
KSQO algorithm used to be absolutely
essential for queries
- with many OR'ed AND clauses, but in
+ The
KSQO algorithm used to be absolutely
+ essential for queries with many OR'ed AND clauses, but in
PostgreSQL 7.0 and later the standard
- planner handles these queries fairly successfully. Hence the
+ planner handles these queries fairly successfully; hence the
default is off.
Sets the query optimizer's estimate of the cost of a
- nonsequentially fetched disk page. This is measured as a
- multiple of the cost of a sequential page fetch.
+ nonsequentially fetched disk page. This is measured as a
+ multiple of the cost of a sequential page fetch.
- Unfortunately, there is no well-defined method of determining
+ Unfortunately, there is no well-defined method for determining
ideal values for the family of COST
variables that
were just described. You are encouraged to experiment and share
your findings.
Turns on various assertion checks. This is a debugging aid. If
- you are experiencing strange problems or crashes you might
- want to turn this on, as it might expose programming mistakes.
- To use this option, the macro USE_ASSERT_CHECKING
- must be defined when
PostgreSQL is built (see the configure option
- --enable-cassert). Note that
-
DEBUG_ASSERTIONS defaults to on if
PostgreSQL
- has been built this way.
+ you are experiencing strange problems or crashes you might want
+ to turn this on, as it might expose programming mistakes. To use
+ this option, the macro USE_ASSERT_CHECKING
+ must be defined when
PostgreSQL is
+ built (see the configure option
+ --enable-cassert). Note that
+ DEBUG_ASSERTIONS defaults to on if
+
PostgreSQL has been built this way.
the resulting parse tree, the query rewriter output, or the execution
plan. indents these displays
to produce a more readable but much longer output format.
- Setting above zero implicitly turns
- on some of these flags.
LOG_CONNECTIONS (boolean)
- Prints a line informing about each successful connection in
- the server log. This is off by default, although it is
- probably very useful. This option can only be set at server
- start or in the postgresql.conf
- configuration file.
+ This outputs a line to the server logs detailing each successful
+ connection. This is off by default, although it is probably very
+ useful. This option can only be set at server start or in the
+ postgresql.conf configuration file.
Shows the outgoing port number of the connecting host in the
connection log messages. You could trace back the port number
to find out what user initiated the connection. Other than
- that it's pretty useless and therefore off by default. This
+ that, it's pretty useless and therefore off by default. This
option can only be set at server start.
If on, collected statistics are zeroed out whenever the server
- is restarted. If off, statistics are accumulated across server
- restarts. The default is on. This option
- can only be set at server start.
+ is restarted. If off, statistics are accumulated across server
+ restarts. The default is on. This option can only be set at
+ server start.
PostgreSQL allows the use of
- syslog for logging. If this option
- is set to 1, messages go both to syslog> and the standard
- output. A setting of 2 sends output only to syslog>. (Some
- messages will still go to the standard output/error.) The
- default is 0, which means syslog> is off. This option must be
- set at server start.
+ syslog for logging. If this option is
+ set to 1, messages go both to syslog> and the
+ standard output. A setting of 2 sends output only to
+ syslog>. (Some messages will still go to the
+ standard output/error.) The default is 0, which means
+ syslog> is off. This option must be set at server
+ start.
To use syslog>, the build of
This option determines the
syslog
-
facility
to be used when
syslog is enabled.
- You may choose from LOCAL0, LOCAL1, LOCAL2, LOCAL3, LOCAL4,
- LOCAL5, LOCAL6, LOCAL7; the default is LOCAL0. See also the
- documentation of your system's
+ facility
to be used when
+
syslog is enabled. You may choose
+ from LOCAL0, LOCAL1, LOCAL2, LOCAL3, LOCAL4, LOCAL5, LOCAL6,
+ LOCAL7; the default is LOCAL0. See also the documentation of
SYSLOG_IDENT (string)
- If logging to
syslog> is enabled, this option determines the
- program name used to identify
+ If logging to
syslog> is enabled, this option
+ determines the program name used to identify
-
syslog log messages.
The default
- is postgres.
+
syslog log messages.
The default is
+ postgres.
- Maximum time to complete client authentication, in seconds.
- If a would-be client has not completed the authentication protocol
- in this much time, the server unceremoniously breaks the connection.
- This prevents hung clients from occupying a connection indefinitely.
- This option can only be set at server start or in the
- postgresql.conf file.
+ Maximum time to complete client authentication, in seconds. If a
+ would-be client has not completed the authentication protocol in
+ this much time, the server breaks the connection. This prevents
+ hung clients from occupying a connection indefinitely. This
+ option can only be set at server start or in the
+ postgresql.conf file.
