PG_UPGRADECLUSTER(1) Debian PostgreSQL infrastructure PG_UPGRADECLUSTER(1)
NAME
pg_upgradecluster - upgrade an existing PostgreSQL cluster to a new
major version.
SYNOPSIS
pg_upgradecluster [-v newversion] oldversion name [newdatadir]
DESCRIPTION
pg_upgradecluster upgrades an existing PostgreSQL server cluster (i. e.
a collection of databases served by a postgres instance) to a new
version specified by newversion (default: latest available version).
The configuration files of the old version are copied to the new cluster
and adjusted for the new version.
By default, pg_dump(1) is used to migrate data and indexes to the new
cluster. This is slow, but safe. Upgrade variants based on pg_upgrade(1)
can be selected using the --method=upgrade parameter. This is faster,
but care must be taken when using it in the context of an operating
system upgrade. The sorting order ("collation") used in indexes is
determined by libc and libicu, and new versions of these libraries might
have a differ ordering, requiring index rebuilds after the upgrade, or
acknowledging that the ordering did not change using the ALTER COLLATION
REFRESH VERSION command. This step is not automated by
pg_upgradecluster.
The cluster of the old version will be configured to use a previously
unused port since the upgraded one will use the original port. The old
cluster is not automatically removed. After upgrading, please verify
that the new cluster indeed works as expected; if so, you should remove
the old cluster with pg_dropcluster(8). Please note that the old cluster
is set to "manual" startup mode, in order to avoid inadvertently
changing it; this means that it will not be started automatically on
system boot, and you have to use pg_ctlcluster(8) to start/stop it. See
section "STARTUP CONTROL" in pg_createcluster(8) for details.
The newdatadir argument can be used to specify a non-default data
directory of the upgraded cluster. It is passed to pg_createcluster. If
not specified, this defaults to /var/lib/postgresql/newversion/name.
OPTIONS
-v newversion
Set the version to upgrade to (default: latest available).
--check
Check if all packages required for the upgrade are installed.
--force-packages
Proceed with upgrading even when not all packages from the old
PostgreSQL version are installed for the new version as well.
--logfile filel
Set a custom log file path for the upgraded database cluster.
--locale=locale
Set the default locale for the upgraded database cluster. If this
option is not specified, the locale is inherited from the old
cluster.
When upgrading to PostgreSQL 11 or newer, this option no longer
allows switching the encoding of individual databases.
(pg_dumpall(1) was changed to retain database encodings.)
--lc-collate=locale
--lc-ctype=locale
--lc-messages=locale
--lc-monetary=locale
--lc-numeric=locale
--lc-time=locale
Like --locale, but only sets the locale in the specified category.
-m, --method=dump|upgrade|link|clone
Specify the upgrade method. dump uses pg_dump(1) and pg_restore(1),
upgrade uses pg_upgrade(1). The default is dump.
link and clone are shorthands for -m upgrade --link and -m upgrade
--clone, respectively.
-k, --link
In pg_upgrade mode, use hard links instead of copying files to the
new cluster. This option is merely passed on to pg_upgrade. See
pg_upgrade(1) for details.
--clone
In pg_upgrade mode, use efficient file cloning (also known as
"reflinks" on some systems) instead of copying files to the new
cluster. This option is merely passed on to pg_upgrade. See
pg_upgrade(1) for details.
--data-checksums, --no-data-checksums
By default, the new cluster is set up to use data page checksums if
the old cluster already uses them. Additionally, when using the dump
upgrade method, the new cluster will use data page checksums when
upgrading to PostgreSQL 18 or later (which enables data page
checksums by default).
The --method=dump behavior can explictly be controlled by the
--data-checksums and --no-data-checksums options.
-j, --jobs
In pg_upgrade mode, number of simultaneous processes to use. This
option is passed on to pg_upgrade. See pg_upgrade(1) for details.
It is also used by the analyze upgrade hook (via the PGJOBS
environment variable).
--keep-port
By default, the old cluster is moved to a new port, and the new
cluster is moved to the original port so clients will see the
upgraded cluster. This option disables that.
--rename=new cluster name
Use a different name for the upgraded cluster.
--old-bindir=directory
Passed to pg_upgrade.
--maintenance-db=database
Database to connect to for maintenance queries. The default is
template1.
--[no-]start
Start the new database cluster after upgrading. The default is to
start the new cluster if the old cluster was running, or if upgrade
hook scripts are present.
--keep-on-error
If upgrading fails, the newly created cluster is removed. This
option disables that.
HOOK SCRIPTS
Some PostgreSQL extensions like PostGIS need metadata in auxiliary
tables which must not be upgraded from the old version, but rather
initialized for the new version before copying the table data. For this
purpose, extensions (as well as administrators, of course) can drop
upgrade hook scripts into /etc/postgresql-common/pg_upgradecluster.d/.
Script file names must consist entirely of upper and lower case letters,
digits, underscores, and hyphens; in particular, dots (i. e. file
extensions) are not allowed.
Scripts in that directory will be called with the following arguments:
<old version> <cluster name> <new version> <phase>
Phases:
init
A virgin cluster of version new version has been created, i. e.
this new cluster will already have template1 and postgres, but no
user databases. Please note that you should not create tables in
this phase, since they will be overwritten by the dump/restore or
pg_upgrade operation.
finish
All data from the old version cluster has been dumped/reloaded into
the new one. The old cluster still exists, but is not running.
Failing scripts will abort the upgrade. The scripts are called as the
user who owns the database.
SEE ALSO
pg_createcluster(8), pg_dropcluster(8), pg_lsclusters(1), pg_wrapper(1),
pg_dump(1), pg_upgrade(1)
AUTHORS
Martin Pitt <mpitt@debian.org>, Christoph Berg <myon@debian.org>
Debian 2025-05-07 PG_UPGRADECLUSTER(1)
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