The following “parameters” are read-only, and are determined when PostgreSQL is compiled or when it is installed. As such, they have been excluded from the sample postgresql.conf file. These options report various aspects of PostgreSQL behavior that might be of interest to certain applications, particularly administrative front-ends.
block_size (integer) Reports the size of a disk block. It is determined by the value of BLCKSZ when building the server. The default value is 8192 bytes. The meaning of some configuration variables (such as shared_buffers) is influenced by block_size. See Section 19.4 for information.
data_checksums (boolean) Reports whether data checksums are enabled for this cluster. See data checksums for more information.
data_directory_mode (integer) On Unix systems this parameter reports the permissions of the data directory defined by (data_directory) at startup. (On Microsoft Windows this parameter will always display 0700). See group access for more information.
debug_assertions (boolean) Reports whether PostgreSQL has been built with assertions enabled. That is the case if the macro USE_ASSERT_CHECKING is defined when PostgreSQL is built (accomplished e.g., by the configure option --enable-cassert). By default PostgreSQL is built without assertions.
integer_datetimes (boolean) Reports whether PostgreSQL was built with support for 64-bit-integer dates and times. As of PostgreSQL 10, this is always on.
lc_collate (string) Reports the locale in which sorting of textual data is done. See Section 23.1 for more information. This value is determined when a database is created.
lc_ctype (string) Reports the locale that determines character classifications. See Section 23.1 for more information. This value is determined when a database is created. Ordinarily this will be the same as lc_collate, but for special applications it might be set differently.
max_function_args (integer) Reports the maximum number of function arguments. It is determined by the value of FUNC_MAX_ARGS when building the server. The default value is 100 arguments.
max_identifier_length (integer) Reports the maximum identifier length. It is determined as one less than the value of NAMEDATALEN when building the server. The default value of NAMEDATALEN is 64; therefore the default max_identifier_length is 63 bytes, which can be less than 63 characters when using multibyte encodings.
max_index_keys (integer) Reports the maximum number of index keys. It is determined by the value of INDEX_MAX_KEYS when building the server. The default value is 32 keys.
segment_size (integer) Reports the number of blocks (pages) that can be stored within a file segment. It is determined by the value of RELSEG_SIZE when building the server. The maximum size of a segment file in bytes is equal to segment_size multiplied by block_size; by default this is 1GB.
server_encoding (string) Reports the database encoding (character set). It is determined when the database is created. Ordinarily, clients need only be concerned with the value of client_encoding.
server_version (string) Reports the version number of the server. It is determined by the value of PG_VERSION when building the server.
server_version_num (integer) Reports the version number of the server as an integer. It is determined by the value of PG_VERSION_NUM when building the server.
ssl_library (string) Reports the name of the SSL library that this PostgreSQL server was built with (even if SSL is not currently configured or in use on this instance), for example OpenSSL, or an empty string if none.
wal_block_size (integer) Reports the size of a WAL disk block. It is determined by the value of XLOG_BLCKSZ when building the server. The default value is 8192 bytes.
wal_segment_size (integer) Reports the size of write ahead log segments. The default value is 16MB. See Section 29.4 for more information.
If you see anything in the documentation that is not correct, does not match your experience with the particular feature or requires further clarification, please use this form to report a documentation issue.