This is the amount of time, in milliseconds, to wait on a lock
- before checking to see if there is a deadlock condition or not.
- The check for deadlock is relatively slow, so we don't want to
- run it every time we wait for a lock. We (optimistically?)
- assume that deadlocks are not common in production applications,
- and just wait on the lock for awhile before starting to ask
- questions about whether it can ever get unlocked.
- Increasing this value reduces the amount of time wasted in
- needless deadlock checks, but slows down reporting of real deadlock
- errors. The default is 1000 (i.e., one second), which is probably
- about the smallest value you would want in practice. On a heavily
- loaded server you might want to raise it. Ideally the setting
- should exceed your typical transaction time, so as to improve the
- odds that the lock will be released before the waiter decides to
- check for deadlock.
- This option can only be set at server start.
+ before checking to see if there is a deadlock condition. The
+ check for deadlock is relatively slow, so the server doesn't run
+ it every time it waits for a lock. We (optimistically?) assume
+ that deadlocks are not common in production applications and
+ just wait on the lock for a while before starting check for a
+ deadlock. Increasing this value reduces the amount of time
+ wasted in needless deadlock checks, but slows down reporting of
+ real deadlock errors. The default is 1000 (i.e., one second),
+ which is probably about the smallest value you would want in
+ practice. On a heavily loaded server you might want to raise it.
+ Ideally the setting should exceed your typical transaction time,
+ so as to improve the odds that the lock will be released before
+ the waiter decides to check for deadlock. This option can only
+ be set at server start.
DEFAULT_TRANSACTION_ISOLATION (string)
- Each SQL transaction has an isolation level, which can be
- either read committed
or
- serializable
. This parameter controls what the
- isolation level of each new transaction is set to. The
- default is read committed.
+ Each SQL transaction has an isolation level, which can be either
+ read committed
or serializable
.
+ This parameter controls the default isolation level of each new
+ transaction. The default is read committed/quote>.
If a dynamically loadable module needs to be opened and the
- specified name does not have a directory component (i.e., the
+ specified name does not have a directory component (i.e. the
name does not contain a slash), the system will search this
path for the specified file. (The name that is used is the
name specified in the CREATE FUNCTION or
The value for dynamic_library_path has to be a colon-separated
- list of absolute directory names. If a directory name starts
+ list of absolute directory names. If a directory name starts
with the special value $libdir, the
- compiled-in
PostgreSQL package library directory, which is where the
- modules provided by the
PostgreSQL distribution are installed,
- is substituted. (Use pg_config --pkglibdir
- to print the name of this directory.) An example value:
+ compiled-in
PostgreSQL package
+ library directory is substituted. This where the modules
+ provided by the
PostgreSQL
+ distribution are installed. (Use pg_config
+ --pkglibdir to print the name of this directory.) For
+ example:
dynamic_library_path = '/usr/local/lib/postgresql:/home/my_project/lib:$libdir'
The default value for this parameter is
- $libdir. If the value is set to the empty
+ $libdir. If the value is set to an empty
string, the automatic path search is turned off.
- This parameter can be changed at run time by superusers, but
- note that a setting done that way will only persist till the
- end of the client connection, so this method should be
- reserved for development purposes. The recommended way to set
- this parameter is in the postgresql.conf
- configuration file.
+ This parameter can be changed at run time by superusers, but a
+ setting done that way will only persist until the end of the
+ client connection, so this method should be reserved for
+ development purposes. The recommended way to set this parameter
+ is in the postgresql.conf configuration
+ file.
If this option is on, the
PostgreSQL> backend
- will use the fsync()> system call in several
- places to make sure that updates are physically written to
- disk and do not hang around in the kernel buffer cache. This
- increases the chance by a large amount that a database
- installation will still be usable after an operating system or
- hardware crash. (Crashes of the database server itself do
- not> affect this consideration.)
+ will use the fsync()> system call in several places
+ to make sure that updates are physically written to disk. This
+ insures that a database installation will recover to a
+ consistent state after an operating system or hardware crash.
+ (Crashes of the database server itself are not>
+ related to this.)
- However, this operation
slows down PostgreSQL>,
- because at all those points it has
- to block and wait for the operating system to flush the
- buffers. Without fsync>, the operating system is
- allowed to do its best in buffering, sorting, and delaying
- writes, which can make for a considerable performance
- increase. However, if the system crashes, the results of the
- last few committed transactions may be lost in part or whole;
- in the worst case, unrecoverable data corruption may occur.
