CHECK_POSTGRES(1)

📦

version 2.26.0 · 7 versions

2.26.0 · opensuse-leap 16.0 (latest)
2.26.0 · alpine 3.24
2.25.0 · ubuntu jammy
2.25.0 · debian bookworm
2.26.0 · ubuntu noble
2.26.0 · ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking
2.26.0 · debian trixie, ubuntu questing

💖 NAME 💖

okay bestie, gather round: this is the User Contributed Perl Documentation for CHECK_POSTGRES(1), aka check_postgres.pl — a Postgres monitoring script for Nagios, MRTG, Cacti, and others. This page documents check_postgres.pl version 2.26.0. 💅✨

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

bestie, here’s the quick-start vibe:

## Create all symlinks
check_postgres.pl --symlinks

## Check connection to Postgres database 'pluto':
check_postgres.pl --action=connection --db=pluto

## Same things, but using the symlink
check_postgres_connection --db=pluto

## Warn if > 100 locks, critical if > 200, or > 20 exclusive
check_postgres_locks --warning=100 --critical="total=200:exclusive=20"

## Show the current number of idle connections on port 6543:
check_postgres_txn_idle --port=6543 --output=simple

## There are many other actions and options, please keep reading.

The latest news and documentation can always be found at: https://bucardo.org/check_postgres/

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

check_postgres.pl is a Perl script that runs many different tests against one or more Postgres databases. It uses the psql program to gather the information, and outputs the results in one of three formats: Nagios, MRTG, or simple. 🫶

💫 Output Modes 💫

The output can be changed by use of the --output option. The default output is nagios, although this can be changed at the top of the script if you wish. The current option choices are nagios, mrtg, and simple. To avoid having to enter the output argument each time, the type of output is automatically set if no --output argument is given, and if the current directory has one of the output options in its name. For example, creating a directory named mrtg and populating it with symlinks via the --symlinks argument would ensure that any actions run from that directory will always default to an output of "mrtg". As a shortcut for --output=simple, you can enter --simple, which also overrides the directory naming trick. ✨

🦋 Nagios output 🦋

The default output format is for Nagios, which is a single line of information, along with four specific exit codes:

0 (OK)
1 (WARNING)
2 (CRITICAL)
3 (UNKNOWN)

The output line is one of the words above, a colon, and then a short description of what was measured. Additional statistics information, as well as the total time the command took, can be output as well: see the documentation on the arguments --showperf, --perflimit, and --showtime. 👑

🌈 MRTG output 🌈

The MRTG output is four lines, with the first line always giving a single number of importance. When possible, this number represents an actual value such as a number of bytes, but it may also be a 1 or a 0 for actions that only return "true" or "false", such as check_postgres_version. The second line is an additional stat and is only used for some actions. The third line indicates an "uptime" and is not used. The fourth line is a description and usually indicates the name of the database the stat from the first line was pulled from, but may be different depending on the action.

Some actions accept an optional --mrtg argument to further control the output.

See the documentation on each action for details on the exact MRTG output for each one. 🔥

🍓 Simple output 🍓

The simple output is simply a truncated version of the MRTG one, and simply returns the first number and nothing else. This is very useful when you just want to check the state of something, regardless of any threshold. You can transform the numeric output by appending KB, MB, GB, TB, or EB to the output argument, for example:

--output=simple,MB

🎀 Cacti output 🎀

The Cacti output consists of one or more items on the same line, with a simple name, a colon, and then a number. At the moment, the only action with explicit Cacti output is 'dbstats', and using the --output option is not needed in this case, as Cacti is the only output for this action. For many other actions, using --simple is enough to make Cacti happy. 💖

💜 DATABASE CONNECTION OPTIONS 💜

All actions accept a common set of database options.

-H NAME or --host=NAME — connect to the host indicated by NAME. Can be a comma-separated list of names. Multiple host arguments are allowed. If no host is given, defaults to the PGHOST environment variable or no host at all (which indicates using a local Unix socket). You may also use --dbhost.
-p PORT or --port=PORT — connects using the specified PORT number. Can be a comma-separated list of port numbers, and multiple port arguments are allowed. If no port number is given, defaults to the PGPORT environment variable. If that is not set, it defaults to 5432. You may also use --dbport.
-db NAME or --dbname=NAME — specifies which database to connect to. Can be a comma-separated list of names, and multiple dbname arguments are allowed. If no dbname option is provided, defaults to the PGDATABASE environment variable. If that is not set, it defaults to 'postgres' if psql is version 8 or greater, and 'template1' otherwise.
-u USERNAME or --dbuser=USERNAME — the name of the database user to connect as. Can be a comma-separated list of usernames, and multiple dbuser arguments are allowed. If this is not provided, it defaults to the PGUSER environment variable, otherwise it defaults to 'postgres'.
--dbpass=PASSWORD — provides the password to connect to the database with. Use of this option is highly discouraged. Instead, one should use a .pgpass or pg_service.conf file.
--dbservice=NAME — the name of a service inside of the pg_service.conf file. Before version 9.0 of Postgres, this is a global file, usually found in /etc/pg_service.conf. If you are using version 9.0 or higher of Postgres, you can use the file ".pg_service.conf" in the home directory of the user running the script, e.g. nagios.

This file contains a simple list of connection options. You can also pass additional information when using this option such as --dbservice="maindatabase sslmode=require"

The documentation for this file can be found at <https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/libpq-pgservice.html>

--role=ROLE — provides the role to switch to after connecting to the database but before running the given check. This provides the ability to have superuser privileges assigned to a role without LOGIN access for the purposes of audit and other security considerations. Requires a local psql version 9.6 or higher. 🫶

The database connection options can be grouped: --host=a,b --host=c --port=1234 --port=3344 would connect to a-1234, b-1234, and c-3344. Note that once set, an option carries over until it is changed again.

Examples:

--host=a,b --port=5433 --db=c
Connects twice to port 5433, using database c, to hosts a and b: a-5433-c b-5433-c

--host=a,b --port=5433 --db=c,d
Connects four times: a-5433-c a-5433-d b-5433-c b-5433-d

--host=a,b --host=foo --port=1234 --port=5433 --db=e,f
Connects six times: a-1234-e a-1234-f b-1234-e b-1234-f foo-5433-e foo-5433-f

--host=a,b --host=x --port=5432,5433 --dbuser=alice --dbuser=bob -db=baz
Connects three times: a-5432-alice-baz b-5433-alice-baz x-5433-bob-baz

--dbservice="foo" --port=5433
Connects using the named service 'foo' in the pg_service.conf file, but overrides the port

🌈 OTHER OPTIONS 🌈

okay so there are, like, a bunch more options beyond the connection stuff. buckle up bestie, here they all are:

--action=NAME — tells the script which action we're running. it's required, unless you're using a symlinked file — in which case the name of the file is what figures out the action for you. slay.
--warning=VAL or -w VAL — sets the threshold where a warning alert fires. what counts as a valid value here totally depends on which action you're running. iykyk.
--critical=VAL or -c VAL — same deal but for the critical alert threshold. again, valid values depend on the action. 💅
-t VAL or --timeout=VAL — sets the timeout in seconds, and after that the script just aborts whatever it's doing and returns an UNKNOWN status. heads up tho: the timeout is per Postgres cluster, not for the whole entire script. default is 10, and the units are always seconds. no cap.
--assume-standby-mode — if you specify this, the check for whether the server is in standby mode happens first (--datadir is required for this, js). if it turns out the server IS in standby mode, then all checks that need SQL queries get skipped entirely, and instead you just get "Server in standby mode" back with an OK status. iconic lazy-girl behaviour honestly.

Example:

postgres@db$./check_postgres.pl --action=version --warning=8.1 --datadir /var/lib/postgresql/8.3/main/ --assume-standby-mode
POSTGRES_VERSION OK:  Server in standby mode | time=0.00

--assume-prod — if you specify this, it checks whether the server is in production mode (--datadir is required). this option is only relevant for ("symlink: check_postgres_checkpoint").

Example:

postgres@db$./check_postgres.pl --action=checkpoint --datadir /var/lib/postgresql/8.3/main/ --assume-prod
POSTGRES_CHECKPOINT OK: Last checkpoint was 72 seconds ago | age=72;;300 mode=MASTER

--assume-async — if you specify this, it means you're saying any replication between servers is asynchronous. this option is only relevant for ("symlink: check_postgres_same_schema").

Example:

postgres@db$./check_postgres.pl --action=same_schema --assume-async --dbhost=star,line

-h or --help — pops up a help screen with a lil summary of all the actions and options. 🫶
--man — shows you the entire manual. the whole thing. yes, all of it.
-V or --version — shows the current version.
-v or --verbose — sets the verbosity level. you can call it more than once to crank the level up. set it to three or higher (like, literally issuing -v -v -v) and it turns on debugging info for the program, which gets sent to stderr. 💀
--showperf=VAL — decides whether we output extra performance data in the standard Nagios format (at the end of the string, after a pipe symbol, using name=value). VAL should be 0 or 1. default is 1. this only takes effect if you're using Nagios output mode.
--perflimit=i — sets a limit on how many items of interest get reported back when you're using the showperf option. this only does anything for actions that return a large number of items, like table_size. default is 0, which means no limit. ⚠️ be careful using this alongside the --include or --exclude options — those restrictions happen after the query has already run, so your limit might not include the items you actually wanted. only takes effect if you're using Nagios output mode.
--showtime=VAL — decides whether the time taken to run each query shows up in the output. VAL should be 0 or 1. default is 1. does nothing unless showperf is on. only takes effect if you're using Nagios output mode.
--test — enables test mode. peep the "TEST MODE" section below for the deets.
--PGBINDIR=PATH — tells the script where to find the psql binaries. super useful if you've got more than one version of the PostgreSQL executables hanging out on your system, or if they're just not in your path. 👀 note that this option is in ALL UPPERCASE. by default, this option is not allowed — to enable it you have to change the $NO_PSQL_OPTION near the top of the script to 0. but like... avoid using this option if you can? instead use the environment variable PGBINDIR or the hard-coded $PGBINDIR variable (also near the top of the script) to set the path to the PostgreSQL you wanna use. bestie please.
--PSQL=PATH — (deprecated, this option may be removed in a future release!) tells the script where to find the psql program. useful if you have more than one version of the psql executable on your system, or if there's no psql program in your path. note that this option is in ALL UPPERCASE. by default, this option is not allowed — to enable it you must change the $NO_PSQL_OPTION near the top of the script to 0. avoid using this option if you can, and instead hard-code your psql location into the $PSQL variable, also near the top of the script. 💀 it's giving legacy.
--symlinks — creates symlinks to the main program for each action. cute.
--output=VAL — decides the format of the output, for use in various programs. default is 'nagios'. the available options are 'nagios', 'mrtg', 'simple' and 'cacti'.
--mrtg=VAL — used only for the MRTG or simple output, and only for a few specific actions.
--debugoutput=VAL — outputs the exact string that psql returned, for debugging purposes. the value is one or more letters, and those letters determine whether the output gets displayed. here's the cheat sheet: 'a' = all, 'c' = critical, 'w' = warning, 'o' = ok, and 'u' = unknown. you can combine the letters. 🎀
--get_method=VAL — lets you specify the method used to fetch info for the "new_version_cp", "new_version_pg", "new_version_bc", "new_version_box", and "new_version_tnm" checks. these programs get tried in this order to grab the info from the web: GET, wget, fetch, curl, lynx, links. to force the use of just one (and thus remove the overhead of trying all the others until one of them works), just enter one of the names as the argument to get_method. for example, a BSD box might put the following line in their .check_postgresrc file:

get_method=fetch

--language=VAL — sets the language to use for all output messages. normally this gets detected by examining the environment variables LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES, and LANG, but setting this option overrides any of that detection. ✨

💅 ACTIONS 💅

okay so this is the fun part. the action you wanna run gets selected with the --action flag, or by using a symlink to the main file that has the name of the action inside of it. so like, to run the action "timesync", you can either do:

check_postgres.pl --action=timesync

or use a program named:

check_postgres_timesync

all the symlinks get created for you in the current directory if you use the --symlinks option:

perl check_postgres.pl --symlinks

if the file name already exists, it will not be overwritten. but if the file exists and it's a symlink, you can force it to overwrite by using "--action=build_symlinks_force". 🦋

most actions take a --warning and a --critical option, which indicate at what point we flip from OK to WARNING, and at what point we go to CRITICAL. note that because criticals are always checked first, setting the warning equal to the critical is an effective way to turn warnings off and always give a critical. big brain move, lowkey.

the current supported actions are:

🗄️ archive_ready

("symlink: check_postgres_archive_ready") — checks how many WAL files with extension .ready exist in the pg_xlog/archive_status directory (PostgreSQL 10 and later: pg_wal/archive_status), which is found off of your data_directory. if the --lsfunc option isn't used, then this action must be run as a superuser, so it can access the contents of the pg_xlog/archive_status directory. the minimum version to use this action is Postgres 8.1. the --warning and --critical options are simply the number of .ready files in the pg_xlog/archive_status directory. usually these values should be low — like, when the archive mechanism is on, we usually want it to archive WAL files as fast as possible. 🔥

⚠️ if the archive command fails, the number of WAL files in your pg_xlog directory will grow until it exhausts all the disk space and forces PostgreSQL to stop immediately. so like... not a vibe.

