PG_CONTROLDATA(1)

💖 pg_controldata(1) — display control information of a PostgreSQL database cluster 💖

🌟 NAME 🌟

pg_controldata — display control information of a PostgreSQL database cluster. 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

okay so the shape is literally this, bestie:

pg_controldata [option] [[-D | --pgdata]datadir]

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

pg_controldata prints information initialized during initdb, such as the catalog version. Not me being obsessed with the catalog version, but there it is. 😭 It also shows information about write-ahead logging and checkpoint processing. This info is cluster-wide, and not specific to any one database. Periodt. ✨

Okay so real talk: this utility can only be run by the user who initialized the cluster, because it requires read access to the data directory. No cap, that's the vibe check. 🫶 You can specify the data directory on the command line — that’s the [-D | --pgdata] datadir situation in the synopsis — or use the environment variable PGDATA. 🦋

Options it supports:

• -V, --version — print the pg_controldata version and exit. 💫
• -?, --help — output the supported arguments. 🎀

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

These env vars are the backup dancers:

• PGDATA — default data directory location. 💖
• PG_COLOR — specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages. Possible values are always, auto and never. 🌈

💫 PostgreSQL 13.23 Documentation, dated 2025 — that's the PG_CONTROLDATA(1) sign-off, byeee bestie 💫