+ However, this operation does slow down
+
PostgreSQL> because at transaction commit it has
+ wait for the operating system to flush the write-ahead log.
+ Without fsync>, the operating system is allowed to
+ do its best in buffering, sorting, and delaying writes, which
+ can considerably increase performance. However, if the system
+ crashes, the results of the last few committed transactions may
+ be lost in part or whole. In the worst case, unrecoverable data
+ corruption may occur.
- This option is the subject of an eternal debate in the
-
PostgreSQL> user and developer communities. Some
- always leave it off, some turn it off only for bulk loads,
- where there is a clear restart point if something goes wrong,
- some leave it on just to be on the safe side. Because it is
- the safe side, on is also the default. If you trust your
- operating system, your hardware, and your utility company (or
- better your UPS), you might want to disable fsync.
+ For the above reasons, some administrators always leave it off,
+ some turn it off only for bulk loads, where there is a clear
+ restart point if something goes wrong, and some leave it on just
+ to be on the safe side. Because it is always safe, the default
+ is on. If you trust your operating system, your hardware, and
+ your utility company (or better your UPS), you might want to
+ disable fsync.
- It should be noted that the performance penalty from doing
-
fsync>s is considerably less in PostgreSQL> version
- 7.1 than it was in prior releases. If you previously suppressed
- fsync>s because of performance problems, you may wish to reconsider
- your choice.
+ It should be noted that the performance penalty of doing
+ fsync>s is considerably less in
+
PostgreSQL> version 7.1 and later. If you
+ previously suppressed fsync>s for performance
+ reasons, you may wish to reconsider your choice.
MAX_CONNECTIONS (integer)
- Determines how many concurrent connections the database server
- will allow. The default is 32 (unless altered while building
- the server). This parameter can only be set at server start.
+ Determines the maximum number of concurrent connections to the
+ database server. The default is 32 (unless altered while
+ building the server). This parameter can only be set at server
+ start.
MAX_EXPR_DEPTH (integer)
- Sets the maximum expression nesting depth that the parser will
- accept. The default value is high enough for any normal query,
- but you can raise it if you need to. (But if you raise it too
- high, you run the risk of backend crashes due to stack
- overflow.)
+ Sets the maximum expression nesting depth of the parser. The
+ default value is high enough for any normal query, but you can
+ raise it if needed. (But if you raise it too high, you run
+ the risk of backend crashes due to stack overflow.)
MAX_FILES_PER_PROCESS (integer)
- Sets the maximum number of simultaneously open files in each server
- subprocess. The default is 1000. The limit actually used by the code
- is the smaller of this setting and the result of
- sysconf(_SC_OPEN_MAX).
- Therefore, on systems where sysconf> returns a reasonable limit,
- you don't need to worry about this setting. But on some platforms
- (notably, most BSD systems), sysconf> returns a value that is much
- larger than the system can really support when a large number of
- processes all try to open that many files. If you find yourself
- seeing Too many open files> failures, try reducing this
- setting.
- This option can only be set at server start or in the
- postgresql.conf configuration file;
- if changed in the configuration file, it only affects
- subsequently-started server subprocesses.
+ Sets the maximum number of simultaneously open files in each
+ server subprocess. The default is 1000. The limit actually used
+ by the code is the smaller of this setting and the result of
+ sysconf(_SC_OPEN_MAX). Therefore, on systems
+ where sysconf> returns a reasonable limit, you don't
+ need to worry about this setting. But on some platforms
+ (notably, most BSD systems), sysconf> returns a
+ value that is much larger than the system can really support
+ when a large number of processes all try to open that many
+ files. If you find yourself seeing Too many open files>
+ failures, try reducing this setting. This option can only be set
+ at server start or in the postgresql.conf
+ configuration file; if changed in the configuration file, it
+ only affects subsequently-started server subprocesses.
MAX_FSM_RELATIONS (integer)
- Sets the maximum number of relations (tables) for which free space
- will be tracked in the shared free-space map.
- The default is 100. This option can only be set at server start.
+ Sets the maximum number of relations (tables) for which free
+ space will be tracked in the shared free-space map. The default
+ is 100. This option can only be set at server start.
MAX_FSM_PAGES (integer)
- Sets the maximum number of disk pages for which free space
- will be tracked in the shared free-space map.
- The default is 10000. This option can only be set at server start.
+ Sets the maximum number of disk pages for which free space will
+ be tracked in the shared free-space map. The default is 10000.
+ This option can only be set at server start.