to avoid running as a database superuser, you should define a wrapper function around pg_ls_dir() as a superuser with SECURITY DEFINER, and then use the --lsfunc option. this example function, if defined by a superuser, will let the script connect as a normal user nagios with --lsfunc=ls_archive_status_dir:

BEGIN;
CREATE FUNCTION ls_archive_status_dir()
    RETURNS SETOF TEXT
    AS $$ SELECT pg_ls_dir('pg_xlog/archive_status') $$
    LANGUAGE SQL
    SECURITY DEFINER;
REVOKE ALL ON FUNCTION ls_archive_status_dir() FROM PUBLIC;
GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION ls_archive_status_dir() to nagios;
COMMIT;

Example 1: check that the number of ready WAL files is 10 or less on host "pluto", using a wrapper function "ls_archive_status_dir" to avoid the need for superuser permissions

check_postgres_archive_ready --host=pluto --critical=10 --lsfunc=ls_archive_status_dir

for MRTG output, it reports the number of ready WAL files on line 1. 🎀

🧊 autovac_freeze

("symlink: check_postgres_autovac_freeze") — checks how close each database is to the Postgres autovacuum_freeze_max_age setting. this action only works for databases version 8.2 or higher. the --warning and --critical options should be expressed as percentages. the 'age' of the transactions in each database gets compared to the autovacuum_freeze_max_age setting (200 million by default) to generate a rounded percentage. the default values are 90% for the warning and 95% for the critical. databases can be filtered using the --include and --exclude options — see the "BASIC FILTERING" section for more details. 🌸

Example 1: give a warning when any databases on port 5432 are above 97%

check_postgres_autovac_freeze --port=5432 --warning="97%"

for MRTG output, the highest overall percentage gets reported on the first line, and the highest age gets reported on the second line. all databases that have the percentage from the first line are reported on the fourth line, separated by a pipe symbol. ✨

backends 💅

("symlink: check_postgres_backends") This one checks how many connections are currently chillin’ on one or more databases, and it can compare that to the max allowed, which comes from the Postgres config variable max_connections. The --warning and --critical options can be written three ways, bestie:

A plain number: that’s the number of connections where the alert fires. This form does not use the max_connections setting.
A percentage of available connections.
A negative number: that’s how many connection slots are left before max_connections is reached.

The defaults for --warning and --critical are '90%' and '95%'. You can also filter databases with --include and --exclude — see the "BASIC FILTERING" section for the deets.

Want only non-idle processes? Use the --noidle argument. Important vibe check: the user you’re running as — either connecting directly or switching via --role — must be a superuser for this to work properly.

Example 1: Warn when connections on host quirm hit 120, critical at 150.

check_postgres_backends --host=quirm --warning=120 --critical=150

Example 2: Critical when we reach 75% of our max_connections setting on hosts lancre or lancre2.

check_postgres_backends --warning='75%' --critical='75%' --host=lancre,lancre2

Example 3: Warn when there are only 10 connection slots left on host plasmid, critical when only 5 left.

check_postgres_backends --warning=-10 --critical=-5 --host=plasmid

Example 4: Check all databases except those with "test" in their name, but allow ones named "pg_greatest". Connect as port 5432 on the first two hosts, and as port 5433 on the third one. We want to always throw a critical when we reach 30 or more connections.

check_postgres_backends --dbhost=hong,kong --dbhost=fooey --dbport=5432 --dbport=5433 --warning=30 --critical=30 --exclude="~test" --include="pg_greatest,~prod"

For MRTG output, the number of connections is reported on the first line, and the fourth line gives the database name plus the current maximum_connections. If more than one database was queried, the one with the highest number of connections is output. ✨

bloat 🫧

("symlink: check_postgres_bloat") This checks how much bloat is hanging out in tables and indexes. Bloat is generally the amount of dead unused space taken up in a table or index — and that space is usually reclaimed by the VACUUM command. This action requires stats collection enabled on the target databases, and it requires ANALYZE to be run frequently. You can use --include and --exclude to filter which tables get looked at — see "BASIC FILTERING" for more.

The --warning and --critical options can be sizes, percents, or both. Valid size units are bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, exabytes, petabytes, and zettabytes. You can abbreviate all of those with the first letter. Items without units are assumed to be 'bytes'. The default values are '1 GB' and '5 GB'. The value represents the number of "wasted bytes" — the difference between what is actually used by the table and index, and what we compute that it should be.

Heads up: this action has two hard-coded values to avoid false alarms on smaller relations. Tables must have at least 10 pages, and indexes at least 15, before they can be considered by this test. If you really want to adjust these values, look for the variables $MINPAGES and $MINIPAGES at the top of the check_bloat subroutine. These values are ignored if either --exclude or --include is used.

Only the top 10 most bloated relations are shown. You can change this number by using the --perflimit option to set your own limit.

The schema named information_schema is excluded from this test, because the only tables it contains are small and do not change.

Please note that the values computed by this action are not precise, and should be used as a guideline only. Great effort was made to estimate the correct size of a table, but in the end it is only an estimate. The correct index size is even more of a guess than the correct table size, but both should give a rough idea of how bloated things are. No cap, it’s giving “best estimate” energy, not “absolute truth” energy.

Example 1: Warn if any table on port 5432 is over 100 MB bloated, critical if over 200 MB.

check_postgres_bloat --port=5432 --warning='100 M' --critical='200 M'

Example 2: Critical if table 'orders' on host 'sami' has more than 10 megs of bloat.

check_postgres_bloat --host=sami --include=orders --critical='10 MB'

Example 3: Critical if table 'q4' on database 'sales' is over 50% bloated.

check_postgres_bloat --db=sales --include=q4 --critical='50%'

Example 4: Critical if any table is over 20% bloated and has over 150 MB of bloat:

check_postgres_bloat --port=5432 --critical='20% and 150 M'

Example 5: Critical if any table is over 40% bloated or has over 500 MB of bloat:

check_postgres_bloat --port=5432 --warning='500 M or 40%'

For MRTG output, the first line gives the highest number of wasted bytes for the tables, and the second line gives the highest number of wasted bytes for the indexes. The fourth line gives the database name, table name, and index name information. If you want to output the bloat ratio instead — like, how many times larger the relation is compared to how large it should be — just pass in --mrtg=ratio. 💅

checkpoint ⏰

("symlink: check_postgres_checkpoint") Determines how long it’s been since the last checkpoint was run. This must run on the same server as the database being checked — e.g. the -h flag will not work. This check is meant to run on a "warm standby" server that is actively processing shipped WAL files, and it’s meant to check that your warm standby is truly 'warm'.

The data directory must be set, either by the environment variable PGDATA, or by passing the --datadir argument. It returns the number of seconds since the last checkpoint was run, as determined by parsing the call to pg_controldata. Because of that, the pg_controldata executable must be available in the current path. Alternatively, you can specify PGBINDIR as the directory that it lives in. It’s also possible to use the special options --assume-prod or --assume-standby-mode; if the mode found is not the one expected, a CRITICAL is emitted.

At least one warning or critical argument must be set.

This action requires the Date::Parse module.

For MRTG or simple output, it returns the number of seconds. 🎀

cluster_id 🧚

("symlink: check_postgres_cluster-id") Checks that the Database System Identifier provided by pg_controldata is the same as last time you checked. This must run on the same server as the database being checked — e.g. the -h flag will not work. Either the --warning or the --critical option should be given, but not both. The value of each one is the cluster identifier, an integer value. You can run with the special --critical=0 option to find out an existing cluster identifier.

Example 1: Find the initial identifier.

check_postgres_cluster_id --critical=0 --datadir=/var//lib/postgresql/9.0/main

Example 2: Make sure the cluster is the same and warn if not, using the result from above.

check_postgres_cluster_id  --critical=5633695740047915135

For MRTG output, it returns a 1 or 0 indicating success or failure of the identifier to match. A identifier must be provided as the --mrtg argument. The fourth line always gives the current identifier. 🔥

commitratio 📊

("symlink: check_postgres_commitratio") Checks the commit ratio of all databases and complains when they are too low. There is no need to run this command more than once per database cluster. Databases can be filtered with the --include and --exclude options — see "BASIC FILTERING" for more. They can also be filtered by the owner of the database with the --includeuser and --excludeuser options — see "USER NAME FILTERING" for more.

The warning and critical options should be specified as percentages. There are not defaults for this action: the warning and critical must be specified. The warning value cannot be greater than the critical value. The output returns all databases sorted by commitratio, smallest first.

Example: Warn if any database on host flagg is less than 90% in commitratio, and critical if less than 80%.

check_postgres_database_commitratio --host=flagg --warning='90%' --critical='80%'

For MRTG output, it returns the percentage of the database with the smallest commitratio on the first line, and the name of the database on the fourth line. 🌸

connection 🔌

("symlink: check_postgres_connection") Simply connects, issues a 'SELECT version()', and leaves. Takes no --warning or --critical options.

For MRTG output, it simply outputs a 1 (good connection) or a 0 (bad connection) on the first line. 🦋

custom_query 🎯

("symlink: check_postgres_custom_query") Runs a custom query of your choosing and parses the results. The query itself is passed in through the query argument, and it should be kept as simple as possible. If at all possible, wrap it in a view or a function to keep things easier to manage.

The query should return one or two columns. It is required that one of the columns be named result, and that’s the item checked against your warning and critical values. The second column is for the performance data and any name can be used: this will be the 'value' inside the performance data section.

At least one warning or critical argument must be specified. What these are set to depends on the type of query you’re running. There are four types of custom_queries that can be run, specified by the valtype argument. If none is specified, this action defaults to 'integer'. The four types are:

integer: Does a simple integer comparison. The first column should be a simple integer, and the warning and critical values should be the same.

string: The warning and critical are strings, and are triggered only if the value in the first column matches exactly. This is case-sensitive.

time: The warning and the critical are times, and can have units of seconds, minutes, hours, or days. Each may be written singular or abbreviated to just the first letter. If no units are given, seconds are assumed. The first column should be an integer representing the number of seconds to check.

size — the warning and the critical are sizes, and they can have units of bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, or exabytes ✨. Each one can be abbreviated to just the first letter (iykyk). If you don't give any units at all, bytes are assumed. The first column should be an integer representing the number of bytes to check.

Okay so the whole alert logic here: normally an alert goes off if the values that come back are greater than or equal to the critical or warning value. But — plot twist — with the --reverse option, the alert triggers if the returned value is lower than or equal to the critical or warning value. 🔄

Example 1: Warn if any relation over 100 pages is named "rad", and put the number of pages inside the performance data section.

check_postgres_custom_query --valtype=string -w "rad" --query=
  "SELECT relname AS result, relpages AS pages FROM pg_class WHERE relpages > 100"

Example 2: Give a critical if the "foobar" function returns a number over 5MB:

check_postgres_custom_query --critical='5MB'--valtype=size --query="SELECT foobar() AS result"

Example 2: (yes bestie, it says Example 2 again — the manpage is serving double-Example-2 energy and honestly? iconic 💅) Warn if the function "snazzo" returns less than 42:

check_postgres_custom_query --critical=42 --query="SELECT snazzo() AS result" --reverse

🫶 If you come up with a useful custom_query, consider sending in a patch to this program to make it into a standard action that other people can use. That's the community love language, fr fr.

This action does not support MRTG or simple output yet. 😭

💾 `database_size`

(symlink: check_postgres_database_size) Checks the size of all databases and complains when they're too big 🎈. There is no need to run this command more than once per database cluster. Databases can be filtered with the --include and --exclude options — see the "BASIC FILTERING" section for more details. They can also be filtered by the owner of the database with the --includeuser and --excludeuser options — see the "USER NAME FILTERING" section for more details.

The warning and critical options can be specified as bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, or exabytes 🌈. Each may be abbreviated to the first letter as well. If no unit is given, the units are assumed to be bytes. There are not defaults for this action: the warning and critical must be specified. The warning value cannot be greater than the critical value. The output returns all databases sorted by size largest first, showing both raw bytes and a "pretty" version of the size. 🎀

Example 1: Warn if any database on host flagg is over 1 TB in size, and critical if over 1.1 TB.

check_postgres_database_size --host=flagg --warning='1 TB' --critical='1.1 t'

Example 2: Give a critical if the database template1 on port 5432 is over 10 MB.

check_postgres_database_size --port=5432 --include=template1 --warning='10MB' --critical='10MB'

Example 3: Give a warning if any database on host 'tardis' owned by the user 'tom' is over 5 GB

check_postgres_database_size --host=tardis --includeuser=tom --warning='5 GB' --critical='10 GB'

For MRTG output, it returns the size in bytes of the largest database on the first line, and the name of the database on the fourth line. 📊

📈 `dbstats`

(symlink: check_postgres_dbstats) Reports information from the pg_stat_database view, and outputs it in a Cacti-friendly manner. No other output is supported, since the output is informational and does not lend itself to alerts, such as used with Nagios. If no options are given, all databases are returned, one per line. You can include a specific database by use of the --include option, or you can use the --dbname option. 🌸

Eleven items are returned on each line, in the format name:value, separated by a single space. The items are:

backends — The number of currently running backends for this database.
commits — The total number of commits for this database since it was created or reset.
rollbacks — The total number of rollbacks for this database since it was created or reset.
read — The total number of disk blocks read.
hit — The total number of buffer hits.
ret — The total number of rows returned.
fetch — The total number of rows fetched.
ins — The total number of rows inserted.
upd — The total number of rows updated.
del — The total number of rows deleted.
dbname — The name of the database.

