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'\" t
.\"     Title: pg_ctl
.\"    Author: The PostgreSQL Global Development Group
.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets vsnapshot <http://docbook.sf.net/>
.\"      Date: 2026
.\"    Manual: PostgreSQL 16.12 Documentation
.\"    Source: PostgreSQL 16.12
.\"  Language: English
.\"
.TH "PG_CTL" "1" "2026" "PostgreSQL 16.12" "PostgreSQL 16.12 Documentation"
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.SH "NAME"
pg_ctl \- initialize, start, stop, or control a PostgreSQL server
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.HP \w'\fBpg_ctl\fR\ 'u
\fBpg_ctl\fR \fBinit[db]\fR [\fB\-D\fR\ \fIdatadir\fR] [\fB\-s\fR] [\fB\-o\fR\ \fIinitdb\-options\fR]
.HP \w'\fBpg_ctl\fR\ 'u
\fBpg_ctl\fR \fBstart\fR [\fB\-D\fR\ \fIdatadir\fR] [\fB\-l\fR\ \fIfilename\fR] [\fB\-W\fR] [\fB\-t\fR\ \fIseconds\fR] [\fB\-s\fR] [\fB\-o\fR\ \fIoptions\fR] [\fB\-p\fR\ \fIpath\fR] [\fB\-c\fR]
.HP \w'\fBpg_ctl\fR\ 'u
\fBpg_ctl\fR \fBstop\fR [\fB\-D\fR\ \fIdatadir\fR] [\fB\-m\fR\ \fBs[mart]\fR\ |\ \fBf[ast]\fR\ |\ \fBi[mmediate]\fR] [\fB\-W\fR] [\fB\-t\fR\ \fIseconds\fR] [\fB\-s\fR]
.HP \w'\fBpg_ctl\fR\ 'u
\fBpg_ctl\fR \fBrestart\fR [\fB\-D\fR\ \fIdatadir\fR] [\fB\-m\fR\ \fBs[mart]\fR\ |\ \fBf[ast]\fR\ |\ \fBi[mmediate]\fR] [\fB\-W\fR] [\fB\-t\fR\ \fIseconds\fR] [\fB\-s\fR] [\fB\-o\fR\ \fIoptions\fR] [\fB\-c\fR]
.HP \w'\fBpg_ctl\fR\ 'u
\fBpg_ctl\fR \fBreload\fR [\fB\-D\fR\ \fIdatadir\fR] [\fB\-s\fR]
.HP \w'\fBpg_ctl\fR\ 'u
\fBpg_ctl\fR \fBstatus\fR [\fB\-D\fR\ \fIdatadir\fR]
.HP \w'\fBpg_ctl\fR\ 'u
\fBpg_ctl\fR \fBpromote\fR [\fB\-D\fR\ \fIdatadir\fR] [\fB\-W\fR] [\fB\-t\fR\ \fIseconds\fR] [\fB\-s\fR]
.HP \w'\fBpg_ctl\fR\ 'u
\fBpg_ctl\fR \fBlogrotate\fR [\fB\-D\fR\ \fIdatadir\fR] [\fB\-s\fR]
.HP \w'\fBpg_ctl\fR\ 'u
\fBpg_ctl\fR \fBkill\fR \fIsignal_name\fR \fIprocess_id\fR
.PP
On Microsoft Windows, also:
.HP \w'\fBpg_ctl\fR\ 'u
\fBpg_ctl\fR \fBregister\fR [\fB\-D\fR\ \fIdatadir\fR] [\fB\-N\fR\ \fIservicename\fR] [\fB\-U\fR\ \fIusername\fR] [\fB\-P\fR\ \fIpassword\fR] [\fB\-S\fR\ \fBa[uto]\fR\ |\ \fBd[emand]\fR] [\fB\-e\fR\ \fIsource\fR] [\fB\-W\fR] [\fB\-t\fR\ \fIseconds\fR] [\fB\-s\fR] [\fB\-o\fR\ \fIoptions\fR]
.HP \w'\fBpg_ctl\fR\ 'u
\fBpg_ctl\fR \fBunregister\fR [\fB\-N\fR\ \fIservicename\fR]
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP
pg_ctl
is a utility for initializing a
PostgreSQL
database cluster, starting, stopping, or restarting the
PostgreSQL
database server (\fBpostgres\fR(1)), or displaying the status of a running server\&. Although the server can be started manually,
pg_ctl
encapsulates tasks such as redirecting log output and properly detaching from the terminal and process group\&. It also provides convenient options for controlled shutdown\&.