The shared lock table is sized on the assumption that at most
- max_locks_per_transaction> * max_connections distinct objects will need
- to be locked at any one time. The default, 64, has historically
- proven sufficient, but you might need to raise this value if you
- have clients that touch many different tables in a single transaction.
- This option can only be set at server start.
+ max_locks_per_transaction> *
+ max_connections distinct objects will need to
+ be locked at any one time. The default, 64, which has historically
+ proven sufficient, but you might need to raise this value if you
+ have clients that touch many different tables in a single
+ transaction. This option can only be set at server start.
When a password is specified in CREATE USER> or
- ALTER USER> without writing either ENCRYPTED or
- UNENCRYPTED, this flag determines whether the password is to be
- encrypted.
- The default is off (do not encrypt the password), but this choice
- may change in a future release.
+ ALTER USER> without writing either ENCRYPTED or
+ UNENCRYPTED, this flag determines whether the password is to be
+ encrypted. The default is off (do not encrypt the password), but
+ this choice may change in a future release.
SHARED_BUFFERS (integer)
- Sets the number of shared memory buffers the database server
- will use. The default is 64. Each buffer is typically 8192
- bytes. This option can only be set at server start.
+ Sets the number of shared memory buffers used by the database
+ server. The default is 64. Each buffer is typically 8192 bytes.
+ This option can only be set at server start.
SILENT_MODE (bool)
- Runs postmaster silently. If this option is set, postmaster
+ Runs postmaster silently. If this option is set, the postmaster
will automatically run in background and any controlling ttys
- are disassociated, thus no messages are written to standard output or
- standard error (same effect as postmaster's -S option). Unless some
-
logging system such as syslog> is enabled, using this option is
- discouraged since it makes it impossible to see error
- messages.
+ are disassociated, thus no messages are written to standard
+ output or standard error (same effect as postmaster's -S
+ option). Unless some logging system such as
+
syslog> is enabled, using this option is
+ discouraged since it makes it impossible to see error messages.
SORT_MEM (integer)
- Specifies the amount of memory to be used by internal sorts
- and hashes before switching to temporary disk files. The value
- is specified in kilobytes, and defaults to 512 kilobytes. Note
- that for a complex query, several sorts and/or hashes might be
- running in parallel, and each one will be allowed to use as
- much memory as this value specifies before it starts to put
- data into temporary files. And don't forget that each running
- backend could be doing one or more sorts. So the total memory
- space needed could be many times the value of SORT_MEM.
+ Specifies the amount of memory to be used by internal sorts and
+ hashes before switching to temporary disk files. The value is
+ specified in kilobytes, and defaults to 512 kilobytes. Note that
+ for a complex query, several sorts and/or hashes might be
+ running in parallel, and each one will be allowed to use as much
+ memory as this value specifies before it starts to put data into
+ temporary files. Also, each running backend could be doing one
+ or more sorts simultaneously, so the total memory used could be
+ many times the value of SORT_MEM.
This controls the inheritance semantics, in particular whether
- subtables are included into the consideration of various
- commands by default. This was not the case in versions prior
- to 7.1. If you need the old behavior you can set this
- variable to off, but in the long run you are encouraged to
- change your applications to use the ONLY
- keyword to exclude subtables. See the SQL language reference
- and the User's Guide for more
- information about inheritance.
+ subtables are included by various commands by default. They were
+ not included in versions prior to 7.1. If you need the old
+ behavior you can set this variable to off, but in the long run
+ you are encouraged to change your applications to use the
+ ONLY keyword to exclude subtables. See the
+ SQL language reference and the User's
+ Guide for more information about inheritance.
TCPIP_SOCKET (boolean)
- If this is true, then the server will accept TCP/IP
- connections. Otherwise only local Unix domain socket
- connections are accepted. It is off by default. This option
- can only be set at server start.
+ If this is true, then the server will accept TCP/IP connections.
+ Otherwise only local Unix domain socket connections are
+ accepted. It is off by default. This option can only be set at
+ server start.
When turned on, expressions of the form
- expr> = NULL (or
- NULL = expr>) are treated as
+ expr> = NULL (or NULL
+ = expr>) are treated as
expr> IS NULL, that is, they
- return true if expr> evaluates to the NULL
- value, and false otherwise. The correct behavior of
+ return true if expr> evaluates to the NULL value,
+ and false otherwise. The correct behavior of
expr> = NULL is to always
- return NULL (unknown). Therefore this option defaults to off.
+ return NULL (unknown). Therefore this option defaults to off.
very useful and do not appear often in normal applications, so
this option does little harm in practice. But new users are
frequently confused about the semantics of expressions
- involving NULL, so we do not turn this option on by default.
