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PostgreSQL seems to have an environment file that allows settings environment variables. On Linux (Kubuntu 11.10 in my case), it is located at e.g. /etc/postgresql/8.4/main/environment and empty by default, apart from a few helpful comments.

On Mac OSX Lion, the file does not seem to exist: I would expect it at e.g. /Library/PostgreSQL/9.0/data/ as that's where all the other configuration files are, but it is not there - and if I create it, it does not seem to be used.

How can I set environment variables for the PostgreSQL server on Mac OSX ?

ssc
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  • I can't find anything about such a file in the official Postgres docs, so I believe it's a Ubuntu/Debian artifact. – Milen A. Radev Mar 07 '12 at 07:52
  • What should these envitionment variables contain? If you need to change settings, the config is probably better, if you need to change settings based on database/table/... there are specific settings for it. – DrColossos Mar 07 '12 at 09:03
  • how do you set PYTHONPATH in the config ? – ssc Mar 08 '12 at 01:40

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There is no standard way to specify environment variables for PostgreSQL, I assume that file is Kubuntu specific.

What I did to ease my life was copying approach used by ORACLE:

  • I have /etc/pgtab file on each server where I run PostgreSQL databases;
  • I specify each cluster I run on a single line in the /etc/pgtab;
  • I've created a script pgenv which based on the /etc/pgtab shows the menu of clusters (in case there're more then just one) and initialize all PATHs and variables.

It works on my MacBookPro and on all Linux and HP-UX based servers.

vyegorov
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