⚠️ Note that the ret, fetch, ins, upd, and del items will always be 0 if Postgres is version 8.2 or lower, as those stats were not available in those versions. Ancient history behavior, no cap.

If the dbname argument is given, seven additional items are returned:

idxscan — Total number of user index scans.
idxtupread — Total number of user index entries returned.
idxtupfetch — Total number of rows fetched by simple user index scans.
idxblksread — Total number of disk blocks read for all user indexes.
idxblkshit — Total number of buffer hits for all user indexes.
seqscan — Total number of sequential scans against all user tables.
seqtupread — Total number of tuples returned from all user tables.

Example 1: Grab the stats for a database named "products" on host "willow":

check_postgres_dbstats --dbhost willow --dbname products

The output returned will be like this (all on one line, not wrapped) 🦋:

backends:82 commits:58374408 rollbacks:1651 read:268435543 hit:2920381758 idxscan:310931294 idxtupread:2777040927
idxtupfetch:1840241349 idxblksread:62860110 idxblkshit:1107812216 seqscan:5085305 seqtupread:5370500520
ret:0 fetch:0 ins:0 upd:0 del:0 dbname:willow

🚫 `disabled_triggers`

(symlink: check_postgres_disabled_triggers) Checks on the number of disabled triggers inside the database. The --warning and --critical options are the number of such triggers found, and both default to "1", because in normal usage having disabled triggers is a dangerous event 💀. If the database being checked is 8.3 or higher, the check is for the number of triggers that are in a 'disabled' status (as opposed to being 'always' or 'replica'). The output will show the name of the table and the name of the trigger for each disabled trigger. 👑

Example 1: Make sure that there are no disabled triggers

check_postgres_disabled_triggers

For MRTG output, it returns the number of disabled triggers on the first line. 📉

🗄️ `disk_space`

(symlink: check_postgres_disk_space) Checks on the available physical disk space used by Postgres. This action requires that you have the executable /bin/df available to report on disk sizes 🧚, and it also needs to be run as a superuser (either connecting directly or switching via --role), so it can examine the data_directory setting inside of Postgres. The --warning and --critical options are given in either sizes or percentages or both. If using sizes, the standard unit types are allowed: bytes, kilobytes, gigabytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, or exabytes. Each may be abbreviated to the first letter only; no units at all indicates 'bytes'. The default values are '90%' and '95%'. ✨

This command checks the following things to determine all of the different physical disks being used by Postgres:

data_directory — The disk that the main data directory is on.
log directory — The disk that the log files are on.
WAL file directory — The disk that the write-ahead logs are on (e.g. symlinked pg_xlog or pg_wal)
tablespaces — Each tablespace that is on a separate disk.

The output shows the total size used and available on each disk, as well as the percentage, ordered by highest to lowest percentage used. Each item above maps to a file system: these can be included or excluded. See the "BASIC FILTERING" section for more details. 🌈

Example 1: Make sure that no file system is over 90% for the database on port 5432.

check_postgres_disk_space --port=5432 --warning='90%' --critical='90%'

Example 2: Check that all file systems starting with /dev/sda are smaller than 10 GB and 11 GB (warning and critical)

check_postgres_disk_space --port=5432 --warning='10 GB' --critical='11 GB' --include="~^/dev/sda"

Example 4: Make sure that no file system is both over 50% and has over 15 GB

check_postgres_disk_space --critical='50% and 15 GB'

Example 5: Issue a warning if any file system is either over 70% full or has more than 1T

check_postgres_disk_space --warning='1T or 75'

🙈 Yes, the numbering skips Example 3. We don't ask questions, we just vibe check the disks.

For MRTG output, it returns the size in bytes of the file system on the first line, and the name of the file system on the fourth line. 💾

🧩 `fsm_pages`

(symlink: check_postgres_fsm_pages) Checks how close a cluster is to the Postgres max_fsm_pages setting. This action will only work for databases of 8.2 or higher, and it requires the contrib module pg_freespacemap be installed 🎀. The --warning and --critical options should be expressed as percentages. The number of used pages in the free-space-map is determined by looking in the pg_freespacemap_relations view, and running a formula based on the formula used for outputting free-space-map pageslots in the vacuum verbose command. The default values are 85% for the warning and 95% for the critical. ⭐

Example 1: Give a warning when our cluster has used up 76% of the free-space pageslots, with pg_freespacemap installed in database robert

check_postgres_fsm_pages --dbname=robert --warning="76%"

While you need to pass in the name of the database where pg_freespacemap is installed, you only need to run this check once per cluster. Also, checking this information does require obtaining special locks on the free-space-map, so it is recommend you do not run this check with short intervals 🔒. (Lowkey important, bestie.)

For MRTG output, it returns the percent of free-space-map on the first line, and the number of pages currently used on the second line. 📊

🧩 `fsm_relations`

(symlink: check_postgres_fsm_relations) Checks how close a cluster is to the Postgres max_fsm_relations setting. This action will only work for databases of 8.2 or higher, and it requires the contrib module pg_freespacemap be installed 🦋. The --warning and --critical options should be expressed as percentages. The number of used relations in the free-space-map is determined by looking in the pg_freespacemap_relations view. The default values are 85% for the warning and 95% for the critical. 🌸

Example 1: Give a warning when our cluster has used up 80% of the free-space relations, with pg_freespacemap installed in database dylan

check_postgres_fsm_relations --dbname=dylan --warning="75%"

For MRTG output, it returns the percent of free-space-map on the first line, the number of relations currently used on the second line. 📈

🌟 hitratio

(symlink: check_postgres_hitratio) Okay so this one checks the hit ratio of like, every database, and it will straight up complain at you when they're too low. 🫶 And bestie, listen — there's genuinely no need to run this more than once per database cluster. Like, once is enough, we're not doing extra credit here.

You can filter which databases get looked at with --include and --exclude (peep the BASIC FILTERING section for the deets). You can also filter by who owns the database using --includeuser and --excludeuser — see USER NAME FILTERING for more.

The --warning and --critical options are specified as percentages, mmkay? And heads up: there are no defaults for this action — you must specify both warning and critical. The warning value cannot be greater than the critical value. ✨

The output returns all databases sorted by hitratio, smallest first — worst offender at the top, main character energy for the messiest db. 💅

Example: warn if any database on host flagg is less than 90% in hitratio, and critical if less then 80%.

check_postgres_hitratio --host=flagg --warning='90%' --critical='80%'

For MRTG output, it returns the percentage of the database with the smallest hitratio on the first line, and the name of the database on the fourth line. 🎀

🔥 hot_standby_delay

(symlink: check_hot_standby_delay) This one checks streaming replication lag by computing the delta between the current xlog position of a master server and the replay location of a slave connected to it. The slave server must be in hot_standby mode (like, read only), therefore the minimum version to use this action is Postgres 9.0. Not negotiable, she's vintage. 😤

The --warning and --critical options are the delta between the xlog locations. And because these values are byte offsets in the WAL, they should match the expected transaction volume of your application — otherwise you get false positives or negatives and you'll be crying for no reason. 😭

So here's the vibe: the first --dbname, --host, and --port, etc. options are considered the master; the second belongs to the slave. First is first, second is second, don't mix them up bestie.

Byte values should be based on the volume of transactions needed to have the streaming replication disconnect from the master because of too much lag — determined by the Postgres configuration variable wal_keep_segments. For units of time, valid units are 'seconds', 'minutes', 'hours', or 'days'. Each may be written singular or abbreviated to just the first letter. When specifying both, in the form 'bytes and time', both conditions must be true for the threshold to be met. Both. Like a duo. ✌️

You must provide information on how to reach the databases by providing a comma separated list to the --dbhost and --dbport parameters, such as "--dbport=5432,5543". If not given, the action fails. No list, no check, that's the rule. 🙈

Example 1: Warn a database with a local replica on port 5433 is behind on any xlog replay at all

check_hot_standby_delay --dbport=5432,5433 --warning='1'

Example 2: Give a critical if the last transaction replica1 receives is more than 10 minutes ago

check_hot_standby_delay --dbhost=master,replica1 --critical='10 min'

Example 3: Allow replica1 to be 1 WAL segment behind, if the master is momentarily seeing more activity than the streaming replication connection can handle, or 10 minutes behind, if the master is seeing very little activity and not processing any transactions, but not both, which would indicate a lasting problem with the replication connection.

check_hot_standby_delay --dbhost=master,replica1 --warning='1048576 and 2 min' --critical='16777216 and 10 min'

🧚 relation_size / index_size / table_size / indexes_size / total_relation_size

(symlinks: "check_postgres_relation_size", "check_postgres_index_size", "check_postgres_table_size", "check_postgres_indexes_size", and "check_postgres_total_relation_size")

A whole little squad of size-checkers, and each one is iconic in her own way: 👑

The actions relation_size and index_size check for a relation (table, index, materialized view), respectively an index that has grown too big, using the pg_relation_size() function.

The action table_size checks tables and materialized views using pg_table_size(), i.e. including relation forks and TOAST table.

The action indexes_size checks tables and materialized views for the size of the attached indexes using pg_indexes_size().

The action total_relation_size checks relations using pg_total_relation_size(), i.e. including relation forks, indexes and TOAST table. The whole package. 💖

Relations can be filtered with the --include and --exclude options — see the BASIC FILTERING section for more details. Relations can also be filtered by the user that owns them, by using the --includeuser and --excludeuser options. See the USER NAME FILTERING section for more details.

The values for the --warning and --critical options are file sizes, and may have units of bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, or exabytes. Each can be abbreviated to the first letter. If no units are given, bytes are assumed. There are no default values — both the warning and the critical option must be given. The return text shows the size of the largest relation found. 📏

If the --showperf option is enabled, all of the relations with their sizes will be given. To prevent this, it is recommended that you set the --perflimit option, which will cause the query to do a "ORDER BY size DESC LIMIT (perflimit)". Yeah. Do that. 🔥

Example 1: Give a critical if any table is larger than 600MB on host burrick.

check_postgres_table_size --critical='600 MB' --warning='600 MB' --host=burrick

Example 2: Warn if the table products is over 4 GB in size, and give a critical at 4.5 GB.

check_postgres_table_size --host=burrick --warning='4 GB' --critical='4.5 GB' --include=products

Example 3: Warn if any index not owned by postgres goes over 500 MB.

check_postgres_index_size --port=5432 --excludeuser=postgres -w 500MB -c 600MB

For MRTG output, it returns the size in bytes of the largest relation, and the name of the database and relation as the fourth line. 🌸

🦋 last_analyze / last_vacuum / last_autoanalyze / last_autovacuum

(symlinks: "check_postgres_last_analyze", "check_postgres_last_vacuum", "check_postgres_last_autoanalyze", and "check_postgres_last_autovacuum")

This checks how long it has been since vacuum (or analyze) was last run on each table in one or more databases. ⏰

Use of these actions requires that the target database is version 8.3 or greater, or that the version is 8.2 and the configuration variable stats_row_level has been enabled.

Tables can be filtered with the --include and --exclude options — see BASIC FILTERING. Tables can also be filtered by their owner by use of the --includeuser and --excludeuser options — see USER NAME FILTERING.

The units for --warning and --critical are specified as times. Valid units are seconds, minutes, hours, and days; all can be abbreviated to the first letter. If no units are given, 'seconds' are assumed. The default values are '1 day' and '2 days'.

Heads up bestie, ngl: there are cases in which this field does not get automatically populated. If certain tables are giving you problems, make sure that they have dead rows to vacuum, or just exclude them from the test. 🙈

The schema named 'information_schema' is excluded from this test, as the only tables it contains are small and do not change. Small + static = not invited to the party. 💅

Also note: the non-'auto' versions will also check on the auto versions as well. In other words, using last_vacuum will report on the last vacuum, whether it was a normal vacuum, or one run by the autovacuum daemon. She sees everything. 👀

Example 1: Warn if any table has not been vacuumed in 3 days, and give a critical at a week, for host wormwood

check_postgres_last_vacuum --host=wormwood --warning='3d' --critical='7d'

Example 2: Same as above, but skip tables belonging to the users eve or mallory

check_postgres_last_vacuum --host=wormwood --warning='3d' --critical='7d' --excludeuser=eve,mallory

For MRTG output, it returns (on the first line) the LEAST amount of time in seconds since a table was last vacuumed or analyzed. The fourth line returns the name of the database and name of the table. ⭐

🌈 listener

(symlink: check_postgres_listener) Confirm that someone is listening for one or more specific strings (using the LISTEN/NOTIFY system), by looking at the pg_listener table. 🎧

Only one of warning or critical is needed. The format is a simple string representing the LISTEN target, or a tilde character followed by a string for a regular expression check.

Big yikes moment: note that this check will not work on versions of Postgres 9.0 or higher. 💀

Example 1: Give a warning if nobody is listening for the string bucardo_mcp_ping on ports 5555 and 5556

check_postgres_listener --port=5555,5556 --warning=bucardo_mcp_ping

Example 2: Give a critical if there are no active LISTEN requests matching 'grimm' on database oskar

check_postgres_listener --db oskar --critical=~grimm

For MRTG output, it returns a 1 or a 0 on the first, indicating success or failure. The name of the notice must be provided via the --mrtg option. 🎀

🍓 locks

(symlink: check_postgres_locks) Checks the total number of locks on one or more databases. And again — there is no need to run this more than once per database cluster. Once, bestie. Only once. 🫶

Databases can be filtered with the --include and --exclude options. See the BASIC FILTERING section for more details.

