PostgreSQL 7.4 Documentation
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# 27.10. Environment Variables

The following environment variables can be used to select default connection parameter values, which will be used by `PQconnectdb`, `PQsetdbLogin` and `PQsetdb` if no value is directly specified by the calling code. These are useful to avoid hard-coding database connection information into simple client applications, for example.

- `PGHOST` sets the database server name. If this begins with a slash, it specifies Unix-domain communication rather than TCP/IP communication; the value is the name of the directory in which the socket file is stored (default `/tmp`).

- `PGHOSTADDR` specifies the numeric IP address of the database server. This can be set instead of `PGHOST` to avoid DNS lookup overhead. See the documentation of these parameters, under `PQconnectdb` above, for details on their interaction.

- `PGPORT` sets the TCP port number or Unix-domain socket file extension for communicating with the PostgreSQL server.

- `PGDATABASE` sets the PostgreSQL database name.

- `PGUSER` sets the user name used to connect to the database.

- `PGPASSWORD` sets the password used if the server demands password authentication. This environment variable is deprecated for security reasons; consider migrating to use the `$HOME/.pgpass` file (see Section 27.11).

- `PGSERVICE` sets the service name to be looked up in `pg_service.conf`. This offers a shorthand way of setting all the parameters.

- `PGREALM` sets the Kerberos realm to use with PostgreSQL, if it is different from the local realm. If `PGREALM` is set, libpq applications will attempt authentication with servers for this realm and use separate ticket files to avoid conflicts with local ticket files. This environment variable is only used if Kerberos authentication is selected by the server.

- `PGOPTIONS` sets additional run-time options for the PostgreSQL server.

- `PGSSLMODE` determines whether and with what priority an SSL connection will be negotiated with the server. There are four modes: disable will attempt only an unencrypted SSL connection; allow will negotiate, trying first a non-SSL connection, then if that fails, trying an SSL connection; prefer (the default) will negotiate, trying first an SSL connection, then if that fails, trying a regular non-SSL connection; require will try only an SSL connection. If PostgreSQL is compiled without SSL support, using option require will cause an error, and options allow and prefer will be tolerated but libpq will be unable to negotiate an SSL connection.

- `PGREQUIRESSL` sets whether or not the connection must be made over SSL. If set to "1", libpq will refuse to connect if the server does not accept an SSL connection (equivalent to sslmode prefer). This option is deprecated in favor of the sslmode setting, and is only available if PostgreSQL is compiled with SSL support.

- `PGCONNECT_TIMEOUT` sets the maximum number of seconds that libpq will wait when attempting to connect to the PostgreSQL server. If unset or set to zero, libpq will wait indefinitely. It is not recommended to set the timeout to less than 2 seconds.

The following environment variables can be used to specify default behavior for each PostgreSQL session. (See also the `ALTER USER` and `ALTER DATABASE` commands for ways to set default behavior on a per-user or per-database basis.)

- `PGDATESTYLE` sets the default style of date/time representation. (Equivalent to SET datestyle TO ....)

- `PGTZ` sets the default time zone. (Equivalent to SET timezone TO ....)

- `PGCLIENTENCODING` sets the default client character set encoding. (Equivalent to SET client_encoding TO ....)

- `PGGEQO` sets the default mode for the genetic query optimizer. (Equivalent to SET geqo TO ....)

Refer to the SQL command `SET` for information on correct values for these environment variables.

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