Vik Fearing <v...@postgresfriends.org> writes:
> On 3/3/21 6:35 PM, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
>> If what you want to know is whether a given binary can run against a
>> given data directory then CATALOG_VERSION_NO isn't the only thing you
>> need to check. The full truth of this is in ReadControlFile(). The
>> best way to get that answer is to start a server and see if it
>> complains. You can even grep the log for "It looks like you need to
>> initdb.".
> In that case, what would everyone think about a `pg_ctl check` option?
The trouble with Peter's recipe is that it doesn't work if there is
already a server instance running there (or at least I think we'll
bitch about the existing postmaster first, maybe I'm wrong). Now,
that's not such a big problem for the use-case you were describing.
But I bet if we expose this method as an apparently-general-purpose
pg_ctl option, there'll be complaints.
regards, tom lane