.PP
The
\fBinit\fR
or
\fBinitdb\fR
mode creates a new
PostgreSQL
database cluster, that is, a collection of databases that will be managed by a single server instance\&. This mode invokes the
\fBinitdb\fR
command\&. See
\fBinitdb\fR(1)
for details\&.
.PP
\fBstart\fR
mode launches a new server\&. The server is started in the background, and its standard input is attached to
/dev/null
(or
nul
on Windows)\&. On Unix\-like systems, by default, the server\*(Aqs standard output and standard error are sent to
pg_ctl\*(Aqs standard output (not standard error)\&. The standard output of
pg_ctl
should then be redirected to a file or piped to another process such as a log rotating program like
rotatelogs; otherwise
\fBpostgres\fR
will write its output to the controlling terminal (from the background) and will not leave the shell\*(Aqs process group\&. On Windows, by default the server\*(Aqs standard output and standard error are sent to the terminal\&. These default behaviors can be changed by using
\fB\-l\fR
to append the server\*(Aqs output to a log file\&. Use of either
\fB\-l\fR
or output redirection is recommended\&.
.PP
\fBstop\fR
mode shuts down the server that is running in the specified data directory\&. Three different shutdown methods can be selected with the
\fB\-m\fR
option\&.
\(lqSmart\(rq
mode disallows new connections, then waits for all existing clients to disconnect\&. If the server is in hot standby, recovery and streaming replication will be terminated once all clients have disconnected\&.
\(lqFast\(rq
mode (the default) does not wait for clients to disconnect\&. All active transactions are rolled back and clients are forcibly disconnected, then the server is shut down\&.
\(lqImmediate\(rq
mode will abort all server processes immediately, without a clean shutdown\&. This choice will lead to a crash\-recovery cycle during the next server start\&.
.PP
\fBrestart\fR
mode effectively executes a stop followed by a start\&. This allows changing the
\fBpostgres\fR
command\-line options, or changing configuration\-file options that cannot be changed without restarting the server\&. If relative paths were used on the command line during server start,
\fBrestart\fR
might fail unless
pg_ctl
is executed in the same current directory as it was during server start\&.
.PP
\fBreload\fR
mode simply sends the
\fBpostgres\fR
server process a
SIGHUP
signal, causing it to reread its configuration files (postgresql\&.conf,
pg_hba\&.conf, etc\&.)\&. This allows changing configuration\-file options that do not require a full server restart to take effect\&.
.PP
\fBstatus\fR
mode checks whether a server is running in the specified data directory\&. If it is, the server\*(Aqs
PID
and the command line options that were used to invoke it are displayed\&. If the server is not running,
pg_ctl
returns an exit status of 3\&. If an accessible data directory is not specified,
pg_ctl
returns an exit status of 4\&.
.PP
\fBpromote\fR
mode commands the standby server that is running in the specified data directory to end standby mode and begin read\-write operations\&.
.PP
\fBlogrotate\fR
mode rotates the server log file\&. For details on how to use this mode with external log rotation tools, see
Section\ \&25.3\&.
.PP
\fBkill\fR
mode sends a signal to a specified process\&. This is primarily valuable on
Microsoft Windows
which does not have a built\-in
kill
command\&. Use
\-\-help
to see a list of supported signal names\&.
.PP
\fBregister\fR
mode registers the
PostgreSQL
server as a system service on
Microsoft Windows\&. The
\fB\-S\fR
option allows selection of service start type, either
\(lqauto\(rq
(start service automatically on system startup) or
\(lqdemand\(rq
(start service on demand)\&.
.PP
\fBunregister\fR
mode unregisters a system service on
Microsoft Windows\&. This undoes the effects of the
\fBregister\fR
command\&.