+ involving NULL, so this option is not on by default.
The default permissions are 0777, meaning
- anyone can connect. Reasonable alternatives would be
+ anyone can connect. Reasonable alternatives are
0770 (only user and group, see also under
- ) and
- 0700 (only user). (Note that actually for
- a Unix socket, only write permission matters and there is no
- point in setting or revoking read or execute permissions.)
+ ) and 0700
+ (only user). (Note that actually for a Unix socket, only write
+ permission matters and there is no point in setting or revoking
+ read or execute permissions.)
- This access control mechanism is independent from the one
+ This access control mechanism is independent of the one
described in .
Specifies the maximum amount of memory to be used by
- VACUUM to keep track of to-be-reclaimed tuples.
- The value is specified in kilobytes, and defaults to 8192 kilobytes.
- Larger settings may improve the speed of vacuuming large tables
- that have many deleted tuples.
+ VACUUM to keep track of to-be-reclaimed
+ tuples. The value is specified in kilobytes, and defaults to
+ 8192 kilobytes. Larger settings may improve the speed of
+ vacuuming large tables that have many deleted tuples.
Specifies the TCP/IP host name or address on which the
postmaster is to listen for
- connections from client applications. Defaults to
- listening on all configured addresses (including localhost>).
+ connections from client applications. Defaults to listening on
+ all configured addresses (including
+ class="systemname">localhost>).
Time delay between writing a commit record to the WAL buffer and
- flushing the buffer out to disk, in microseconds. A nonzero delay
- allows multiple transactions to be committed with only one fsync system call,
- if system load is high enough that additional transactions become
- ready to commit within the given interval. But the delay is just
- wasted time if no other transactions become ready to commit.
- Therefore, the delay is only performed if at least COMMIT_SIBLINGS
- other transactions are active at the instant that a backend has
- written its commit record.
+ flushing the buffer out to disk, in microseconds. A nonzero
+ delay allows multiple transactions to be committed with only one
+ fsync system call, if system load is high
+ enough additional transactions may become ready to commit within
+ the given interval. But the delay is just wasted if no other
+ transactions become ready to commit. Therefore, the delay is
+ only performed if at least COMMIT_SIBLINGS other transactions
+ are active at the instant that a backend has written its commit
+ record.
Minimum number of concurrent open transactions to require before
- performing the COMMIT_DELAY> delay. A larger value makes it more
- probable that at least one other transaction will become ready to
- commit during the delay interval.
+ performing the COMMIT_DELAY> delay. A larger value
+ makes it more probable that at least one other transaction will
+ become ready to commit during the delay interval.
WAL_BUFFERS (integer)
- Number of disk-page buffers in shared memory for WAL log.
+ Number of disk-page buffers in shared memory for WAL logging.
This option can only be set at server start.
|
- debug_level = x>
+ server_min_messages = DEBUGx>
|
Managing Kernel Resources
- A large
PostgreSQL> installation can quickly hit
+ A large
PostgreSQL> installation can quickly exhaust
various operating system resource limits. (On some systems, the
factory defaults are so low that you don't even need a really
large> installation.) If you have encountered this kind of
- problem then keep reading.
+ problem, keep reading.
Shared memory and semaphores are collectively referred to as
-
System V> IPC>
(together with message queues, which are
- not relevant for
PostgreSQL>). Almost all modern
+ System V>
+
IPC> (together with message queues, which are not
+ relevant for
PostgreSQL>). Almost all modern
operating systems provide these features, but not all of them have
- them turned on or sufficiently sized by default, especially
- systems with BSD heritage. (For the QNX> and BeOS> ports,
- <productname>PostgreSQL> provides its own replacement
- implementation of these facilities.)
+ them turned on or sufficiently sized by default, especially systems
+ with BSD heritage. (For the QNX> and
+ <
systemitem class="osname">BeOS> ports, PostgreSQL>
+ provides its own replacement implementation of these facilities.)
When
PostgreSQL> exceeds one of the various hard
- limits of the
IPC> resources then the postmaster will refuse to
- start up and should leave a marginally instructive error message
- about which problem was encountered and what needs to be done
- about it. (See also .)
- The relevant kernel parameters are named
- consistently across different systems;
- linkend="sysvipc-parameters"> gives an overview. The methods to
- set them, however, vary; suggestions for some platforms are given
- below. Be warned that it is often necessary to reboot your
- machine at least, possibly even recompile the kernel, to change these
- settings.
