pg_ctlcluster - start/stop/restart/reload a PostgreSQL cluster

pg_ctlcluster [options] cluster-version cluster-name action

where action = start|stop|restart|reload|autovac-start|autovac-stop|autovac-restart

This program controls the postmaster server for a particular cluster. It essentially wraps the pg_ctl(1) command. It determines the cluster version and data path and calls the right version of pg_ctl with appropriate configuration parameters and paths.

You have to start this program as the user who owns the database cluster or as root.

start

A log file for this specific cluster is created if it does not exist yet (by default, CW/var/log/postgresql/postgresql-cluster-versionCW-cluster-nameCW.log), and a PostreSQL server process (postmaster(1)) is started on it. If the package postgresql-contrib-version is installed, a pg_autovacuum process is started as well (unless this gets disabled in CW/etc/postgresql-common/autovacuum.conf or a cluster-specific CWautovacuum.conf file). Please note that server version 8.1 and above does internal autovacuuming. Exits with 0 on success, with 2 if the server is already running, and with 1 on other failure conditions.

stop

Stops the postmaster(1) server (and pg_autovacuum, if running) of the given cluster with increasing force. Initially, the fast mode is used which rolls back all active transactions and thus shuts down cleanly. If that does not work, shutdown is attempted again in immediate mode, which can leave the cluster in an inconsistent state and thus will lead to a recovery run at the next start. If this still does not help, the postmaster process is killed. Exits with 0 on success, with 2 if the server is not running, and with 1 on other failure conditions.

restart

Stops the server if it is running and starts it (again). If pg_autovacuum is running on the server, it is restarted as well.

reload

Causes the configuration files to be re-read without a full shutdown of the server.

autovac-start

Starts a pg_autovacuum process for an already running cluster. This normally happens automatically along with start. This command fails for PostgreSQL 8.1 and above since they do autovacuuming internally.

autovac-stop

Stops the pg_autovacuum process for a running cluster. This normally happens automatically along with stop. This command fails for PostgreSQL 8.1 and above since they do autovacuuming internally.

autovac-restart

Restarts a pg_autovacuum process for an already running cluster. This normally happens automatically along with restart. This command fails for PostgreSQL 8.1 and above since they do autovacuuming internally.

-o option

Pass given option as command line option to the CWpostmaster process. It is possible to specify -o multiple times. See postmaster(1) for a description of valid options.

pg_ctl(1), pg_wrapper(1), pg_lsclusters(1), postmaster(1)

Martin Pitt <mpitt@debian.org>