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Basil Bourque
Asked: 2018-12-06 23:09:09 +0800 CST

Where to find logs from Postgres 11.1 on FreeBSD 11.2?

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Having built Postgres 11.1 on my FreeBSD 11.2 machine, where might I find the logs output from Postgres.

Specifically, when attempting to start Postgres for the first time, I get an error message from pg_ctl telling me to example the logs for an explanation of the problem.

$ /usr/local/bin/pg_ctl -D /var/db/postgres/data11 -l logfile start
pg_ctl: another server might be running; trying to start server anyway
waiting for server to start.... stopped waiting
pg_ctl: could not start server
Examine the log output.

When building Postgres, the final output mentions:

NB. FreeBSD's PostgreSQL port logs to syslog by default
  See ~pgsql/data/postgresql.conf for more info

When I look in that file, the only entry on logging is:

log_destination = 'syslog'

➥ How do I query syslog for my Postgres logs?

logging

1 Answers

  1. First of all, you will have to create a dedicated log file for PostgreSQL:

    touch /var/log/postgresql.log
chown postgres:wheel /var/log/postgresql.log
chmod 640 /var/log/postgresql.log

    After that update /etc/syslog.conf and redirect messages from PostgreSQL to the log file just created by adding entry like this:

    local0.*     /var/log/postgresql.log

    Don't forget to restart syslogd to apply your changes:

    kill -HUP `cat /var/run/syslog.pid`
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