PG_WRAPPER(1) Debian PostgreSQL infrastructure PG_WRAPPER(1)
NAME
pg_wrapper - wrapper for PostgreSQL client commands
SYNOPSIS
client-program [--cluster version/cluster] [...]
(client-program: psql, createdb, dropuser, and all other client programs
installed in /usr/lib/postgresql/version/bin).
DESCRIPTION
This program is run only as a link to names which correspond to
PostgreSQL programs in /usr/lib/postgresql/version/bin. It determines
the configured cluster and database for the user and calls the
appropriate version of the desired program to connect to that cluster
and database, supplying any specified options to that command.
The target cluster is selected by the following means, in descending
order of precedence:
• explicit specification with the --host option
• explicit specification with the --cluster option
• if the PGHOST environment variable is set, no further cluster
selection is performed. The default PostgreSQL version and port
number (from the command line, the environment variable PGPORT, or
default 5432) will be used.
• explicit specification with the PGCLUSTER environment variable
• if a port is given (either via -p, --port, or PGPORT), and no host
is given, the local cluster matching that port number is used
• matching entry in ~/.postgresqlrc (see postgresqlrc(5)), if that
file exists
• matching entry in /etc/postgresql-common/user_clusters (see
user_clusters(5)), if that file exists
• If only one cluster exists on the local system, that one will be
selected.
• If several clusters exist on the local system, the one listening on
the default port 5432 will be selected.
If none of these rules match, pg_wrapper does not set any environment
variables and the program called will likely error out with a message
like "could not connect to server: Connection refused".
For psql, pg_archivecleanup, and pg_isready, pg_wrapper will always use
the binary from the newest PostgreSQL version installed, as these are
downwards compatible. If the cluster version is older than 9.2, the
newest considered binary version is 14.
Note that pg_wrapper needs to be able to read the server config to get
the port number to connect to. If a non-standard port is configured in a
place that pg_wrapper cannot read, connecting will fail. This
particularly holds if the port was configured via ALTER SYSTEM in
postgresql.auto.conf and pg_wrapper is invoked as any user other than
postgres and root.
OPTIONS
--cluster version/cluster
--cluster version/host:[port]
cluster is either the name of a cluster on the local system, or
takes the form host:port for a remote cluster. If port is left empty
(i. e. you just specify host:), it defaults to 5432.
ENVIRONMENT
PGCLUSTER
If $PGCLUSTER is set, its value (of the form version/cluster)
specifies the desired cluster, similar to the --cluster option.
However, if --cluster is specified, it overrides the value of
$PGCLUSTER.
PG_CLUSTER_CONF_ROOT
This specifies an alternative base directory for cluster
configurations. This is usually /etc/postgresql/, but for
testing/development purposes you can change this to point to e. g.
your home directory, so that you can use the postgresql-common tools
without root privileges.
PGSYSCONFDIR
This is the location of PostgreSQL's and postgresql-common's global
configuration (e. g. pg_service.conf, user_clusters(5)). The default
is /etc/postgresql-common/.
FILES
/etc/postgresql-common/user_clusters
stores the default cluster and database for users and groups as set
by the administrators.
$HOME/.postgresqlrc
stores defaults set by the user himself.
SEE ALSO
user_clusters(5), postgresqlrc(5)
AUTHOR
Martin Pitt <mpitt@debian.org>
Debian 2025-05-07 PG_WRAPPER(1)
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