PG_CONTROLDATA(1)

🌸 NAME 🌸

pg_controldata — display control information of a PostgreSQL database cluster. This is the pg_controldata(1) page, bestie, folded in with the manual name right up top like a lil bow 🎀 — sourced from PostgreSQL 17.11 Documentation.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

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

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

Okay so pg_controldata prints information initialized during initdb, such as the catalog version. It also shows information about write-ahead logging and checkpoint processing. This info is cluster-wide, and not specific to any one database — it's giving whole-cluster main character energy, not one-database side quest vibes ✨.

real talk, bestie: this utility can only be run by the user who initialized the cluster, because it requires read access to the data directory. no sneaky side-eyes from other users 👀

You can specify the data directory on the command line, or use the environment variable PGDATA. This utility supports the options -V and --version, which print the pg_controldata version and exit. It also supports options -? and --help, which output the supported arguments.

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

• PGDATA — Default data directory location.
• PG_COLOR — Specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages. Possible values are always, auto and never.

💖 that's the whole page, bestie — sourced from PostgreSQL 17.11, dated 2026, and yes it ate. periodt. 🫶💅