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@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, May 29, 2020 5:32 PM To: Tanja Savic <tanja.savic@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: pg_ctl can't start db server Tanja Savic <tanja.savic@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 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
