enable-logging-of-database-activity.md

Enable Logging Of Database Activity

For logging to be enabled for a PostgreSQL server, it needs to be properly configured. This means ensuring the logging_collector option is on. By default I believe it is off.

This is configured in the postgresql.conf file and requires a server restart.

First, to find where the conf file is. I can answer that question in a psql session.

> show config_file;
                             config_file
---------------------------------------------------------------------
 /Users/jbranchaud/.asdf/installs/postgres/12.3/data/postgresql.conf
(1 row)

Now, I can open up that file and search for the line that has logging_collector. I uncomment that line and change off to on.

# This is used when logging to stderr:
logging_collector = on 		# Enable capturing of stderr and csvlog
					# into log files. Required to be on for
					# csvlogs.
					# (change requires restart)

This requires a restart of the Postgres server.

$ ~/.asdf/installs/postgres/12.3/bin/pg_ctl -D ~/.asdf/installs/postgres/12.3/data restart
waiting for server to shut down.... done
server stopped
waiting for server to start...
 done
server started

I can now adjust any further logging-related configurations on a server or session basis. And then view those logs.