Parameters set in this way provide default values for the cluster. If the file contains multiple entries for the same parameter, all but the last one are ignored. To embed a single quote in a parameter value, write either two quotes (preferred) or backslash-quote. Parameter values that are not simple identifiers or numbers must be single-quoted. Hash marks ( #) designate the remainder of the line as a comment. Whitespace is insignificant (except within a quoted parameter value) and blank lines are ignored. The equal sign between name and value is optional. An example of what this file might look like is: A default copy is installed when the database cluster directory is initialized.

The most fundamental way to set these parameters is to edit the file nf, which is normally kept in the data directory. The unit name is case-sensitive, and there can be whitespace between the numeric value and the unit.Ģ0.1.2. Parameter Interaction via the Configuration File # Note that the value must be written as a string (with quotes) to use this feature. For convenience, settings can be given with a unit specified explicitly, for example '120 ms' for a time value, and they will be converted to whatever the parameter's actual unit is. An unadorned numeric value for one of these settings will use the setting's default unit, which can be learned from pg_settings. The unit might be bytes, kilobytes, blocks (typically eight kilobytes), milliseconds, seconds, or minutes. Numeric with Unit: Some numeric parameters have an implicit unit, because they describe quantities of memory or time. Quotes are not required, except for hexadecimal input. Integer parameters additionally accept hexadecimal input (beginning with 0x) and octal input (beginning with 0), but these formats cannot have a fraction. Numeric (integer and floating point): Numeric parameters can be specified in the customary integer and floating-point formats fractional values are rounded to the nearest integer if the parameter is of integer type. (Values that match an SQL keyword require quoting in some contexts.)

Quotes can usually be omitted if the value is a simple number or identifier, however. String: In general, enclose the value in single quotes, doubling any single quotes within the value. Very useful to read in case they have modified some standard behavior.Boolean: Values can be written as on, off, true, false, yes, no, 1, 0 (all case-insensitive) or any unambiguous prefix of one of these. Debian based distributions place under /usr/share/doc documentation on how they set up different packages by default, I'm sure you'll find under /usr/share/doc/postgresql-8.4 (or maybe just postgresql) info about the configuration files.locate will help you find files you know the name of but not the location.Remember PostgreSQL supports a lot of different operating systems (and Linux distributions.)Īs Neutrino shows, if you can access your server via psql, you can tell it to show you the file location. Official documentation cannot point you to a specific folder because the actual location depends on both how the OS maker and the machine's administrator have set PostgreSQL up. Note it says stored in the database cluster's data directory and that it's possible to place it elsewhere, via a configuration parameter. Looking for 'pg_hba.conf ubuntu' on Google gives you

Postgresql conf location linux