The --warning and --critical options can be specified as simple numbers, which represent the total number of locks, or they can be broken down by type of lock. Valid lock names are 'total', 'waiting', or the name of a lock type used by Postgres. These names are case-insensitive and do not need the "lock" part on the end, so exclusive will match 'ExclusiveLock'. Slay, so forgiving. ✨

The format is name=number, with different items separated by colons or semicolons (or any other symbol). Whatever symbol speaks to you. 💅

Example 1: Warn if the number of locks is 100 or more, and critical if 200 or more, on host garrett

check_postgres_locks --host=garrett --warning=100 --critical=200

Example 2: On the host artemus, warn if 200 or more locks exist, and give a critical if over 250 total locks exist, or if over 20 exclusive locks exist, or if over 5 connections are waiting for a lock.

check_postgres_locks --host=artemus --warning=200 --critical="total=250:waiting=5:exclusive=20"

For MRTG output, it returns the number of locks on the first line, and the name of the database on the fourth line. 🔥

✨ `logfile` ✨

("symlink: check_postgres_logfile")

Okay so bestie, this action makes sure your logfile is literally in the expected location and that Postgres is actually logging to it. It issues a command that throws an error on each database it is checking, and then makes sure that message shows up in the logs. It scans the various log_* settings inside Postgres to figure out where the logs should be. If you’re using syslog, it does a rough (but not foolproof) scan of /etc/syslog.conf. Alternatively, you can provide the name of the logfile with the --logfile option. This is especially useful if the logs have a custom rotation scheme driven by an external program. The --logfile option supports these escape characters: "%Y %m %d %H", which represent the current year, month, date, and hour respectively. An error is always reported as critical unless the warning option has been passed in as a non-zero value.

🚨 Other than that specific usage, the --warning and --critical options should not be used.

Example 1: On port 5432, ensure the logfile is being written to the file /home/greg/pg8.2.log

check_postgres_logfile --port=5432 --logfile=/home/greg/pg8.2.log

Example 2: Same as above, but raise a warning, not a critical

check_postgres_logfile --port=5432 --logfile=/home/greg/pg8.2.log -w 1

For MRTG output, returns a 1 or 0 on the first line, indicating success or failure. In case of a failure, the fourth line will provide more detail on the failure encountered.

🦋 `new_version_bc` 🦋

("symlink: check_postgres_new_version_bc") Checks if a newer version of the Bucardo program is available. The current version is obtained by running bucardo_ctl --version. If a major upgrade is available, a warning is returned. If a revision upgrade is available, a critical is returned. (Bucardo is a master to slave, and master to master replication system for Postgres: see https://bucardo.org/ for more information). See also the information on the --get_method option.

🎀 `new_version_box` 🎀

("symlink: check_postgres_new_version_box") Checks if a newer version of the boxinfo program is available. The current version is obtained by running boxinfo.pl --version. If a major upgrade is available, a warning is returned. If a revision upgrade is available, a critical is returned. (boxinfo is a program for grabbing important information from a server and putting it into a HTML format: see https://bucardo.org/Boxinfo/ for more information). See also the information on the --get_method option.

🌸 `new_version_cp` 🌸

("symlink: check_postgres_new_version_cp") Checks if a newer version of this program (check_postgres.pl) is available, by grabbing the version from a small text file on the main page of the home page for the project. Returns a warning if the returned version does not match the one you are running. Recommended interval to check is once a day. See also the information on the --get_method option.

⭐ `new_version_pg` ⭐

("symlink: check_postgres_new_version_pg") Checks if a newer revision of Postgres exists for each database connected to. Note that this only checks for revision, e.g. going from 8.3.6 to 8.3.7. Revisions are always 100% binary compatible and involve no dump and restore to upgrade. Revisions are made to address bugs, so upgrading as soon as possible is always recommended. Returns a warning if you do not have the latest revision. It is recommended this check is run at least once a day. See also the information on the --get_method option.

🧚 `new_version_tnm` 🧚

("symlink: check_postgres_new_version_tnm") Checks if a newer version of the tail_n_mail program is available. The current version is obtained by running tail_n_mail --version. If a major upgrade is available, a warning is returned. If a revision upgrade is available, a critical is returned. (tail_n_mail is a log monitoring tool that can send mail when interesting events appear in your Postgres logs. See: https://bucardo.org/tail_n_mail/ for more information). See also the information on the --get_method option.

🌈 the `pgb_pool_*` squad: `pgb_pool_cl_active`, `pgb_pool_cl_waiting`, `pgb_pool_sv_active`, `pgb_pool_sv_idle`, `pgb_pool_sv_used`, `pgb_pool_sv_tested`, `pgb_pool_sv_login`, `pgb_pool_maxwait` 🌈

(symlinks: check_postgres_pgb_pool_cl_active, check_postgres_pgb_pool_cl_waiting, check_postgres_pgb_pool_sv_active, check_postgres_pgb_pool_sv_idle, check_postgres_pgb_pool_sv_used, check_postgres_pgb_pool_sv_tested, check_postgres_pgb_pool_sv_login, and check_postgres_pgb_pool_maxwait)

Examines pgbouncer’s pool statistics. Each pool has a set of “client” connections, referring to connections from external clients, and “server” connections, referring to connections to PostgreSQL itself. The related check_postgres actions are prefixed by cl_ and sv_, respectively. Active client connections are those connections currently linked with an active server connection. Client connections may also be “waiting”, meaning they have not yet been allocated a server connection. Server connections are “active” (linked to a client), “idle” (standing by for a client connection to link with), “used” (just unlinked from a client, and not yet returned to the idle pool), “tested” (currently being tested) and “login” (in the process of logging in). The maxwait value shows how long in seconds the oldest waiting client connection has been waiting.

💅 `pgbouncer_backends` 💅

("symlink: check_postgres_pgbouncer_backends") Checks the current number of connections for one or more databases through pgbouncer, and optionally compares it to the maximum allowed, which is determined by the pgbouncer configuration variable max_client_conn. The --warning and --critical options can take one of three forms:

A simple number can be given, which represents the number of connections at which the alert will be given. This choice does not use the max_connections setting.
The percentage of available connections can be given.
A negative number can be given which represents the number of connections left until max_connections is reached.

The default values for --warning and --critical are '90%' and '95%'. You can also filter the databases by use of the --include and --exclude options. See the BASIC FILTERING section for more details.

To view only non-idle processes, you can use the --noidle argument. Note that the user you are running as (either connecting directly or switching via --role) must be a superuser for this to work properly.

Example 1: Give a warning when the number of connections on host quirm reaches 120, and a critical if it reaches 150.

check_postgres_pgbouncer_backends --host=quirm --warning=120 --critical=150 -p 6432 -u pgbouncer

Example 2: Give a critical when we reach 75% of our max_connections setting on hosts lancre or lancre2.

check_postgres_pgbouncer_backends --warning='75%' --critical='75%' --host=lancre,lancre2 -p 6432 -u pgbouncer

Example 3: Give a warning when there are only 10 more connection slots left on host plasmid, and a critical when we have only 5 left.

check_postgres_pgbouncer_backends --warning=-10 --critical=-5 --host=plasmid -p 6432 -u pgbouncer

For MRTG output, the number of connections is reported on the first line, and the fourth line gives the name of the database, plus the current max_client_conn. If more than one database has been queried, the one with the highest number of connections is output.

🔥 `pgbouncer_checksum` 🔥

("symlink: check_postgres_pgbouncer_checksum") Checks that all the pgBouncer settings are the same as last time you checked. This is done by generating a checksum of a sorted list of setting names and their values. Note that you shouldn’t specify the database name, it will automatically default to pgbouncer. Either the --warning or the --critical option should be given, but not both. The value of each one is the checksum, a 32-character hexadecimal value. You can run with the special --critical=0 option to find out an existing checksum.

This action requires the Digest::MD5 module.

Example 1: Find the initial checksum for pgbouncer configuration on port 6432 using the default user (usually postgres)

check_postgres_pgbouncer_checksum --port=6432 --critical=0

Example 2: Make sure no settings have changed and warn if so, using the checksum from above.

check_postgres_pgbouncer_checksum --port=6432 --warning=cd2f3b5e129dc2b4f5c0f6d8d2e64231

For MRTG output, returns a 1 or 0 indicating success or failure of the checksum to match. A checksum must be provided as the --mrtg argument. The fourth line always gives the current checksum.

🍓 `pgbouncer_maxwait` 🍓

("symlink: check_postgres_pgbouncer_maxwait") Checks how long the first (oldest) client in the queue has been waiting, in seconds. If this starts increasing, then the current pool of servers does not handle requests quick enough. Reason may be either overloaded server or just too small of a pool_size setting in the pgbouncer config file. Databases can be filtered by use of the --include and --exclude options. See the BASIC FILTERING section for more details. The values of the --warning and --critical options are units of time, and must be provided (no default). Valid units are 'seconds', 'minutes', 'hours', or 'days'. Each may be written singular or abbreviated to just the first letter. If no units are given, the units are assumed to be seconds.

This action requires Postgres 8.3 or better.

Example 1: Give a critical if any transaction has been open for more than 10 minutes:

check_postgres_pgbouncer_maxwait -p 6432 -u pgbouncer --critical='10 minutes'

For MRTG output, returns the maximum time in seconds a transaction has been open on the first line. The fourth line gives the name of the database.

🫶 `pgagent_jobs` 🫶

("symlink: check_postgres_pgagent_jobs") Checks that all the pgAgent jobs that have executed in the preceding interval of time have succeeded. This is done by checking for any steps that have a non-zero result.

Either --warning or --critical, or both, may be specified as times, and jobs will be checked for failures within the specified periods of time before the current time. Valid units are seconds, minutes, hours, and days; all can be abbreviated to the first letter. If no units are given, 'seconds' are assumed.

Example 1: Give a critical when any jobs executed in the last day have failed.

check_postgres_pgagent_jobs --critical=1d

Example 2: Give a warning when any jobs executed in the last week have failed.

check_postgres_pgagent_jobs --warning=7d

Example 3: Give a critical for jobs that have failed in the last 2 hours and a warning for jobs that have failed in the last 4 hours:

check_postgres_pgagent_jobs --critical=2h --warning=4h

💅 prepared_txns

symlink: check_postgres_prepared_txns

Okay so this one checks the age of any existing prepared transactions. Big vibe check first: most people will NOT use prepared transactions, because they’re part of two-part commit and are complicated to maintain. Also, do not confuse them with prepared STATEMENTS — that’s what most people think of when they hear “prepare”. The default warning value is 1 second, specifically to detect any use of prepared transactions, which is probably a mistake on most systems. --warning and --critical are the number of seconds a prepared transaction has been open before an alert is given.

Example 1: Give a warning on detecting any prepared transactions:

check_postgres_prepared_txns -w 0

Example 2: Give a critical if any prepared transaction has been open longer than 10 seconds, but allow up to 360 seconds for the database shrike:

check_postgres_prepared_txns --critical=10 --exclude=shrike
check_postgres_prepared_txns --critical=360 --include=shrike

For MRTG output, returns the number of seconds the oldest transaction has been open as the first line, and which database it came from as the final line.

⏱️ query_runtime

symlink: check_postgres_query_runtime

Checks how long a specific query takes to run by executing an EXPLAIN ANALYZE against it. --warning and --critical are the maximum amount of time the query should take. Valid units are seconds, minutes, and hours; any can be abbreviated to the first letter. If no units are given, seconds are assumed. Both the warning and critical option must be given. The name of the view or function to be run must be passed in to --queryname. It must consist of a single word (or schema.word), with optional parens at the end.

Example 1: Give a critical if the function named speedtest fails to run in 10 seconds or less.

check_postgres_query_runtime --queryname='speedtest()' --critical=10 --warning=10

For MRTG output, reports the time in seconds for the query to complete on the first line. The fourth line lists the database.

🌸 query_time

symlink: check_postgres_query_time

Checks the length of running queries on one or more databases. There is no need to run this more than once on the same database cluster. Note that this already excludes queries that are "idle in transaction". Databases can be filtered by using --include and --exclude. See the BASIC FILTERING section for more details. You can also filter on the user running the query with --includeuser and --excludeuser. See the USER NAME FILTERING section for more details.

The values for --warning and --critical are amounts of time, and at least one must be provided (no defaults). Valid units are seconds, minutes, hours, or days. Each may be written singular or abbreviated to just the first letter. If no units are given, the unit is assumed to be seconds.

This action requires Postgres 8.1 or better.

Example 1: Give a warning if any query has been running longer than 3 minutes, and a critical if longer than 5 minutes.

check_postgres_query_time --port=5432 --warning='3 minutes' --critical='5 minutes'

Example 2: Using default values (2 and 5 minutes), check all databases except those starting with template.

check_postgres_query_time --port=5432 --exclude=~^template

Example 3: Warn if user don has a query running over 20 seconds.

check_postgres_query_time --port=5432 --includeuser=don --warning=20s

For MRTG output, returns the length in seconds of the longest running query on the first line. The fourth line gives the name of the database.

🦋 replicate_row

symlink: check_postgres_replicate_row

Checks that master-slave replication is working to one or more slaves.

The first --dbname, --host, and --port, etc. options are considered the master; subsequent uses are the slaves. The values of the --warning and --critical options are units of time, and at least one must be provided (no defaults). Valid units are seconds, minutes, hours, or days. Each may be written singular or abbreviated to just the first letter. If no units are given, the units are assumed to be seconds.

