BUG #4006: pg_ctl assumes that all config files lie in data_directory

"David Schweikert" <david@schweikert.ch> writes:

pg_ctl doesn't work if you put postgresql.conf in a different directory than
the database data files.

Yeah, this is a known limitation that seems unlikely to get fixed soon,
as doing it right would appear to require giving pg_ctl the ability to
parse the config file completely.

regards, tom lane

Tom Lane wrote:

"David Schweikert" <david@schweikert.ch> writes:

pg_ctl doesn't work if you put postgresql.conf in a different directory than
the database data files.

Yeah, this is a known limitation that seems unlikely to get fixed soon,
as doing it right would appear to require giving pg_ctl the ability to
parse the config file completely.

FYI, it is a TODO item:

* Allow pg_ctl to work properly with configuration files located outside
the PGDATA directory

pg_ctl can not read the pid file because it isn't located in the
config directory but in the PGDATA directory. The solution is to
allow pg_ctl to read and understand postgresql.conf to find the
data_directory value.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://postgres.enterprisedb.com

+ If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +

Hi,

On Mon, Mar 03, 2008 at 12:12:16 -0500, Bruce Momjian wrote:

pg_ctl can not read the pid file because it isn't located in the
config directory but in the PGDATA directory. The solution is to
allow pg_ctl to read and understand postgresql.conf to find the
data_directory value.

What about adding a command-line option to specify a different
configuration file? That would be certainly less nice, but also much
easier to implement, I guess.

Cheers
David