+
IPC> limits, the postmaster will refuse to start and
+ should leave an instructive error message describing the problem
+ encountered and what to do about it. (See also
+ linkend="postmaster-start-failures">.) The relevant kernel
+ parameters are named consistently across different systems;
+ linkend="sysvipc-parameters"> gives an overview. The methods to set
+ them, however, vary. Suggestions for some platforms are given below.
+ Be warned that it is often necessary to reboot your machine, and
+ possibly even recompile the kernel, to change these settings.
- The most important shared memory parameter is SHMMAX>,
- the maximum size, in bytes, that a shared memory segment can have.
- If you get an error message from shmget> along the
- lines of Invalid argument> then it is possible that
- this limit has been exceeded. The size of the required shared
- memory segments varies both with the number of requested buffers
- (
- (
- (You can therefore, as a temporary solution, lower these settings
- to get rid of the failures.) As a rough approximation you can
- estimate the required segment size as the number of buffers times
- the block size (8 kB by default) plus ample overhead (at least
- half a megabyte). Any error message you might get will contain the
- size of the failed allocation request.
+
SHMMAX The most important
+ shared memory parameter is SHMMAX>, the maximum size, in
+ bytes, of a shared memory segment. If you get an error message from
+ shmget> like Invalid argument>, it is
+ possible that this limit has been exceeded. The size of the required
+ shared memory segment varies both with the number of requested
+ buffers (
+ (
+ (You can, as a temporary solution, lower these settings to eliminate
+ the failure.) As a rough approximation, you can estimate the
+ required segment size by multiplying the number of buffers and the
+ block size (8 kB by default) plus ample overhead (at least half a
+ megabyte). Any error message you might get will contain the size of
+ the failed allocation request.
Less likely to cause problems is the minimum size for shared
memory segments (SHMMIN>), which should be at most
-
somewhere around 256 kB for
PostgreSQL> (it is
+
approximately 256 kB for
PostgreSQL> (it is
usually just 1). The maximum number of segments system-wide
(SHMMNI>) or per-process (SHMSEG>) should
not cause a problem unless your system has them set to zero. Some
- In some cases it might also turn out to be necessary to increase
+ In some cases it might also be necessary to increase
SEMMAP> to be at least on the order of
- SEMMNS>. This parameter defines the size of the
- semaphore resource map, in which each contiguous block of available
- semaphores needs an entry. When a semaphore set is freed it is
- either added to an existing entry that is adjacent to the freed
- block or it is registered under a new map entry. If the map is
- full, the freed semaphores get lost (until reboot). Fragmentation
- of the semaphore space could therefore over time lead to less
- available semaphores than there should be.
+ SEMMNS>. This parameter defines the size of the semaphore
+ resource map, in which each contiguous block of available semaphores
+ needs an entry. When a semaphore set is freed it is either added to
+ an existing entry that is adjacent to the freed block or it is
+ registered under a new map entry. If the map is full, the freed
+ semaphores get lost (until reboot). Fragmentation of the semaphore
+ space could over time lead to fewer available semaphores than there
+ should be.
By default, only 4 MB of shared memory is supported. Keep in
mind that shared memory is not pageable; it is locked in RAM.
-
- To increase the number of shared buffers supported by the
- postmaster, add the following to your kernel configuration file. A
- SHMALL> value of 1024 represents 4MB of shared
- memory. The following increases the maximum shared memory area
- to 32 MB:
+ To increase the number of shared buffers supported by the
+ postmaster, add the following to your kernel configuration
+ file. A SHMALL> value of 1024 represents 4MB of
+ shared memory. The following increases the maximum shared
+ memory area to 32 MB:
options "SHMALL=8192"
options "SHMMAX=\(SHMALL*PAGE_SIZE\)"
Semaphores>
- You may need to increase the number of semaphores. By
- default,
PostgreSQL> allocates 34 semaphores,
- which is over half the default system total of 60.
+ You may need to increase the number of semaphores. By default,
+
PostgreSQL> allocates 34 semaphores, which is
+ over half the default system total of 60.
class="osname">OpenBSD> the key word is actually
option singular.)
+ You may also want to use the
sysctl> setting to
+ lock shared memory into RAM and prevent it from being paged out
+ to swap.
IPC> parameters can be set in the System
Administration Manager> (
SAM>) under
Kernel
- Configuration>Configurable Parameters>>.
- Hit Create A New Kernel> when you're done.
+ Configuration>Configurable Parameters>>. Hit
+ Create A New Kernel> when you're done.
- Other parameters are sufficiently sized for any application.
- If you want to see for yourself look into
- /usr/src/linux/include/asm-xxx>/shmparam.h>
- and /usr/src/linux/include/linux/sem.h>.
