PostgreSQL Configuration Files

Configuration / Guide 11 of 47 / Intermediate

• OSUbuntu 26.04 LTS
• PostgreSQL18.6-0ubuntu0.26.04.1
• TimeAbout 12 min

On Debian and Ubuntu these live under /etc; upstream PostgreSQL keeps them inside the data directory. Both layouts are current and documentation rarely says which it assumes.

• PackagingDebian cluster layout

This guide includes

Use this when upstream documentation points at a path your machine does not have. This matters because Debian puts the three files that matter somewhere else - and the server itself is the authority on which ones it reads.

• asking the server which files it reads, which is the authoritative answer
• looking at the directory, and the include mechanism it uses
• finding the three files that actually matter

Before you start

• PostgreSQL installed from the Ubuntu packages.

1. 1

   Ask the server which files it reads

2. 2

   Look at the directory and the include mechanism

Official sources

• PostgreSQL 18 Documentation - Setting Parameters
• PostgreSQL 18 Documentation - pg_settings
• PostgreSQL 18 Documentation - ALTER SYSTEM
• PostgreSQL 18 Documentation - Resource Consumption