.SH "OPTIONS"
.PP
\fB\-c\fR
.br
\fB\-\-core\-files\fR
.RS 4
Attempt to allow server crashes to produce core files, on platforms where this is possible, by lifting any soft resource limit placed on core files\&. This is useful in debugging or diagnosing problems by allowing a stack trace to be obtained from a failed server process\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-D \fR\fB\fIdatadir\fR\fR
.br
\fB\-\-pgdata=\fR\fB\fIdatadir\fR\fR
.RS 4
Specifies the file system location of the database configuration files\&. If this option is omitted, the environment variable
\fBPGDATA\fR
is used\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-l \fR\fB\fIfilename\fR\fR
.br
\fB\-\-log=\fR\fB\fIfilename\fR\fR
.RS 4
Append the server log output to
\fIfilename\fR\&. If the file does not exist, it is created\&. The
umask
is set to 077, so access to the log file is disallowed to other users by default\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-m \fR\fB\fImode\fR\fR
.br
\fB\-\-mode=\fR\fB\fImode\fR\fR
.RS 4
Specifies the shutdown mode\&.
\fImode\fR
can be
smart,
fast, or
immediate, or the first letter of one of these three\&. If this option is omitted,
fast
is the default\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-o \fR\fB\fIoptions\fR\fR
.br
\fB\-\-options=\fR\fB\fIoptions\fR\fR
.RS 4
Specifies options to be passed directly to the
\fBpostgres\fR
command\&.
\fB\-o\fR
can be specified multiple times, with all the given options being passed through\&.
.sp
The
\fIoptions\fR
should usually be surrounded by single or double quotes to ensure that they are passed through as a group\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-o \fR\fB\fIinitdb\-options\fR\fR
.br
\fB\-\-options=\fR\fB\fIinitdb\-options\fR\fR
.RS 4
Specifies options to be passed directly to the
\fBinitdb\fR
command\&.
\fB\-o\fR
can be specified multiple times, with all the given options being passed through\&.
.sp
The
\fIinitdb\-options\fR
should usually be surrounded by single or double quotes to ensure that they are passed through as a group\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-p \fR\fB\fIpath\fR\fR
.RS 4
Specifies the location of the
postgres
executable\&. By default the
postgres
executable is taken from the same directory as
\fBpg_ctl\fR, or failing that, the hard\-wired installation directory\&. It is not necessary to use this option unless you are doing something unusual and get errors that the
postgres
executable was not found\&.
.sp
In
init
mode, this option analogously specifies the location of the
initdb
executable\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-s\fR
.br
\fB\-\-silent\fR
.RS 4
Print only errors, no informational messages\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-t \fR\fB\fIseconds\fR\fR
.br
\fB\-\-timeout=\fR\fB\fIseconds\fR\fR
.RS 4
Specifies the maximum number of seconds to wait when waiting for an operation to complete (see option
\fB\-w\fR)\&. Defaults to the value of the
\fBPGCTLTIMEOUT\fR
environment variable or, if not set, to 60 seconds\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-V\fR
.br
\fB\-\-version\fR
.RS 4
Print the
pg_ctl
version and exit\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-w\fR
.br
\fB\-\-wait\fR
.RS 4
Wait for the operation to complete\&. This is supported for the modes
start,
stop,
restart,
promote, and
register, and is the default for those modes\&.
.sp
When waiting,
\fBpg_ctl\fR
repeatedly checks the server\*(Aqs
PID
file, sleeping for a short amount of time between checks\&. Startup is considered complete when the
PID
file indicates that the server is ready to accept connections\&. Shutdown is considered complete when the server removes the
PID
file\&.
\fBpg_ctl\fR
returns an exit code based on the success of the startup or shutdown\&.
.sp
If the operation does not complete within the timeout (see option
\fB\-t\fR), then
\fBpg_ctl\fR
exits with a nonzero exit status\&. But note that the operation might continue in the background and eventually succeed\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-W\fR
.br
\fB\-\-no\-wait\fR
.RS 4
Do not wait for the operation to complete\&. This is the opposite of the option
\fB\-w\fR\&.
.sp
If waiting is disabled, the requested action is triggered, but there is no feedback about its success\&. In that case, the server log file or an external monitoring system would have to be used to check the progress and success of the operation\&.
