SHOW (7)

SHOW name
SHOW ALL

SHOW will display the current setting of run-time parameters. These variables can be set using the SET statement, by editing the postgresql.conf configuration file, through the PGOPTIONS environmental variable (when using libpq or a libpq-based application), or through command-line flags when starting the postgres server. See Chapter 18, Server Configuration, in the documentation for details.

name

The name of a run-time parameter. Available parameters are documented in Chapter 18, Server Configuration, in the documentation and on the SET(7) reference page. In addition, there are a few parameters that can be shown but not set:

SERVER_VERSION

Shows the server's version number.

SERVER_ENCODING

Shows the server-side character set encoding. At present, this parameter can be shown but not set, because the encoding is determined at database creation time.

LC_COLLATE

Shows the database's locale setting for collation (text ordering). At present, this parameter can be shown but not set, because the setting is determined at database creation time.

LC_CTYPE

Shows the database's locale setting for character classification. At present, this parameter can be shown but not set, because the setting is determined at database creation time.

IS_SUPERUSER

True if the current role has superuser privileges.

ALL

Show the values of all configuration parameters, with descriptions.

The function current_setting produces equivalent output; see Section 9.26, “System Administration Functions”, in the documentation. Also, the pg_settings system view produces the same information.

Show the current setting of the parameter DateStyle:

SHOW DateStyle;
 DateStyle
-----------
 ISO, MDY
(1 row)

Show the current setting of the parameter geqo:

SHOW geqo;
 geqo
------
 on
(1 row)

Show all settings:

SHOW ALL;
            name         | setting |                description
-------------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------------
 allow_system_table_mods | off     | Allows modifications of the structure of ...
    .
    .
    .
 xmloption               | content | Sets whether XML data in implicit parsing ...
 zero_damaged_pages      | off     | Continues processing past damaged page headers.
(196 rows)

The SHOW command is a PostgreSQL extension.

SET(7), RESET(7)