adminpack

administrative functions for PostgreSQL

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/16/adminpack.html

Overview

Package	Version	Category	License	Language
`adminpack`	`2.1`	ADMIN	PostgreSQL	C

ID	Extension	Bin	Lib	Load	Create	Trust	Reloc	Schema
5970	`adminpack`	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	-

Related	`fio` `lo` `file_fdw` `ddlx` `pgdd` `pg_catcheck` `pg_cheat_funcs` `pg_repack`

Version

PG18	PG17	PG16	PG15	PG14
✗	✗	2.1	2.1	2.1

Install

Note: This is a built-in contrib extension of PostgreSQL

CREATE EXTENSION adminpack;

Usage

adminpack: administrative functions for PostgreSQL

The adminpack extension provides server-side file management and log access functions, primarily used by pgAdmin and other administration tools. All functions are restricted to superusers by default.

File Operations

-- Write text to a file (append=false: file must not exist; append=true: append)
SELECT pg_file_write('/tmp/test.txt', 'Hello World', false);   -- returns bytes written

-- Append to existing file
SELECT pg_file_write('/tmp/test.txt', E'\nMore data', true);

-- Sync file to disk
SELECT pg_file_sync('/tmp/test.txt');

-- Rename a file
SELECT pg_file_rename('/tmp/old.txt', '/tmp/new.txt');

-- Rename with archiving (moves existing newname to archive first)
SELECT pg_file_rename('/tmp/old.txt', '/tmp/new.txt', '/tmp/archive.txt');

-- Delete a file
SELECT pg_file_unlink('/tmp/test.txt');   -- returns true on success

Log File Access

-- List server log files (requires default log_filename format)
SELECT * FROM pg_logdir_ls();

Returns timestamps and paths of log files from the log_directory.

Function Reference

Function	Returns	Description
`pg_file_write(filename, data, append)`	bigint	Write text to file; returns bytes written
`pg_file_sync(filename)`	void	Flush file or directory to disk
`pg_file_rename(old, new [, archive])`	boolean	Rename file, optionally archiving existing target
`pg_file_unlink(filename)`	boolean	Delete a file
`pg_logdir_ls()`	setof record	List log files with timestamps

Access Control

All functions default to superuser-only access
Permissions can be granted via GRANT to non-superusers
File access is restricted to the database cluster directory unless the user has pg_read_server_files or pg_write_server_files roles

Note: adminpack was removed in PostgreSQL 17. For PostgreSQL 16 and earlier only.

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Last Modified 2026-03-12: add pg extension catalog (95749bf)