PostgreSQL database default location on Linux

Question

What is the default directory where PostgreSQL will keep all databases on Linux?

Answer 1

The command pg_lsclusters (at least under Linux / Ubuntu) can be used to list the existing clusters and with it also the data directory:

Ver Cluster Port Status Owner    Data directory               Log file
9.5 main    5433 down   postgres /var/lib/postgresql/9.5/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-9.5-main.log
10  main    5432 down   postgres /var/lib/postgresql/10/main  /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-10-main.log

Answer 2

Below query will help to find postgres configuration file.

postgres=# SHOW config_file;
             config_file
-------------------------------------
 /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf
(1 row)

[root@node1 usr]# cd /var/lib/pgsql/data/
[root@node1 data]# ls -lrth
total 48K
-rw------- 1 postgres postgres    4 Nov 25 13:58 PG_VERSION
drwx------ 2 postgres postgres    6 Nov 25 13:58 pg_twophase
drwx------ 2 postgres postgres    6 Nov 25 13:58 pg_tblspc
drwx------ 2 postgres postgres    6 Nov 25 13:58 pg_snapshots
drwx------ 2 postgres postgres    6 Nov 25 13:58 pg_serial
drwx------ 4 postgres postgres   36 Nov 25 13:58 pg_multixact
-rw------- 1 postgres postgres  20K Nov 25 13:58 postgresql.conf
-rw------- 1 postgres postgres 1.6K Nov 25 13:58 pg_ident.conf
-rw------- 1 postgres postgres 4.2K Nov 25 13:58 pg_hba.conf
drwx------ 3 postgres postgres   60 Nov 25 13:58 pg_xlog
drwx------ 2 postgres postgres   18 Nov 25 13:58 pg_subtrans
drwx------ 2 postgres postgres   18 Nov 25 13:58 pg_clog
drwx------ 5 postgres postgres   41 Nov 25 13:58 base
-rw------- 1 postgres postgres   92 Nov 25 14:00 postmaster.pid
drwx------ 2 postgres postgres   18 Nov 25 14:00 pg_notify
-rw------- 1 postgres postgres   57 Nov 25 14:00 postmaster.opts
drwx------ 2 postgres postgres   32 Nov 25 14:00 pg_log
drwx------ 2 postgres postgres 4.0K Nov 25 14:00 global
drwx------ 2 postgres postgres   25 Nov 25 14:20 pg_stat_tmp