This check updates a single row on the master, and then measures how long it takes to be applied to the slaves. To do this, you need to pick a table that is being replicated, then find a row that can be changed, and is not going to be changed by any other process. A specific column of this row will be changed from one value to another. All of this is fed to the --repinfo option, and should contain the following options, separated by commas: table name, primary key, key id, column, first value, second value.

Example 1: Slony is replicating a table named orders from host alpha to host beta, in the database sales. The primary key of the table is named id, and we are going to test the row with an id of 3 (which is historical and never changed). There is a column named salesrep that we are going to toggle from a value of slon to nols to check on the replication. We want to throw a warning if the replication does not happen within 10 seconds.

check_postgres_replicate_row --host=alpha --dbname=sales --host=beta
--dbname=sales --warning=10 --repinfo=orders,id,3,salesrep,slon,nols

Example 2: Bucardo is replicating a table named receipt from host green to hosts red, blue, and yellow. The database for both sides is public. The slave databases are running on port 5455. The primary key is named receipt_id, the row we want to use has a value of 9, and the column we want to change for the test is called zone. We’ll toggle between north and south for the value of this column, and throw a critical if the change is not on all three slaves within 5 seconds.

check_postgres_replicate_row --host=green --port=5455 --host=red,blue,yellow
--critical=5 --repinfo=receipt,receipt_id,9,zone,north,south

For MRTG output, returns on the first line the time in seconds the replication takes to finish. The maximum time is set to 4 minutes 30 seconds: if no replication has taken place in that long a time, an error is thrown.

🔥 replication_slots

symlink: check_postgres_replication_slots

Check the quantity of WAL retained for any replication slots in the target database cluster. This is handy for monitoring environments where all WAL archiving and replication is taking place over replication slots.

--warning and --critical are total bytes retained for the slot. E.g:

check_postgres_replication_slots --port=5432 --host=yellow -warning=32M -critical=64M

Specific named slots can be monitored using --include/--exclude.

🧚 same_schema

symlink: check_postgres_same_schema

Verifies that two or more databases are identical as far as their schema (but not the data within). Unlike most other actions, this has no warning or critical criteria — the databases are either in sync, or are not. If they are different, a detailed list of the differences is presented.

You may want to exclude or filter out certain differences. The way to do this is to add strings to the --filter option. To exclude a type of object, use noname, where name is the type of object, for example, noschema. To exclude objects of a certain type by a regular expression against their name, use noname=regex. See the examples below for a better understanding.

The types of objects that can be filtered include:

user
schema
table
view
index
sequence
constraint
trigger
function

The filter option noposition prevents verification of the position of columns within a table.

The filter option nofuncbody prevents comparison of the bodies of all functions.

The filter option noperm prevents comparison of object permissions.

To provide the second database, just append the differences to the first one by a call to the appropriate connection argument. For example, to compare databases on hosts alpha and bravo, use --dbhost=alpha,bravo. Also see the examples below.

If only a single host is given, it is assumed we are doing a "time-based" report. The first time this is run a snapshot of all the items in the database is saved to a local file. When you run it again, that snapshot is read in and becomes "database #2" and is compared to the current database.

To replace the old stored file with the new version, use the --replace argument.

If you need to write the stored file to a specific directory, use the --audit-file-dir argument.

To avoid false positives on value based checks caused by replication lag on asynchronous replicas, use the --assume-async option.

To enable snapshots at various points in time, you can use the --suffix argument to make the filenames unique to each run. See the examples below.

Example 1: Verify that two databases on hosts star and line are the same:

check_postgres_same_schema --dbhost=star,line

Example 2: Same as before, but exclude any triggers with slony in their name:

check_postgres_same_schema --dbhost=star,line --filter="notrigger=slony"

Example 3: Same as before, but also exclude all indexes:

check_postgres_same_schema --dbhost=star,line --filter="notrigger=slony noindexes"

Example 4: Check differences for the database battlestar on different ports:

check_postgres_same_schema --dbname=battlestar --dbport=5432,5544

Example 5: Create a daily and weekly snapshot file:

check_postgres_same_schema --dbname=cylon --suffix=daily
check_postgres_same_schema --dbname=cylon --suffix=weekly

Example 6: Run a historical comparison, then replace the file:

check_postgres_same_schema --dbname=cylon --suffix=daily --replace

Example 7: Verify that two databases on hosts star and line are the same, excluding value data (i.e. sequence last_val):

check_postgres_same_schema --dbhost=star,line --assume-async

🍓 sequence

symlink: check_postgres_sequence

Checks how much room is left on all sequences in the database. This is measured as the percent of total possible values that have been used for each sequence. The --warning and --critical options should be expressed as percentages. The default values are 85% for the warning and 95% for the critical. You may use --include and --exclude to control which sequences are to be checked. Note that this check does account for unusual minvalue and increment by values. By default it does not care if the sequence is set to cycle or not, and by passing --skipcycled sequences set to cycle are reported with 0% usage.

The output for Nagios gives the name of the sequence, the percentage used, and the number of 'calls' left, indicating how many more times nextval can be called on that sequence before running into the maximum value.

The MRTG output? Okay so line one is the highest percentage across all sequences, and line four is the name of each sequence with that percentage — separated by a "|" (pipe) if there's more than one sequence sitting at that percentage. Slay.

Example 1: Warn me if any sequences are approaching 95% full.

check_postgres_sequence --dbport=5432 --warning=95%

Example 2: Check that the sequence named "orders_id_seq" is not more than half full.

check_postgres_sequence --dbport=5432 --critical=50% --include=orders_id_seq

🎀 settings_checksum 🎀

("symlink: check_postgres_settings_checksum") Bestie, this one checks that all the Postgres settings are the same as last time you checked. How? It generates a checksum of a sorted list of setting names and their values. It's giving "fingerprint but for your config" 💅

Heads up: different users in the same database may have different checksums, thanks to ALTER USER usage, and because superusers see more settings than ordinary users do.

Either the --warning or the --critical option should be given, but not both. The value of each one is the checksum — a 32-character hexadecimal value. You can run with the special "--critical=0" option to find out an existing checksum. Iconic little trick, ngl.

This action requires the Digest::MD5 module.

Example 1: Find the initial checksum for the database on port 5555 using the default user (usually postgres).

check_postgres_settings_checksum --port=5555 --critical=0

Example 2: Make sure no settings have changed, and warn if so, using the checksum from above.

check_postgres_settings_checksum --port=5555 --warning=cd2f3b5e129dc2b4f5c0f6d8d2e64231

For MRTG output, it returns a 1 or 0 indicating success of failure of the checksum to match. A checksum must be provided as the "--mrtg" argument. The fourth line always gives the current checksum. 🫶

🦋 slony_status 🦋

("symlink: check_postgres_slony_status") Checks in the status of a Slony cluster by looking at the results of Slony's sl_status view. This comes back as the number of seconds of "lag time". The --warning and --critical options should be expressed as times. Defaults? <mix>60 seconds</mix> for the warning and <mix>300 seconds</mix> for the critical.

The optional argument --schema indicated the schema that Slony is installed under. If it's not given, the schema gets determined automatically each time this check is run. Very main character of it.

Example 1: Give a warning if any Slony is lagged by more than 20 seconds.

check_postgres_slony_status --warning 20

Example 2: Give a critical if Slony, installed under the schema "_slony", is over 10 minutes lagged.

check_postgres_slony_status --schema=_slony --critical=600

⭐ timesync ⭐

("symlink: check_postgres_timesync") Compares the local system time with the time reported by one or more databases. The --warning and --critical options represent the number of seconds between the two systems before an alert is given. If neither is specified, the default values are used, which are '2' and '5'. The warning value cannot be greater than the critical value. And because this test is not exact by nature, values of '0' or '1' are not recommended 🥴

The string returned shows the time difference as well as the time on each side written out. Receipts, basically.

Example 1: Check that databases on hosts ankh, morpork, and klatch are no more than 3 seconds off from the local time.

check_postgres_timesync --host=ankh,morpork,klatch --critical=3

For MRTG output, returns one the first line the number of seconds difference between the local time and the database time. The fourth line returns the name of the database. 🕐

💜 txn_idle 💜

("symlink: check_postgres_txn_idle") Checks the number and duration of "idle in transaction" queries on one or more databases. There's literally no need to run this more than once on the same database cluster. Databases can be filtered with the --include and --exclude options — see the "BASIC FILTERING" section below for more deets.

The --warning and --critical options are given as units of time, signed integers, or integers for units of time, and at least one must be provided (there are no defaults). Valid units are 'seconds', 'minutes', 'hours', or 'days'. Each may be written singular or abbreviated to just the first letter. If no units are given and the numbers are unsigned, the units are assumed to be seconds. Periodt.

This action requires Postgres 8.3 or better.

As of PostgreSQL 10, you can just GRANT pg_read_all_stats to an unprivileged user account. In all earlier versions, superuser privileges are required to see the queries of all users in the system; UNKNOWN is returned if queries cannot be checked. To only include queries by the connecting user, use --includeuser. Noted, bestie ✍️

Example 1: Give a warning if any connection has been idle in transaction for more than 15 seconds.

check_postgres_txn_idle --port=5432 --warning='15 seconds'

Example 2: Give a warning if there are 50 or more transactions.

check_postgres_txn_idle --port=5432 --warning='+50'

Example 3: Give a critical if 5 or more connections have been idle in transaction for more than 10 seconds.

check_postgres_txn_idle --port=5432 --critical='5 for 10 seconds'

For MRTG output, returns the time in seconds the longest idle transaction has been running. The fourth line returns the name of the database and other information about the longest transaction. 😭

🌸 txn_time 🌸

("symlink: check_postgres_txn_time") Checks the length of open transactions on one or more databases. No need to run this command more than once per database cluster. Databases can be filtered by use of the --include and --exclude options — see the "BASIC FILTERING" section for more details. The owner of the transaction can also be filtered, with the --includeuser and --excludeuser options. See the "USER NAME FILTERING" section for more details. iykyk.

The values or the --warning and --critical options are units of time, and at least one must be provided (no default). Valid units are 'seconds', 'minutes', 'hours', or 'days'. Each may be written singular or abbreviated to just the first letter. If no units are given, the units are assumed to be seconds.

This action requires Postgres 8.3 or better.

Example 1: Give a critical if any transaction has been open for more than 10 minutes.

check_postgres_txn_time --port=5432 --critical='10 minutes'

Example 1: Warn if user 'warehouse' has a transaction open over 30 seconds.

check_postgres_txn_time --port-5432 --warning=30s --includeuser=warehouse

For MRTG output, returns the maximum time in seconds a transaction has been open on the first line. The fourth line gives the name of the database. 🔥

👑 txn_wraparound 👑

("symlink: check_postgres_txn_wraparound") Checks how close to transaction wraparound one or more databases are getting. The --warning and --critical options indicate the number of transactions done, and must be a positive integer. If either option isn't given, the default values of 1.3 and 1.4 billion are used. No need to run this command more than once per database cluster. For a more detailed discussion of what this number represents and what to do about it, please visit the page <https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/routine-vacuuming.html#VACUUM-FOR-WRAPAROUND>.

Okay this one is genuinely scary-important — wraparound is not a vibe, it's a "your database stops accepting writes" situation 💀

The warning and critical values can have underscores in the number for legibility, as Perl does.

Example 1: Check the default values for the localhost database.

check_postgres_txn_wraparound --host=localhost

Example 2: Check port 6000 and give a critical when 1.7 billion transactions are hit.

check_postgres_txn_wraparound --port=6000 --critical=1_700_000_000

For MRTG output, returns the highest number of transactions for all databases on line one, while line 4 indicates which database it is. 🌈

🧚 version 🧚

("symlink: check_postgres_version") Checks that the required version of Postgres is running. The --warning and --critical options (only one is required) must be of the format X.Y or X.Y.Z, where X is the major version number, Y is the minor version number, and Z is the revision.

Example 1: Give a warning if the database on port 5678 is not version 8.4.10.

check_postgres_version --port=5678 -w=8.4.10

Example 2: Give a warning if any databases on hosts valley, grain, or sunshine is not 8.3.

check_postgres_version -H valley,grain,sunshine --critical=8.3

For MRTG output, it reports a 1 or a 0 indicating success or failure on the first line. The fourth line indicates the current version. The version must be provided via the "--mrtg" option. 🎀

🍓 wal_files 🍓

("symlink: check_postgres_wal_files") Checks how many WAL files exist in the pg_xlog directory (PostgreSQL 10 and later "pg_wal"), which is found off of your data_directory, sometimes as a symlink to another physical disk for performance reasons. If the --lsfunc option isn't used, then this action must be run as a superuser, in order to access the contents of the pg_xlog directory. Minimum version for this action is Postgres 8.1. The --warning and --critical options are simply the number of files in the pg_xlog directory. What number to set this to will vary, but a general guideline is to put a number slightly higher than what's normally there, to catch problems early. Smart, honestly.

Normally, WAL files are closed and then re-used, but a long-running open transaction, or a faulty archive_command script, may cause Postgres to create too many files. Ultimately, this will cause the disk they're on to run out of space, at which point Postgres will shut down. Not cute. Not the moment.

