RE: pg_ctl can't start db server

Hi,

@Tom Adding -D in command worked. I just used
pg_ctl start -D [data-directory ]

PGDATA was not set permanently although I tried to set it (with postgres user):
export PGDATA=" /var/lib/postgresql/12/main"

@Adrian It's Ubuntu and output of pg_lsclusters was this:
12 main 24538 online postgres /var/lib/postgresql/12/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-12-main.log

Thank you for your replies.
BR,
Tanja

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
Sent: Friday, May 29, 2020 5:32 PM
To: Tanja Savic <tanja(dot)savic(at)crossmasters(dot)com>
Cc: pgsql-general(at)lists(dot)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: pg_ctl can't start db server

Tanja Savic <tanja(dot)savic(at)crossmasters(dot)com> writes:
> The configuration file path is /etc/postgresql/12/main/ postgresql.conf and it is configured in /var/lib/postgresql/12/main/postmaster.opts:

> "/usr/lib/postgresql/12/bin/postgres "-D" "/var/lib/postgresql/12/main" "-c" "config_file=/etc/postgresql/12/main/postgresql.conf"

> Why does pg_ctl complains about the postgresql.conf path?

I don't remember the exact interaction between -D and an explicit config_file setting, but evidently it's not working the way you wish.
See

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-file-locations.html

which suggests that you should use -D to point at the directory where postgresql.conf is, and set the data directory with a parameter within postgresql.conf.

(Note that pg_ctl probably only understands this way, even though theoretically the postmaster can deal with other approaches to setting up an external config file.)

regards, tom lane