In this post, we are going to discuss how to log all executed queries for inspection later in PostgreSQL.

1. First, you have to enable logging all queries in PostgreSQL.

Please note that only those queries that are executed can be logged.

To do that, you have to config the PostgreSQL configuration file postgresql.conf.

  • On Debian-based systems it’s located in /etc/postgresql/9.3/main/ (replace 9.3 with your version of PostgreSQL)
  • On Red Hat-based systems in /var/lib/pgsql/data/.

If you still can’t find it, then just type $locate postgresql.conf in terminal, or execute the following SQL query:

SHOW config_file;

Then you need to alter these parameters inside PostgreSQL configuration file.

log_statement = 'all'
log_directory = 'pg_log'
log_filename = 'postgresql-%Y-%m-%d_%H%M%S.log'
logging_collector = on
log_min_error_statement = error

On older versions of PostgreSQL prior to 8.0, replace 'all' with 'true' for the log_statement:

log_statement = 'true'

2. Then restart the server

Run this command:

sudo /etc/init.d/postgresql restart

or this

sudo service postgresql restart

The content of all queries to the server should now appear in the log.

3. See the log

The location of the log file will depend on the configuration.

  • On Debian-based systems the default is /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-9.3-main.log (replace 9.3 with your version of PostgreSQL).
  • On Red Hat-based systems it is located in /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_log/.

Using TablePlus, you can enable the console log via the GUI and see all the queries.

To do that, click on the console log button near the top right panel, or use the shortcut key Cmd + Shift + C.

Show console log

You can also choose to log the meta queries, data queries, or all queries.


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TablePlus GUI for PostgreSQL