To avoid connecting as a database superuser, a wrapper function around pg_ls_dir() should be defined as a superuser with SECURITY DEFINER, and the --lsfunc option used. This example function, if defined by a superuser, will allow the script to connect as a normal user nagios with --lsfunc=ls_xlog_dir:

BEGIN;
CREATE FUNCTION ls_xlog_dir()
    RETURNS SETOF TEXT
    AS $$ SELECT pg_ls_dir('pg_xlog') $$
    LANGUAGE SQL
    SECURITY DEFINER;
REVOKE ALL ON FUNCTION ls_xlog_dir() FROM PUBLIC;
GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION ls_xlog_dir() to nagios;
COMMIT;

Example 1: Check that the number of ready WAL files is 10 or less on host "pluto", using a wrapper function "ls_xlog_dir" to avoid the need for superuser permissions.

check_postgres_archive_ready --host=pluto --critical=10 --lsfunc=ls_xlog_dir

For MRTG output, it reports the number of WAL files on line 1. 💖

💅 rebuild_symlinks 💅

💅 rebuild_symlinks_force 💅

This action requires no other arguments, and does not connect to any databases — it simply creates symlinks in the current directory for each action, in the form check_postgres_<action_name>. If the file already exists, it will not be overwritten. If the action is rebuild_symlinks_force, then symlinks will be overwritten. And the option --symlinks is a shorter way of saying --action=rebuild_symlinks. Convenient!! 🫶

✨ BASIC FILTERING ✨

okay so bestie, listen — --include and --exclude are your two little filter besties, and you can combine them to narrow down exactly what gets checked, depending on which action you're running. Here's the tea on what you can filter:

the name of the database — for these actions: backends, database_size, locks, query_time, txn_idle, and txn_time
the name of a relation — for these actions: bloat, index_size, table_size, relation_size, last_vacuum, last_autovacuum, last_analyze, and last_autoanalyze
the name of a setting — for the settings_checksum action
the name of a file system — for the disk_space action

💖 Now the rules of the game:

If you only give an include option, then ONLY those entries that match get checked. periodt. But if you give both exclude and include, the exclusion happens first, and the inclusion comes after — the whole point being to reinstate things that may have been excluded. Both --include and --exclude can be given multiple times, and/or as comma-separated lists. And a leading tilde will match the following word as a regular expression. 🪄

To match a schema, end the search term with a single period. Leading tildes can be used for schemas as well.

⚠️ be careful when using filtering: an inclusion rule on the backends, for example, may report no problems not only because the matching database had no backends, but because you misspelled the name of the database! 😭 that's a self-own fr.

Examples, because i know you want them:

Only checks items named pg_class:

--include=pg_class

Only checks items containing the letters 'pg_':

--include=~pg_

Only check items beginning with 'pg_':

--include=~^pg_

Exclude the item named 'test':

--exclude=test

Exclude all items containing the letters 'test:

--exclude=~test

Exclude all items in the schema 'pg_catalog':

--exclude='pg_catalog.'

Exclude all items in the 'pg_temp_nnn' per-session temporary schemas:

--exclude=~^pg_temp_.

Exclude all items containing the letters 'ace', but allow the item 'faceoff':

--exclude=~ace --include=faceoff

Exclude all items which start with the letters 'pg_', which contain the letters 'slon', or which are named 'sql_settings' or 'green'. Specifically check items with the letters 'prod' in their names, and always check the item named 'pg_relname':

--exclude=~^pg_,~slon,sql_settings --exclude=green --include=~prod,pg_relname

🫶 USER NAME FILTERING 🫶

The options --includeuser and --excludeuser can be used on some actions to only examine database objects owned by (or not owned by) one or more users. And the golden rule: an --includeuser option always trumps an --excludeuser option. 👑 You can give each option more than once for multiple users, or you can give a comma-separated list. The actions that currently use these options are:

database_size
last_analyze
last_autoanalyze
last_vacuum
last_autovacuum
query_time
relation_size
txn_time

Examples, naturally:

Only check items owned by the user named greg:

--includeuser=greg

Only check items owned by either watson or crick:

--includeuser=watson,crick

Only check items owned by crick,franklin, watson, or wilkins:

--includeuser=watson --includeuser=franklin --includeuser=crick,wilkins

Check all items except for those belonging to the user scott:

--excludeuser=scott

🧪 TEST MODE 🧪

To help in setting things up, this program can be run in a "test mode" by specifying the --test option. This will perform some basic tests to make sure that the databases can be contacted, and that certain per-action prerequisites are met — such as whether the user is a superuser, if the version of Postgres is new enough, and if stats_row_level is enabled. it's giving "vibe check before the real thing" 💅 and honestly? run it first, bestie.

🎀 FILES 🎀

In addition to command-line configurations, you can put any options inside of a file. The order goes like this:

the file .check_postgresrc in the current directory will be used if found
if not found, then the file ~/.check_postgresrc will be used
finally, the file /etc/check_postgresrc will be used if available

The format of the file is option = value, one per line. Any line starting with a # will be skipped. Any values loaded from a check_postgresrc file will be overwritten by command-line options. 🦋 And if you want to yeet all the check_postgresrc files entirely, just supply a "--no-checkpostgresrc" argument.

🌈 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 🌈

The environment variable $ENV{HOME} is used to look for a .check_postgresrc file.
The environment variable $ENV{PGBINDIR} is used to look for PostgreSQL binaries.

🍓 TIPS AND TRICKS 🍓

Since this program uses the psql program, make sure it is accessible to the user running the script. If run as a cronjob, this often means modifying the PATH environment variable. (no cap, this one gets people every single time 😭)

If you are using Nagios in embedded Perl mode, use the "--action" argument instead of symlinks, so that the plugin only gets compiled one time. efficiency icon ✨

💜 DEPENDENCIES 💜

Access to a working version of psql, and the following very standard Perl modules:

Cwd
Getopt::Long
File::Basename
File::Temp
Time::HiRes (if $opt{showtime} is set to true, which is the default)

The "settings_checksum" action requires the Digest::MD5 module.

The "checkpoint" action requires the Date::Parse module.

Some actions require access to external programs. If psql is not explicitly specified, the command "which" is used to find it. The program "/bin/df" is needed by the "disk_space" action.

🚀 DEVELOPMENT 🚀

Development happens using the git system. You can clone the latest version by doing:

https://github.com/bucardo/check_postgres
git clone https://github.com/bucardo/check_postgres.git

📬 MAILING LIST 📬

Three mailing lists are available. For discussions about the program, bug reports, feature requests, and commit notices, send email to check_postgres@bucardo.org

<https://mail.endcrypt.com/mailman/listinfo/check_postgres>

A low-volume list for announcement of new versions and important notices is the 'check_postgres-announce' list:

<https://mail.endcrypt.com/mailman/listinfo/check_postgres-announce>

Source code changes (via git-commit) are sent to the 'check_postgres-commit' list:

<https://mail.endcrypt.com/mailman/listinfo/check_postgres-commit>

📜 HISTORY 📜

Items not specifically attributed are by GSM (Greg Sabino Mullane).

Version 2.26.0 Released April 3, 2023

Add new action "pgbouncer_maxwait" (Ruslan Kabalin) [Github pull #59]
For the bloat check, add option to populate all known databases, as well as includsion and exclusion regexes. (Giles Westwood) [Github pull #86]
Add Partman premake check (Jens Wilke) [Github pull #196]
Add --role flag to explicitly set the role of the user after connecting (David Christensen)
Fix check_replication_slots on recently promoted servers (Christoph Berg)
Allow the check_disk_space action to handle relative log_directory paths (jacksonfoz) [Github pull #174]
Fix MINPAGES and MINIPAGES in the "check_bloat" action (Christoph Moench-Tegeder) [Github pull #82]
Replace 'which' with command -v (Christoph Berg)
Fix check_replication_slots on recently promoted servers (Christoph Berg)
Fix undefined variable warning (Michael van Bracht) [Github pull #158]
In the tests, force log_destination to stderr (Christoph Moench-Tegeder) [Github pull #185]
Add to docs how to exclude all items in the 'pg_temp_nnn' per-session temporary schemas (Michael Banck)
Various fixes for the CI system (Emre Hasegeli) [Github pull #181]
Various improvements to the tests (Christoph Berg, Emre Hasegeli)

Version 2.25.0 Released February 3, 2020

Allow same_schema objects to be included or excluded with --object and --skipobject (Greg Sabino Mullane)
Fix to allow mixing service names and other connection parameters for same_schema (Greg Sabino Mullane)

Version 2.24.0 Released May 30, 2018

Support new_version_pg for PG10 (Michael Pirogov)
Option to skip CYCLE sequences in action sequence (Christoph Moench-Tegeder)
Output per-database perfdata for pgbouncer pool checks (George Hansper)
German message translations (Holger Jacobs)
Consider only client backends in query_time and friends (David Christensen)

Version 2.23.0 Released October 31, 2017

Support PostgreSQL 10. (David Christensen, Christoph Berg)
Change table_size to use pg_table_size() on 9.0+, i.e. include the TOAST table size in the numbers reported. Add new actions indexes_size and total_relation_size, using the respective pg_indexes_size() and pg_total_relation_size() functions. All size checks will now also check materialized views where applicable. (Christoph Berg)
Connection errors are now always critical, not unknown. (Christoph Berg)
New action replication_slots checking if logical or physical replication slots have accumulated too much data (Glyn Astill)
Multiple same_schema improvements (Glyn Astill)
Add Spanish message translations (Luis Vazquez)
Allow a wrapper function to run wal_files and archive_ready actions as non-superuser (Joshua Elsasser)
Add some defensive casting to the bloat query (Greg Sabino Mullane)
Invoke psql with option -X (Peter Eisentraut)
Update postgresql.org URLs to use https. (Magnus Hagander)
check_txn_idle: Don't fail when query contains 'disabled' word (Marco Nenciarini)
check_txn_idle: Use state_change instead of query_start. (Sebastian Webber)
check_hot_standby_delay: Correct extra space in perfdata (Adrien Nayrat)
Remove \r from psql output as it can confuse some regexes (Greg Sabino Mullane)
Sort failed jobs in check_pgagent_jobs for stable output. (Christoph Berg)

Version 2.22.0 June 30, 2015

Add xact timestamp support to hot_standby_delay. Allow the hot_standby_delay check to accept xlog byte position or timestamp lag intervals as thresholds, or even both at the same time. (Josh Williams)
Query all sequences per DB in parallel for action=sequence. (Christoph Berg)
Fix bloat check to use correct SQL depending on the server version. (Adrian Vondendriesch)
Show actual long-running query in query_time output (Peter Eisentraut)
Add explicit ORDER BY to the slony_status check to get the most lagged server. (Jeff Frost)
Improved multi-slave support in replicate_row. (Andrew Yochum)
Change the way tables are quoted in replicate_row. (Glyn Astill)
Don't swallow space before the -c flag when reporting errors (Jeff Janes)

🌈 Version 2.21.0 September 24, 2013

Fixed and extended the hot_standby_delay docs, bestie, they needed it — (Michael Renner)
Declared POD encoding to be utf8. — (Christoph Berg)

🌸 Version 2.20.1 June 24, 2013

Connection check failures now return CRITICAL not UNKNOWN, which is the whole vibe — (Dominic Hargreaves)
Fixed the --reverse option when using string comparisons in custom queries — (Nathaniel Waisbrot)
Computed the correct 'totalwastedbytes' in the bloat query — (Michael Renner)
Stopped using the pg_stats "inherited" column in the bloat query if the database is 8.4 or older — (Greg Sabino Mullane, per bug 121)
Removed host reordering in the hot_standby_delay check — (Josh Williams, with help from Jacobo Blasco)
Better output for the "simple" flag — (Greg Sabino Mullane)
Forced same_schema to ignore the 'relallvisible' column — (Greg Sabino Mullane)

🦋 Version 2.20.0 March 13, 2013

Added a check for pgagent jobs — (David E. Wheeler)
Forced STDOUT to use utf8 so the output isn't a mess — (Greg Sabino Mullane; reported by Emmanuel Lesouef)
Fixes for Postgres 9.2: new pg_stat_activity view, and using pg_tablespace_location — (Josh Williams)
Spaces are now allowed in item lists when doing same_schema.
Let txn_idle work again for < 8.3 servers by switching to query_time.
Fixed the check_bloat SQL to take inherited tables into account, and to assume 2k for non-analyzed columns — (Geert Pante)
Cached sequence information to speed up same_schema runs.
Fixed --excludeuser in check_txn_idle — (Mika Eloranta)
Fixed user clause handling in check_txn_idle — (Michael van Bracht)
Adjusted the docs to show a colon as a better separator inside args for locks — (Charles Sprickman)
Fixed the undefined $SQL2 error in check_txn_idle [github issue 16] — (Patric Bechtel)
Prevented "uninitialized value" warnings when showing the port — (Henrik Ahlgren)
Stopped assuming everyone has a HOME [github issue 23]

💜 Version 2.19.0 January 17, 2012

Added the --assume-prod option — (Cédric Villemain)
Added the cluster_id check — (Cédric Villemain)
Improved settings_checksum and the checkpoint tests — (Cédric Villemain)
Stopped doing an inner join to pg_user when checking database size — (Greg Sabino Mullane; reported by Emmanuel Lesouef)
Used the full path when getting sequence information for same_schema — (Greg Sabino Mullane; reported by Cindy Wise)
Fixed the formula for calculating xlog positions — (Euler Taveira de Oliveira)
Better ordering of output for the bloat check — made indexes as important as tables — (Greg Sabino Mullane; reported by Jens Wilke)
Showed the dbservice at the top of same_schema output if it was used — (Mike Blackwell)
Better installation paths — (Greg Sabino Mullane, per bug 53)

