How to Restart PostgreSQL on Ubuntu

Summary: in this tutorial, you will how to restart PostgreSQL on Ubuntu using systemctl, service command, and pg_ctrl command.

We assume that you have sufficient permissions to restart the PostgreSQL service or can use sudo to execute the commands with root privileges.

Restarting PostgreSQL on Ubuntu using systemctl

First, open a terminal or SSH to the server where the PostgreSQL server is running.

Second, run the following command to restart the PostgreSQL server:

sudo systemctl restart postgresql

Third, check the status of the PostgreSQL service using the following command:

/etc/init.d/postgresql status

Restarting PostgreSQL on Ubuntu using the service command

Alternatively, you can use the service command to restart the PostgreSQL service:

sudo service postgresql restart

Restarting PostgreSQL on Ubuntu using the pg_ctl command

If you show more information about the restart process, you can use the pg_ctl command:

sudo -u postgres pg_ctl restart -D /var/lib/postgresql/<version>/main

In this command, you need to replace <version> with your PostgreSQL version number.

Note that the data directory is /var/lib/postgresql/<version>/main by default. If your PostgreSQL data directory is different, you need to adjust it accordingly.

For example, to restart PostgreSQL 16.x, you can use the following command:

sudo -u postgres pg_ctl restart -D /var/lib/postgresql/16/main

If you encounter the following error, the pg_ctl may not be in your system’s PATH:

sudo: pg_ctl: command not found

To fix it, you need to create a symbolic link to pg_ctrl in /usr/local/bin/:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/postgresql/<version>/bin/pg_ctl /usr/local/bin/pg_ctl

Replace the <version> with your PostgreSQL version number.

For example, the following command restarts the PostgreSQL 16.x on Ubuntu:

sudo -u postgres pg_ctl restart -D /var/lib/postgresql/16/main

Now, you should be able to use pg_ctl from any directory.