pg_config — retrieve information about the installed version of PostgreSQL
pg_config [option...]
The pg_config utility prints configuration parameters of the currently installed version of PostgreSQL. It is intended, for example, to be used by software packages that want to interface to PostgreSQL to facilitate finding the required header files and libraries.
To use pg_config, supply one or more of the following options:
--bindirPrint the location of user executables. Use this, for example, to find the psql program. This is normally also the location where the pg_config program resides.
--docdirPrint the location of documentation files.
--htmldirPrint the location of HTML documentation files.
--includedirPrint the location of C header files of the client interfaces.
--pkgincludedirPrint the location of other C header files.
--includedir-serverPrint the location of C header files for server programming.
--libdirPrint the location of object code libraries.
--pkglibdirPrint the location of dynamically loadable modules, or where the server would search for them. (Other architecture-dependent data files might also be installed in this directory.)
--localedirPrint the location of locale support files. (This will be an empty string if locale support was not configured when PostgreSQL was built.)
--mandirPrint the location of manual pages.
--sharedirPrint the location of architecture-independent support files.
--sysconfdirPrint the location of system-wide configuration files.
--pgxsPrint the location of extension makefiles.
--configurePrint the options that were given to the configure script when PostgreSQL was configured for building. This can be used to reproduce the identical configuration, or to find out with what options a binary package was built. (Note however that binary packages often contain vendor-specific custom patches.) See also the examples below.
--ccPrint the value of the CC variable that was used for building PostgreSQL. This shows the C compiler used.
--cppflagsPrint the value of the CPPFLAGS variable that was used for building PostgreSQL. This shows C compiler switches needed at preprocessing time (typically, -I switches).
--cflagsPrint the value of the CFLAGS variable that was used for building PostgreSQL. This shows C compiler switches.
--cflags_slPrint the value of the CFLAGS_SL variable that was used for building PostgreSQL. This shows extra C compiler switches used for building shared libraries.
--ldflagsPrint the value of the LDFLAGS variable that was used for building PostgreSQL. This shows linker switches.
--ldflags_exPrint the value of the LDFLAGS_EX variable that was used for building PostgreSQL. This shows linker switches used for building executables only.
--ldflags_slPrint the value of the LDFLAGS_SL variable that was used for building PostgreSQL. This shows linker switches used for building shared libraries only.
--libsPrint the value of the LIBS variable that was used for building PostgreSQL. This normally contains -l switches for external libraries linked into PostgreSQL.
--versionPrint the version of PostgreSQL.
-?--helpShow help about pg_config command line arguments, and exit.
If more than one option is given, the information is printed in that order, one item per line. If no options are given, all available information is printed, with labels.
The options --docdir, --pkgincludedir, --localedir, --mandir, --sharedir, --sysconfdir, --cc, --cppflags, --cflags, --cflags_sl, --ldflags, --ldflags_sl, and --libs were added in PostgreSQL 8.1. The option --htmldir was added in PostgreSQL 8.4. The option --ldflags_ex was added in PostgreSQL 9.0.
To reproduce the build configuration of the current PostgreSQL installation, run the following command:
eval ./configure `pg_config --configure`
The output of pg_config --configure contains shell quotation marks so arguments with spaces are represented correctly. Therefore, using eval is required for proper results.