✨ Version 2.18.0 October 2, 2011

Redid the same_schema action. Used the new --filter argument for all filtering.
Allowed comparisons between any number of databases.
Removed the dbname2, dbport2, etc. arguments.
Allowed comparison of the same db over time.
Swapped db1 and db2 if the slave is 1 for the hot standby check — (David E. Wheeler)
Allowed multiple --schema arguments for the slony_status action — (GSM and Jehan-Guillaume de Rorthais)
Fixed ORDER BY in the last vacuum/analyze action — (Nicolas Thauvin)
Fixed check_hot_standby_delay perfdata output — (Nicolas Thauvin)
Looked in the correct place for the .ready files with the archive_ready action — (Nicolas Thauvin)
New action: commitratio — (Guillaume Lelarge)
New action: hitratio — (Guillaume Lelarge)
Made sure --action overrides the symlink naming trick.
Set defaults for archive_ready and wal_files — (Thomas Guettler, GSM)
Better output for wal_files and archive_ready — (GSM)
Fixed the warning when client_port is set to an empty string (bug #79)
Accounted for the "empty row" in -x output (i.e. source of functions).
Fixed some incorrectly named data fields — (Andy Lester)
Expanded the number of pgbouncer actions — (Ruslan Kabalin)
Gave detailed information and refactored txn_idle, txn_time, and query_time — (Per request from bug #61)
Set maxalign to 8 in the bloat check if the box is identified as '64-bit' — (Michel Sijmons, bug #66)
Supported non-standard version strings in the bloat check — (Michel Sijmons and Gurjeet Singh, bug #66)
Stopped showing excluded databases in some output — (Ruslan Kabalin)
Allowed "and", "or" inside arguments — (David E. Wheeler)
Added the "new_version_box" action.
Fixed the psql version regex — (Peter Eisentraut, bug #69)
Added the --assume-standby-mode option — (Ruslan Kabalin)
Noted that txn_idle and query_time require 8.3 — (Thomas Guettler)
Standardized and cleaned up all perfdata output (bug #52)
Excluded "idle in transaction" from the query_time check (bug #43)
Fixed the perflimit for the bloat action (bug #50)
Cleaned up the custom_query action a bit.
Fixed a space in perfdata for the hot_standby_delay action — (Nicolas Thauvin)
Handled undef percents in check_fsm_relations — (Andy Lester)
Fixed a typo in the dbstats action — (Stas Vitkovsky)
Fixed MRTG for the last vacuum and last_analyze actions.

⭐ Version 2.17.0 no public release

Okay so this one literally says no public release, no cap. Nothing to see, moving on 💅

🎀 Version 2.16.0 January 20, 2011

Added new action 'hot_standby_delay' — (Nicolas Thauvin)
Added cache-busting for the version-grabbing utilities.
Fixed the problem with going to the next method for new_version_pg — (Greg Sabino Mullane, reported by Hywel Mallett in bug #65)
Allowed /usr/local/etc as an alternative location for the check_postgresrc file — (Hywel Mallett)
Stopped using tgisconstraint in same_schema if Postgres >= 9 — (Guillaume Lelarge)

🍓 Version 2.15.4 January 3, 2011

Fixed a warning when using symlinks — (Greg Sabino Mullane, reported by Peter Eisentraut in bug #63)

🧚 Version 2.15.3 December 30, 2010

Showed OK for no matching txn_idle entries.

💖 Version 2.15.2 December 28, 2010

Better formatting of sizes in the bloat action output.
Removed duplicate perfs in bloat action output.

🌟 Version 2.15.1 December 27, 2010

Fixed a problem when examining items in pg_settings — (Greg Sabino Mullane)
For the connection test, returned critical, not unknown, on FATAL errors — (Greg Sabino Mullane, reported by Peter Eisentraut in bug #62)

👑 Version 2.15.0 November 8, 2010

Added --quiet argument to suppress output on OK Nagios results
Added index comparison for same_schema — (Norman Yamada and Greg Sabino Mullane)
Used $ENV{PGSERVICE} instead of "service=" to prevent problems — (Guillaume Lelarge)
Added --man option to show the entire manual — (Andy Lester)
Redid the internal run_command() sub to use -x and hashes instead of regexes.
Fixed an error in custom logic — (Andreas Mager)
Added the "pgbouncer_checksum" action — (Guillaume Lelarge)
Fixed the regex to work on WIN32 for check_fsm_relations and check_fsm_pages — (Luke Koops)
Didn't apply a LIMIT when using --exclude on the bloat action — (Marti Raudsepp)
Changed the output of query_time to show pid,user,port, and address — (Giles Westwood)
Fixed showing the database properly when using slony_status — (Guillaume Lelarge)
Allowed warning items for same_schema to be comma-separated — (Guillaume Lelarge)
Constraint definitions across Postgres versions now match better in same_schema.
Worked against "EnterpriseDB" databases — (Sivakumar Krishnamurthy and Greg Sabino Mullane)
Separated perfdata with spaces — (Jehan-Guillaume (ioguix) de Rorthais)
Added new action "archive_ready" — (Jehan-Guillaume (ioguix) de Rorthais)

🫶 Version 2.14.3 (March 1, 2010)

Allowed the slony_status action to handle more than one slave.
Used commas to separate function args in same_schema output — (Robert Treat)

🎈 Version 2.14.2 (February 18, 2010)

Changed autovac_freeze default warn/critical back to 90%/95% — (Robert Treat)
Put all items one-per-line for relation size actions if --verbose=1

🩷 Version 2.14.1 (February 17, 2010)

Didn't use $^T in the logfile check, as the script may be long-running
Changed the error string for the logfile action for easier exclusion by programs like tail_n_mail

🌼 Version 2.14.0 (February 11, 2010)

Added the 'slony_status' action.
Changed the logfile sleep from 0.5 to 1, as 0.5 gets rounded to 0 on some boxes!

💫 Version 2.13.2 (February 4, 2010)

Allowed the timeout option to be used for logtime 'sleep' time.

💫 Version 2.13.2 (February 4, 2010)

Bestie, yes, 2.13.2 is listed twice with the same date. That's literally what the changelog says. I don't make the rules 🤷‍♀️

Showed the offending database for the query_time action.
Applied perflimit to main output for the sequence action.
Added 'noowner' option to the same_schema action.
Raised the sleep timeout for the logfile check to 15 seconds.

🦄 Version 2.13.1 (February 2, 2010)

Fixed a bug preventing column constraint differences from 2 > 1 for same_schema from being shown.
Allowed aliases 'dbname1', 'dbhost1', 'dbport1',etc.
Added "nolanguage" as a filter for the same_schema option.
Didn't track "generic" table constraints (e.. $1, $2) using same_schema

🌺 Version 2.13.0 (January 29, 2010)

Allowed "nofunctions" as a filter for the same_schema option.
Added "noperm" as a filter for the same_schema option.
Ignored dropped columns when considering positions for same_schema — (Guillaume Lelarge)

⚡ Version 2.12.1 (December 3, 2009)

Changed autovac_freeze default warn/critical from 90%/95% to 105%/120% — (Marti Raudsepp)

🔥 Version 2.12.0 (December 3, 2009)

Allowed the temporary directory to be specified via the "tempdir" argument, for systems that need it (e.g. /tmp is not owned by root).
Fixed it so old versions of Postgres (< 8.0) use the correct default database — (Giles Westwood)
For "same_schema" trigger mismatches, showed the attached table.
Added the new_version_bc check for Bucardo version checking.
Added database name to perf output for last_vacuum|analyze — (Guillaume Lelarge)
Fixed the bloat action against old versions of Postgres without the 'block_size' param.

🌈 Version 2.11.1 (August 27, 2009)

ok so the last_vacuum + analyze actions got proper Nagios output 💅 (Cédric Villemain)
same glow-up for the locks action — proper Nagios output, no cap (Cédric Villemain)
and txn_wraparound too, proper Nagios output all around (Cédric Villemain)
fixed constraints with embedded newlines for same_schema 🔥
--exclude now works for all items when you're using same_schema

✨ Version 2.11.0 (August 23, 2009)

added Nagios perf output to the wal_files check (Cédric Villemain)
added support for .check_postgresrc, literally per a request from Albe Laurenz 🫶
the list of web fetch methods can now be changed with the --get_method option
added support for the --language argument, which overrides any ENV
added the --no-check_postgresrc flag
check_postgresrc options are now completely overridden by command-line options — command line stays main character 👑
fixed incorrect warning > critical logic in replicate_rows (Glyn Astill)

💜 Version 2.10.0 (August 3, 2009)

for same_schema: it now compares view definitions, and compares languages
the script is now a global executable via the Makefile.PL file
better output when comparing two databases
proper Nagios output syntax for the autovac_freeze and backends checks (Cédric Villemain)

🎀 Version 2.9.5 (July 24, 2009)

no LIMIT in check_bloat if --include is used — per complaint from Jeff Frost 🙈

🦋 Version 2.9.4 (July 21, 2009)

more French translations (Guillaume Lelarge) — oui oui 🇫🇷

🌸 Version 2.9.3 (July 14, 2009)

quote dbname in perf output for the backends check (Davide Abrigo)
added 'fetch' as an alternative method for new_version checks, since it comes by default with FreeBSD (Hywel Mallett)

🍓 Version 2.9.2 (July 12, 2009)

dots and dashes are now allowed in the database name for the backends check (Davide Abrigo)
the bloat check now checks and displays the database for each match (Cédric Villemain)
the backends check now handles the 'too many connections' FATAL error with a critical, rather than a generic error (Greg, idea by Jürgen Schulz-Brüssel)
perflimit is no longer allowed to interfere with exclusion rules in the vacuum and analyze tests (Greg, bug reported by Jeff Frost)

💅 Version 2.9.1 (June 12, 2009)

fix for multiple databases with the check_bloat action (Mark Kirkwood)
fixes and improvements to the same_schema action (Jeff Boes)
wrote tests for same_schema, plus other minor test fixes (Jeff Boes)

⭐ Version 2.9.0 (May 28, 2009)

added the same_schema action, periodt (Greg)

🌈 Version 2.8.1 (May 15, 2009)

added timeout via statement_timeout in addition to perl alarm (Greg)

🔥 Version 2.8.0 (May 4, 2009)

ok this one is LOWKEY huge, buckle up bestie:

added internationalization support (Greg)
added the 'disabled_triggers' check (Greg)
added the 'prepared_txns' check (Greg)
added the 'new_version_cp' and 'new_version_pg' checks (Greg)
French translations (Guillaume Lelarge)
the backends search now returns ok if there are no matches due to inclusion rules, per report by Guillaume Lelarge (Greg)
added comprehensive unit tests (Greg, Jeff Boes, Selena Deckelmann)
fsm_pages and fsm_relations now handle 8.4 servers smoothly (Greg)
fixed the missing 'upd' field in show_dbstats (Andras Fabian)
ENV{PGCONTROLDATA} and ENV{PGBINDIR} are now allowed (Greg)
added various Perl module infrastructure (e.g. Makefile.PL) (Greg)
fixed incorrect regex in txn_wraparound (Greg)
for txn_wraparound: consistent ordering, and fixed duplicates in perf output (Andras Fabian)
added in the missing exabyte regex check (Selena Deckelmann)
stats are set to zero if we bail early due to USERWHERECLAUSE (Andras Fabian)
added additional items to dbstats output (Andras Fabian)
removed the --schema option from the fsm_ checks (Greg Mullane and Robert Treat)
handles the case when ENV{PGUSER} is set (Andy Lester)
many various fixes 🫠 (Jeff Boes)
fixed --dbservice: check version and use ENV{PGSERVICE} for old versions (Cédric Villemain)

🧚 Version 2.7.3 (February 10, 2009)

the sequence action now checks if the sequence is being used for a int4 column and reacts appropriately (Michael Glaesemann)

🌸 Version 2.7.2 (February 9, 2009)

fix to prevent multiple groupings if db arguments are given

🎀 Version 2.7.1 (February 6, 2009)

the -p argument for port works again 🎉

💜 Version 2.7.0 (February 4, 2009)

a connection argument is no longer required — it uses defaults and ENV variables when possible: PGHOST, PGPORT, PGUSER, PGDATABASE

🦋 Version 2.6.1 (February 4, 2009)

Date::Parse only needs to be loaded if you're using the checkpoint action

🍓 Version 2.6.0 (January 26, 2009)

added the 'checkpoint' action

✨ Version 2.5.4 (January 7, 2009)

better checking of the $opt{dbservice} structure (Cédric Villemain)
fixed time display in timesync action output (Selena Deckelmann)
fixed documentation typos (Josh Tolley)

🌈 Version 2.5.3 (December 17, 2008)

minor fix to regex in verify_version (Lee Jensen)

💅 Version 2.5.2 (December 16, 2008)

minor documentation tweak, that's it, that's the whole update 🙈

⭐ Version 2.5.1 (December 11, 2008)

added support for the --noidle flag to prevent the backends action from counting idle processes. Patch by Selena Deckelmann.
fixed a small undefined warning when not using --dbservice

🔥 Version 2.5.0 (December 4, 2008)

added support for the pg_Service.conf file with the --dbservice option

🧚 Version 2.4.3 (November 7, 2008)

fixed options for the replicate_row action, per report from Jason Gordon

🌸 Version 2.4.2 (November 6, 2008)

File::Temp::cleanup() calls are wrapped in eval, in case File::Temp is an older version. Patch by Chris Butler.

