Hint
This applies only to distributions based on Debian.
Requirement
You need to setup the PostgreSQL Apt Repository Show archive.org snapshot first.
If you have multiple Postgres versions installed on a system and want to start/stop/restore/.. them separately you need to use pg_ctlcluster
Usage: /usr/bin/pg_ctlcluster <version> <cluster> <action>
For example
/usr/bin/pg_ctlcluster 47 main start
With systemd you can start/stop the services via:
systemctl <action> postgresql@<version>-<cluster>.service
For example
systemctl start postgresql@14-main.service
Details
<version>
The Version of PostgreSQL to manage. Must be installed. ;)
<cluster>
The cluster to use. This is nothing more than a working data directory and a configurationof PostgreSQL stored in the correct location. Usually you find the datadir in /var/lib/postgresql/$VERSION/$CLUSTERNAME and the config in /etc/postgresql/$VERSION/$CLUSTERNAME/.
<action>
start | stop | restart | reload
Available versions and clusters, Serverstatus
~# pg_lsclusters
Ver Cluster Port Status Owner Data directory Log file
10 main 5433 online postgres /var/lib/postgresql/10/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-10-main.log
11 main 5432 online postgres /var/lib/postgresql/11/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-11-main.log
12 main 5435 online postgres /var/lib/postgresql/12/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-12-main.log
13 main 5434 online postgres /var/lib/postgresql/13/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-13-main.log
14 main 5437 online postgres /var/lib/postgresql/14/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-14-main.log
15 main 5436 online postgres /var/lib/postgresql/15/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-15-main.log
16 main 5438 online postgres /var/lib/postgresql/16/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-16-main.log
Creating or deleting clusters
create
This will run initdb and create an new cluster
# pg_createcluster --locale $LOCALE --start <version> <cluster>
pg_createcluster --locale en_US.UTF-8 --start 16 main
delete
# pg_dropcluster --stop <version> <cluster>
pg_dropcluster --stop 10 main
Managing the default version and cluster with the ~/.postgresqlrc
You can place the file ~/.postgresqlrc in the home directory of the postgres user do decide which PostgreSQL version is used by default. Even the binaries like pg_dump are chosen depending on the version configured in this file.
# VERSION CLUSTERNAME DATABASE
14 main postgres
Connecting to clusters
The usual commands support the --cluster parameter which you can use to connect to the correct cluster. For e.g.
psql --cluster 14/main