+ Other parameters are sufficiently sized for any application. If
+ you want to see for yourself look in
+ /usr/src/linux/include/asm-xxx>/shmpara
+ m.h> and /usr/src/linux/include/linux/sem.h>.
In the default configuration, only 512 kB of shared memory per
segment is allowed, which is about enough for
- 12>. To increase the setting, first change the directory to
+ 12>. To increase the setting, first change directory to
/etc/conf/cf.d>. To display the current value of
SHMMAX>, in bytes, run
- At least in version 2.6, the maximum size of a shared memory
-
segment is set too low for
PostgreSQL>. The
+ At least in version 2.6, the default maximum size of a shared
+
memory segments is too low for
PostgreSQL>. The
relevant settings can be changed in /etc/system>,
for example:
set semsys:seminfo_semmns=512
set semsys:seminfo_semmsl=32
- You need to reboot to make the changes effective.
+ You need to reboot for the changes to take effect.
Resource Limits
- Unix-like operating systems enforce various kinds of resource
- limits that might interfere with the operation of your
-
PostgreSQL server. Of importance are
- especially the limits on the number of processes per user, the
- number of open files per process, and the amount of memory
- available to a process. Each of these have a hard
- and a soft
limit. The soft limit is what actually
- counts but it can be changed by the user up to the hard limit.
- The hard limit can only be changed by the root user. The system
- call setrlimit is responsible for setting
- these parameters. The shell's built-in command
- ulimit (Bourne shells) or
-
limit (
csh>) is used to control the resource
- limits from the command line. On BSD-derived systems the file
- /etc/login.conf controls what values the
- various resource limits are set to upon login. See
+ Unix-like operating systems enforce various kinds of resource limits
+ that might interfere with the operation of your
+
PostgreSQL server. Of particular
+ importance are limits on the number of processes per user, the
+ number of open files per process, and the amount of memory available
+ to each process. Each of these have a hard
and a
+ soft
limit. The soft limit is what actually counts
+ but it can be changed by the user up to the hard limit. The hard
+ limit can only be changed by the root user. The system call
+ setrlimit is responsible for setting these
+ parameters. The shell's built-in command ulimit
+ (Bourne shells) or
limit (
csh>) is
+ used to control the resource limits from the command line. On
+ BSD-derived systems the file /etc/login.conf
+ controls the various resource limits set during login. See
login.conf
- 5 for details. The relevant
+ 5 for details. The relevant
parameters are maxproc,
- openfiles, and datasize.
- For example:
+ openfiles, and datasize. For
+ example:
default:\
...
- Kernels generally also have an implementation-dependent
- system-wide limit on some resources.
+ Kernels can also have system-wide limits on some resources.
On the other side of the coin, some systems allow individual
- processes to open large numbers of files; if more than a few processes
- do so then the system-wide limit can easily be exceeded. If you find
- this happening, and don't want to alter the system-wide limit, you
- max_files_per_process configuration parameter
- to limit its consumption of open files.
+ processes to open large numbers of files; if more than a few
+ processes do so then the system-wide limit can easily be exceeded.
+ If you find this happening, and don't want to alter the system-wide
+
limit, you can set
PostgreSQL's
+ max_files_per_process configuration parameter to
+ limit the consumption of open files.
Shutting down the server
- Depending on your needs, there are several ways to shut down the
- database server when your work is done. The differentiation is
- done by what signal you send to the server process.
+ There are several ways to shut down the database server. You control
+ the type of shutdown by sending different signals to the server
+ process.
SIGTERM
- After receiving SIGTERM, the postmaster disallows new
- connections, but lets existing backends end their work normally.
- It shuts down only after all of the backends terminate by client
- request.
- This is the Smart Shutdown.
+ After receiving SIGTERM, the postmaster
+ disallows new connections, but lets existing backends end their
+ work normally. It shuts down only after all of the backends
+ terminate normally. This is Smart
+ Shutdown.
The postmaster disallows new connections and sends all existing
- backends SIGTERM, which will cause them to abort their current
- transactions and exit promptly. It then waits for the backends to exit
- and finally shuts down the data base.
- This is the Fast Shutdown.
+ backends SIGTERM, which will cause them
+ to abort their current transactions and exit promptly. It then
+ waits for the backends to exit and finally shuts down. This is
+ Fast Shutdown.
SIGQUIT
- This is the Immediate Shutdown which
- will cause the postmaster to send a SIGQUIT to all backends and
- exit immediately (without properly shutting down the database
- system). The backends likewise exit immediately upon receiving
- SIGQUIT. This will lead to recovery (by replaying the WAL log)
- upon next start-up. This is recommended only in emergencies.