🎀 Version 2.4.1 (November 5, 2008)

cast numbers to numeric to support sequences ranges > bigint in the check_sequence action. Thanks to Scott Marlowe for reporting this 🫶

💜 Version 2.4.0 (October 26, 2008)

added Cacti support with the dbstats action
the time output for the last vacuum and analyze actions got pretty-fied ✨
the percentage of backends is now shown on the check_backends action

🦋 Version 2.3.10 (October 23, 2008)

fixed a minor warning in the check_bloat action with multiple databases
warning is now allowed to be greater than critical when using the --reverse option
the --perflimit option is now supported for the check_sequence action

🍓 Version 2.3.9 (October 23, 2008)

minor tweak to the way we store the default port

✨ Version 2.3.8 (October 21, 2008)

the default port can now be changed easily
simple output can now be transformed by MB, GB, etc.

🌈 Version 2.3.7 (October 14, 2008)

multiple databases are now allowed in the 'sequence' action. Reported by Christoph Zwerschke.

💅 Version 2.3.6 (October 13, 2008)

added the missing $schema to check_fsm_pages (Robert Treat)

⭐ Version 2.3.5 (October 9, 2008)

changed the option 'checktype' to 'valtype' to prevent collisions with -c[ritical]
better handling of errors

🔥 Version 2.3.4 (October 9, 2008)

explicit cleanups of the temp directory, per problems reported by sb@nnx.com

🧚 Version 2.3.3 (October 8, 2008)

accounts for cases where some rounding queries give -0 instead of 0. Thanks to Glyn Astill for helping to track this down 🫶

🌸 Version 2.3.2 (October 8, 2008)

identifiers are now always quoted in the check_replicate_row action

🎀 Version 2.3.1 (October 7, 2008)

gives a better error if one of the databases cannot be reached

💜 Version 2.3.0 (October 4, 2008)

added the "sequence" action, thanks to Gavin M. Roy for the idea
fixed a minor problem with the autovac_freeze action when using MRTG output
the output argument is now case-insensitive
documentation fixes

🦋 Version 2.2.4 (October 3, 2008)

fixed some minor typos

🍓 Version 2.2.3 (October 1, 2008)

expanded the range of allowed names for the --repinfo argument (Glyn Astill)
documentation tweaks

✨ Version 2.2.2 (September 30, 2008)

fixes for minor output and scoping problems

🌈 Version 2.2.1 (September 28, 2008)

added MRTG output to fsm_pages and fsm_relations
error messages are forced to one-line for proper Nagios output
checks for invalid prereqs on a failed command. From conversations with Euler Taveira de Oliveira.
tweaked the fsm_pages formula a little

💅 Version 2.2.0 (September 25, 2008)

added the fsm_pages and fsm_relations actions (Robert Treat)

⭐ Version 2.1.4 (September 22, 2008)

fix for a race condition in the txn_time action
added the --debugoutput option

🔥 Version 2.1.3 (September 22, 2008)

alternate arguments "dbhost" for "host" and "dbport" for "port" are now allowed
outputs a zero as the default value for the second line of MRTG output

🧚 Version 2.1.2 (July 28, 2008)

fixed a sorting error in the "disk_space" action for non-Nagios output
--simple is now allowed as a shortcut for --output=simple

🌸 Version 2.1.1 (July 22, 2008)

databases with datallowconn set to false are no longer checked for the "autovac_freeze" action

🎀 Version 2.1.0 (July 18, 2008)

added the "autovac_freeze" action, thanks to Robert Treat for the idea and design
put an ORDER BY on the "txn_wraparound" action

💜 Version 2.0.1 (July 16, 2008)

optimizations to speed up the "bloat" action quite a bit
fixed the "version" action so it doesn't always output in mrtg mode

🦋 Version 2.0.0 (July 15, 2008)

added support for MRTG and "simple" output options
many small improvements to nearly all actions

🍓 Version 1.9.1 (June 24, 2008)

fixed an error in the bloat SQL in 1.9.0
percentage arguments are now allowed to be over 99%
percentages are now allowed in the bloat --warning and --critical (thanks to Robert Treat for the idea)

✨ Version 1.9.0 (June 22, 2008)

information_schema is no longer included in certain checks (Jeff Frost)
--include and --exclude can now use schemas by using a trailing period

🌈 Version 1.8.5 (June 22, 2008)

outputs the schema name before the table name where appropriate. Thanks to Jeff Frost.

💅 Version 1.8.4 (June 19, 2008)

better detection of problems in --replicate_row

⭐ Version 1.8.3 (June 18, 2008)

fixed the 'backends' action: there may be no rows in pg_stat_activity, so it runs a second query if needed to find the max_connections setting. Thanks to Jeff Frost for the bug report.

🔥 Version 1.8.2 (June 10, 2008)

changes to allow working under Nagios' embedded Perl mode (Ioannis Tambouras)

🧚 Version 1.8.1 (June 9, 2008)

the 'bloat' action now works on Postgres version 8.0
different commands can now be run for each action depending on the server version
better warnings when running actions not available on older Postgres servers

🌸 Version 1.8.0 (June 3, 2008)

added the --reverse option to the custom_query action
Version 1.7.1 (June 2, 2008) — Fixed the query_time action: it now accounts for a race condition where zero rows show up in pg_stat_activity. Shoutout to Dustin Black for the bug report 🫶
Version 1.7.0 (May 11, 2008) — Added the --replicate_row action.
Version 1.6.1 (May 11, 2008) — Added the --symlinks option as a shortcut for --action=rebuild_symlinks.
Version 1.6.0 (May 11, 2008) — Added the custom_query action.
Version 1.5.2 (May 2, 2008) — Fixed a problem where the custom pgpass file got created way too eagerly.
Version 1.5.1 (April 17, 2008) — Added example Nagios configuration settings (thanks Brian A. Seklecki).
Version 1.5.0 (April 16, 2008) — Added the --includeuser and --excludeuser options. Documentation cleanup, glow-up edition.
Version 1.4.3 (April 16, 2008) — Added the output concept for future support of non-Nagios programs.
Version 1.4.2 (April 8, 2008) — Fixed a bug that stopped the --dbpass argument from working (Robert Treat).
Version 1.4.1 (April 4, 2008) — Minor documentation fixes.
Version 1.4.0 (April 2, 2008) — wal_files action now uses pg_ls_dir (idea by Robert Treat). For last_vacuum and last_analyze, autovacuum effects are respected, plus separate autovacuum checks were added (ideas by Robert Treat).
Version 1.3.1 (April 2, 2008) — txn_idle now uses query_start, not xact_start.
Version 1.3.0 (March 23, 2008) — Added the txn_idle and txn_time actions.
Version 1.2.0 (February 21, 2008) — Added the wal_files action, which counts the number of WAL files in your pg_xlog directory. Fixed some typos in the docs. Explicitly allowed -v as an argument. Allowed for a null syslog_facility in the logfile action.
Version 1.1.2 (February 5, 2008) — Fixed an error that stopped --action=rebuild_symlinks from working.
Version 1.1.1 (February 3, 2008) — Switched vacuum and analyze date output to use DD, not D (Glyn Astill).
Version 1.1.0 (December 16, 2008) — Fixes, enhancements, and performance tracking. Added performance data tracking via --showperf and --perflimit. Lots of refactoring and cleanup of how actions handle arguments. Does basic checks to figure out the syslog file for the logfile action. Allows for exact matching of beta versions with the version action. Redid the default arguments so they only populate when neither warning nor critical is provided. Allows just warning OR critical to be given for the timesync action. Removed the redirect_stderr requirement from logfile thanks to 8.3 changes. The last_vacuum and last_analyze actions are 8.2 only (Robert Treat).
Version 1.0.16 (December 7, 2007) — First public release, December 2007.

💀 BUGS AND LIMITATIONS 💀

Okay bestie, nobody's perfect, and this script will happily tell you so:

The index bloat size optimization is rough. It's giving "good enough," not "flawless algorithm" 😭
Some actions may not work on older versions of Postgres (literally anything before 8.0).
Please report any problems to check_postgres@bucardo.org 💌

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Greg Sabino Mullane <greg@turnstep.com> — the main character who built all of this fr fr ✨

🌈 NAGIOS EXAMPLES 🌈

Some example Nagios configuration settings using this script — copy, paste, vibe:

 define command {
     command_name    check_postgres_size
     command_line    $USER2$/check_postgres.pl -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -u pgsql -db postgres --action database_size -w $ARG1$ -c $ARG2$
 }

 define command {
     command_name    check_postgres_locks
     command_line    $USER2$/check_postgres.pl -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -u pgsql -db postgres --action locks -w $ARG1$ -c $ARG2$
 }

 define service {
     use                    generic-other
     host_name              dbhost.gtld
     service_description    dbhost PostgreSQL Service Database Usage Size
     check_command          check_postgres_size!256000000!512000000
 }

 define service {
     use                    generic-other
     host_name              dbhost.gtld
     service_description    dbhost PostgreSQL Service Database Locks
     check_command          check_postgres_locks!2!3
 }

🎀 LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT 🎀

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Ngl that disclaimer is a whole wall of legal caps lock and it means every word, so don't @ me — read it 💅

And that's the whole page, bestie! 🦋 This one's the perl v5.42.0 build, dated 2023-04-07, rendered as CHECK_POSTGRES(1). Go forth and monitor with main character energy 👑✨💖

📦 where this page comes from

opensuse-leap 16.0: check_postgres 2.26.0-bp160.1.13 · GPL-2.0-or-later
💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 on 2026-11-06: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms

CHECK_POSTGRES(1)

💖 NAME 💖

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

💫 Output Modes 💫

🦋 Nagios output 🦋

🌈 MRTG output 🌈

🍓 Simple output 🍓

🎀 Cacti output 🎀

💜 DATABASE CONNECTION OPTIONS 💜

🌈 OTHER OPTIONS 🌈

💅 ACTIONS 💅

🗄️ archive_ready

🧊 autovac_freeze

backends 💅

bloat 🫧

checkpoint ⏰

cluster_id 🧚

commitratio 📊

connection 🔌

custom_query 🎯

💾 database_size

📈 dbstats

🚫 disabled_triggers

🗄️ disk_space

🧩 fsm_pages

🧩 fsm_relations

🌟 hitratio

🔥 hot_standby_delay

🧚 relation_size / index_size / table_size / indexes_size / total_relation_size

🦋 last_analyze / last_vacuum / last_autoanalyze / last_autovacuum

🌈 listener

🍓 locks

✨ logfile ✨

🦋 new_version_bc 🦋

🎀 new_version_box 🎀

🌸 new_version_cp 🌸

⭐ new_version_pg ⭐

🧚 new_version_tnm 🧚

🌈 the pgb_pool_* squad: pgb_pool_cl_active, pgb_pool_cl_waiting, pgb_pool_sv_active, pgb_pool_sv_idle, pgb_pool_sv_used, pgb_pool_sv_tested, pgb_pool_sv_login, pgb_pool_maxwait 🌈

💅 pgbouncer_backends 💅

🔥 pgbouncer_checksum 🔥

🍓 pgbouncer_maxwait 🍓

🫶 pgagent_jobs 🫶

💅 prepared_txns

⏱️ query_runtime

🌸 query_time

🦋 replicate_row

🔥 replication_slots

🧚 same_schema

🍓 sequence

🎀 settings_checksum 🎀

🦋 slony_status 🦋

⭐ timesync ⭐

💜 txn_idle 💜

🌸 txn_time 🌸

👑 txn_wraparound 👑

🧚 version 🧚

🍓 wal_files 🍓

💅 rebuild_symlinks 💅

💅 rebuild_symlinks_force 💅

✨ BASIC FILTERING ✨

🫶 USER NAME FILTERING 🫶

🧪 TEST MODE 🧪

🎀 FILES 🎀

🌈 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 🌈

🍓 TIPS AND TRICKS 🍓

💜 DEPENDENCIES 💜

🚀 DEVELOPMENT 🚀

📬 MAILING LIST 📬

📜 HISTORY 📜

Version 2.26.0 Released April 3, 2023

Version 2.25.0 Released February 3, 2020

Version 2.24.0 Released May 30, 2018

Version 2.23.0 Released October 31, 2017

Version 2.22.0 June 30, 2015

🌈 Version 2.21.0 September 24, 2013

🌸 Version 2.20.1 June 24, 2013

🦋 Version 2.20.0 March 13, 2013

💜 Version 2.19.0 January 17, 2012

💾 `database_size`

📈 `dbstats`

🚫 `disabled_triggers`

🗄️ `disk_space`

🧩 `fsm_pages`

🧩 `fsm_relations`

✨ `logfile` ✨

🦋 `new_version_bc` 🦋

🎀 `new_version_box` 🎀

🌸 `new_version_cp` 🌸

⭐ `new_version_pg` ⭐

🧚 `new_version_tnm` 🧚

🌈 the `pgb_pool_*` squad: `pgb_pool_cl_active`, `pgb_pool_cl_waiting`, `pgb_pool_sv_active`, `pgb_pool_sv_idle`, `pgb_pool_sv_used`, `pgb_pool_sv_tested`, `pgb_pool_sv_login`, `pgb_pool_maxwait` 🌈

💅 `pgbouncer_backends` 💅

🔥 `pgbouncer_checksum` 🔥

🍓 `pgbouncer_maxwait` 🍓

🫶 `pgagent_jobs` 🫶