Received: from malur.postgresql.org ([217.196.149.56]) by arkaria.postgresql.org with esmtps (TLS1.3) tls TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (Exim 4.96) (envelope-from ) id 1wVEH6-001nro-0P for pgsql-admin@arkaria.postgresql.org; Thu, 04 Jun 2026 20:02:44 +0000 Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=malur.postgresql.org) by malur.postgresql.org with esmtp (Exim 4.96) (envelope-from ) id 1wVEH4-008MWH-07 for pgsql-admin@arkaria.postgresql.org; Thu, 04 Jun 2026 20:02:42 +0000 Received: from magus.postgresql.org ([2a02:c0:301:0:ffff::29]) by malur.postgresql.org with esmtps (TLS1.3) tls TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (Exim 4.96) (envelope-from ) id 1wVEH3-008MW8-2F for pgsql-admin@lists.postgresql.org; Thu, 04 Jun 2026 20:02:41 +0000 Received: from sss.pgh.pa.us ([68.162.161.243]) by magus.postgresql.org with esmtps (TLS1.3) tls TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (Exim 4.98.2) (envelope-from ) id 1wVEGw-00000001IRt-3nzf for pgsql-admin@lists.postgresql.org; Thu, 04 Jun 2026 20:02:40 +0000 Received: from sss1.sss.pgh.pa.us (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by sss.pgh.pa.us (8.18.1/8.18.1) with ESMTP id 654K2LH53441658; Thu, 4 Jun 2026 16:02:22 -0400 From: Tom Lane To: Michael Grimm cc: pgsql-admin@lists.postgresql.org Subject: Re: Howto tell pg_ctl to use a non-default directory for config files In-reply-to: References: Comments: In-reply-to Michael Grimm message dated "Thu, 04 Jun 2026 21:54:37 +0200" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-ID: <3441656.1780603341.1@sss.pgh.pa.us> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2026 16:02:21 -0400 Message-ID: <3441657.1780603341@sss.pgh.pa.us> List-Id: List-Help: List-Subscribe: List-Post: List-Owner: List-Archive: Archived-At: Precedence: bulk Michael Grimm writes: > Question: = > Is there a way to tell PostgreSQL to look for config files in e.g. /usr/= local/etc/postgres, where normally all config files reside in FreeBSD? [2] Typically you would say "pg_ctl -D /usr/local/etc/postgres" to point it at the config file. Then you would need the config file to include data_directory and perhaps other settings pointing to wherever the actual data files are. See https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-file-locations.html regards, tom lane