From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: Ron Johnson <ronljohnsonjr@gmail.com>
cc: Pgsql-admin <pgsql-admin@lists.postgresql.org>
Subject: Re: Howto tell pg_ctl to use a non-default directory for config files
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Comments: In-reply-to Ron Johnson <ronljohnsonjr@gmail.com>
	message dated "Thu, 04 Jun 2026 16:09:11 -0400"
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Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2026 16:15:11 -0400
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Ron Johnson <ronljohnsonjr@gmail.com> writes:
> On Thu, Jun 4, 2026 at 4:02 PM Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
>> 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.

> Is it standard to point PGDATA to an etc directory instead of to the "data"
> directory?

It is if you want the server's configuration files to be separate from
the data.

			regards, tom lane