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Accepted
Jasmine Lognnes
Asked: 2014-02-11 06:42:36 +0800 CST

Completely reset PostgreSQL to default?

  • 772

Question

Is there a way to completely reset a PostgreSQL installation on Linux, so it is in the same state as when I installed it?

Idea

I have considered

rm -rf /var/lib/pgsql/*
rm -rf /var/lib/pgsql/backups/*
rm -rf /var/lib/pgsql/data/*

but perhaps that is not a recommended method.

Purpose

This would be handy to get rid of left overs from previous programs that have used it.

linux

3 Answers

  1. It all depends on how it was installed.

    Ubuntu, from packages (built-in or apt.postgresql.org)

    Use pg_wrapper. See the Ubuntu docs for PostgreSQL. You want to pg_dropcluster all existing Pg clusters, then pg_createcluster a clean new one.

    Do not just delete the data dir and re-initdb.

    CentOS/RH/Fedora, built-in packages

    I don't have this installed and can't easily test right now. From memory I think it's safe to just stop the server and delete the data dir.

    CentOS/RH/Fedora, yum.postgresql.org packages

    See /usr/share/doc/postgresql??-?.?.?/README.rpm-dist.

    Stop the server with systemctl or the service wrapper command, delete the data dir, then run /usr/pgsql-9.3/bin/postgresql93-setup initdb (adjusting paths as appropriate for your version).

    Any distro, from EDB installer

    Stop the server, delete the data dir and initdb a new cluster. See the installer docs.

    From source

    Stop server, delete data dir, re-initdb.

    OS X

    Homebrew: brew uninstall postgresql; brew cleanup; brew install postgresql

    Postgres.app? EDB installer? MacPorts?

    Find a beer. Drink the beer. Repeat. If this doesn't make the pain go away, get something stronger.

    Windows

    • Stop service
    • Delete data dir
    • re-run initdb using runas.exe as the postgres user (pre-9.2) or NETWORKSERVICE (9.2+). Or just change the ownership afterwards.
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  2. Best Answer

    That should do it - just make sure first that the current configuration actually does store the files in those directories.

    Once it's done, re-initiate the database:

    sudo -U pgsql initdb
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  3. Isn't it best to just remove and reinstall?

    That way you'll get the latest version and update any dependences along the way.

    Run: sudo apt-get --purge remove postgresql

    Then: sudo apt-get install postgresql

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