---
name: "pg_upgradecluster"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "postgresql-common"
version: "134wheezy4"
release: "Debian 7 (Wheezy)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/pg_upgradecluster/8"
---

# pg\_upgradecluster(8)

upgrade an existing PostgreSQL cluster to a new major version.

## NAME

pg\_upgradecluster - upgrade an existing PostgreSQL cluster to a new major version.

## SYNOPSIS

**pg\_upgradecluster** \[**-v** *newversion*\] *version* *name* \[*newdatadir*\]

## DESCRIPTION

**pg\_upgradecluster** upgrades an existing PostgreSQL server cluster (i. e. a collection of databases served by a **postmaster** instance) to a new version specified by *newversion* (default: latest available version).  The configuration files of the old version are copied to the new cluster.

The cluster of the old version will be configured to use a previously unused port since the upgraded one will use the original port. The old cluster is not automatically removed. After upgrading, please verify that the new cluster indeed works as expected; if so, you should remove the old cluster with [*pg\_dropcluster*(8)](/pg_dropcluster/8.md). Please note that the old cluster is set to "manual" startup mode, in order to avoid inadvertently changing it; this means that it will not be started automatically on system boot, and you have to use [*pg\_ctlcluster*(8)](/pg_ctlcluster/8.md) to start/stop it. See section "STARTUP CONTROL" in [*pg\_createcluster*(8)](/pg_createcluster/8.md) for details.

The *newdatadir* argument can be used to specify a non-default data directory of the upgraded cluster. It is passed to **pg\_createcluster**. If not specified, this defaults to /var/lib/postgresql/*version*/*name*.

Please note that this program cannot upgrade clusters which use tablespaces. If you use those, you have to upgrade manually.

## OPTIONS

- **-v** *newversion*

  Set the version to upgrade to (default: latest available).

- **--logfile** *filel*

  Set a custom log file path for the upgraded database cluster.

- **--locale=***locale*

  Set the default locale for the upgraded database cluster. If this option is not specified, the locale is inherited from the old cluster.

- **--lc-collate=***locale*

  - **--lc-ctype=***locale*

  - **--lc-messages=***locale*

  - **--lc-monetary=***locale*

  - **--lc-numeric=***locale*

  - **--lc-time=***locale*

  Like **--locale**, but only sets the locale in the specified category.

## HOOK SCRIPTS

Some PostgreSQL extensions like PostGIS need metadata in auxiliary tables which must not be upgraded from the old version, but rather initialized for the new version before copying the table data. For this purpose, extensions (as well as administrators, of course) can drop upgrade hook scripts into  `/etc/postgresql-common/pg_upgradecluster.d/`. Script file names must consist entirely of upper and lower case letters, digits, underscores, and hyphens; in particular, dots (i. e. file extensions) are not allowed.

Scripts in that directory will be called with the following arguments:

\<old version\> \<cluster name\> \<new version\> \<phase\>

Phases:

- **init**

  A virgin cluster of version *new version* has been created, i. e.  this new cluster will already have **template1**, but no user databases. Please note that you should not create tables in this phase, since they will be overwritten by the dump/restore operation.

- **finish**

  All data from the old version cluster has been dumped/reloaded into the new one. The old cluster still exists.

The scripts are called as the user who owns the database.

## SEE ALSO

[*pg\_createcluster*(8)](/pg_createcluster/8.md), [*pg\_dropcluster*(8)](/pg_dropcluster/8.md), [*pg\_lsclusters*(1)](/pg_lsclusters/1.md), [*pg\_wrapper*(1)](/pg_wrapper/1.md)

## AUTHOR

Martin Pitt \<mpitt@debian.org\>