.sp
In prior releases of PostgreSQL, this was the default except for the
stop
mode\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-?\fR
.br
\fB\-\-help\fR
.RS 4
Show help about
pg_ctl
command line arguments, and exit\&.
.RE
.PP
If an option is specified that is valid, but not relevant to the selected operating mode,
pg_ctl
ignores it\&.
.SS "Options for Windows"
.PP
\fB\-e \fR\fB\fIsource\fR\fR
.RS 4
Name of the event source for
pg_ctl
to use for logging to the event log when running as a Windows service\&. The default is
PostgreSQL\&. Note that this only controls messages sent from
pg_ctl
itself; once started, the server will use the event source specified by its
event_source
parameter\&. Should the server fail very early in startup, before that parameter has been set, it might also log using the default event source name
PostgreSQL\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-N \fR\fB\fIservicename\fR\fR
.RS 4
Name of the system service to register\&. This name will be used as both the service name and the display name\&. The default is
PostgreSQL\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-P \fR\fB\fIpassword\fR\fR
.RS 4
Password for the user to run the service as\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-S \fR\fB\fIstart\-type\fR\fR
.RS 4
Start type of the system service\&.
\fIstart\-type\fR
can be
auto, or
demand, or the first letter of one of these two\&. If this option is omitted,
auto
is the default\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-U \fR\fB\fIusername\fR\fR
.RS 4
User name for the user to run the service as\&. For domain users, use the format
DOMAIN\eusername\&.
.RE
.SH "ENVIRONMENT"
.PP
\fBPGCTLTIMEOUT\fR
.RS 4
Default limit on the number of seconds to wait when waiting for startup or shutdown to complete\&. If not set, the default is 60 seconds\&.
.RE
.PP
\fBPGDATA\fR
.RS 4
Default data directory location\&.
.RE
.PP
Most
\fBpg_ctl\fR
modes require knowing the data directory location; therefore, the
\fB\-D\fR
option is required unless
\fBPGDATA\fR
is set\&.
.PP
For additional variables that affect the server, see
\fBpostgres\fR(1)\&.
.SH "FILES"
.PP
postmaster\&.pid
.RS 4
pg_ctl
examines this file in the data directory to determine whether the server is currently running\&.
.RE
.PP
postmaster\&.opts
.RS 4
If this file exists in the data directory,
pg_ctl
(in
\fBrestart\fR
mode) will pass the contents of the file as options to
postgres, unless overridden by the
\fB\-o\fR
option\&. The contents of this file are also displayed in
\fBstatus\fR
mode\&.
.RE
.SH "EXAMPLES"
.SS "Starting the Server"
.PP
To start the server, waiting until the server is accepting connections:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ \fBpg_ctl start\fR
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.PP
To start the server using port 5433, and running without
\fBfsync\fR, use:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ \fBpg_ctl \-o "\-F \-p 5433" start\fR
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.SS "Stopping the Server"
.PP
To stop the server, use:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ \fBpg_ctl stop\fR
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
The
\fB\-m\fR
option allows control over
\fIhow\fR
the server shuts down:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ \fBpg_ctl stop \-m smart\fR
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.SS "Restarting the Server"
.PP
Restarting the server is almost equivalent to stopping the server and starting it again, except that by default,
\fBpg_ctl\fR
saves and reuses the command line options that were passed to the previously\-running instance\&. To restart the server using the same options as before, use:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ \fBpg_ctl restart\fR
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.PP
But if
\fB\-o\fR
is specified, that replaces any previous options\&. To restart using port 5433, disabling
\fBfsync\fR
upon restart:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ \fBpg_ctl \-o "\-F \-p 5433" restart\fR
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.SS "Showing the Server Status"
.PP
Here is sample status output from
pg_ctl:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ \fBpg_ctl status\fR

pg_ctl: server is running (PID: 13718)
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres "\-D" "/usr/local/pgsql/data" "\-p" "5433" "\-B" "128"
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
The second line is the command that would be invoked in restart mode\&.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
\fBinitdb\fR(1), \fBpostgres\fR(1)
F1l3 Manager