+
This is Immediate Shutdown, which
+ will cause the postmaster to send a
+ SIGQUIT to all backends and exit
+ immediately (without properly shutting itself down). The backends
+ likewise exit immediately upon receiving
+ SIGQUIT. This will lead to recovery (by
+ replaying the WAL log) upon next start-up. This is recommended
+ only in emergencies.
- It is best not to use SIGKILL to shut down the postmaster. This
- will prevent the postmaster from releasing shared memory and
- semaphores, which you may then have to do by hand.
+ It is best not to use SIGKILL to shut down
+ the postmaster. This will prevent the postmaster from releasing
+ shared memory and semaphores, which may then have to be done by
+ manually.
-
PostgreSQL> has native support for connections over
- client/server communications for increased security. This requires
-
OpenSSL to be installed on both client
-
and server systems and support enabled at build time (see
+
PostgreSQL> has native support for using
+
SSL> connections to encrypt client/server communications
+ for increased security. This requires
+
OpenSSL be installed on both client and
+ server systems and support enabled at build time (see
linkend="installation">).
- The server will listen for both standard and SSL connections
- on the same TCP/IP port, and will negotiate with any connecting
- client whether or not to use SSL.
- See
- about how to force on the server side the use of SSL for certain
- connections.
+ The server will listen for both standard and SSL connections on the
+ same TCP/IP port, and will negotiate with any connecting client on
+ whether to use SSL. See about
+ how to force the server to only use of SSL for certain connections.
For details on how to create your server private key and certificate,
- refer to the
OpenSSL> documentation. A simple self-signed
- certificate can be used to get started for testing, but a certificate signed
- by a
CA> (either one of the global CAs> or a local one) should be used in
- production so the client can verify the server's identity. To create
- a quick self-signed certificate, use the following
OpenSSL command:
+ refer to the
OpenSSL> documentation. A simple
+ self-signed certificate can be used to get started for testing, but a
+ certificate signed by a
CA> (either one of the global
+
CAs> or a local one) should be used in production so the
+ client can verify the server's identity. To create a quick
+ self-signed certificate, use the following
openssl req -new -text -out cert.req
- Fill out the information that openssl> asks for. Make sure that you enter
- the local host name as Common Name; the challenge password can be
- left blank. The script will generate a key that is passphrase protected;
- it will not accept a pass phrase that is less than four characters long.
- To remove the passphrase (as you must if you want automatic start-up of
- the server), run the commands
+ Fill out the information that openssl> asks for. Make sure
+ that you enter the local host name as Common Name; the challenge
+ password can be left blank. The script will generate a key that is
+ passphrase protected; it will not accept a pass phrase that is less
+ than four characters long. To remove the passphrase (as you must if
+ you want automatic start-up of the server), run the commands
openssl rsa -in privkey.pem -out cert.pem
First make sure that an
ssh server is
running properly on the same machine as
PostgreSQL and that you can log in using
- ssh as some user. Then you can establish a secure tunnel with a
- command like this from the client machine:
+ ssh as some user. Then you can establish a secure
+ tunnel with a command like this from the client machine:
To the database server it will then look as though you are really
authentication procedure was set up for this user. In order for the
- tunnel setup to succeed you must be allowed to connect via ssh as
+ tunnel setup to succeed you must be allowed to connect via
+ as if you had attempted to use ssh to set up a
terminal session.
# PostgreSQL configuration file
# -----------------------------
#
-# This file consists of lines of the form
+# This file consists of lines of the form:
#
# name = value
#
-# (The `=' is optional.) White space is collapsed, comments are
-# introduced by `#' anywhere on a line. The complete list of option
-# names and allowed values can be found in the PostgreSQL
-# documentation. The commented-out settings shown in this file
-# represent the default values.
-
+# (The '=' is optional.) White space may be used. Comments are introduced
+# with '#' anywhere on a line. The complete list of option names and
+# allowed values can be found in the PostgreSQL documentation. The
+# commented-out settings shown in this file represent the default values.
+#
# Any option can also be given as a command line switch to the
-# postmaster, e.g., 'postmaster -c log_connections=on'. Some options
+# postmaster, e.g. 'postmaster -c log_connections=on'. Some options
# can be changed at run-time with the 'SET' SQL command.
+#
+# This file is read on postmaster startup and when the postmaster
+# receives a SIGHUP. If you edit the file on a running system, you have
+# to SIGHUP the postmaster for the changes to take effect, or use
+# "pg_ctl reload".
#========================================================================