Обсуждение: how to check the creation date of a postgres database?

> \l and  \l+ show only the database name, owner and description.
> select * from pg_database does not have date info, either.
>
> I would like to know when each of my databases were created.

The only solution I can think of is querying
select oid, datname from pg_database;
and then look up the timestamps of the corresponding directories
in $PGDATA/base.

Bye, Chris.


--

Chris Mair
http://www.1006.org

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> \l and \l+ show only the database name, owner and description.
> select * from pg_database does not have date info, either.
>
> I would like to know when each of my databases were created.

The only solution I can think of is querying
select oid, datname from pg_database;
and then look up the timestamps of the corresponding directories
in $PGDATA/base.

Bye, Chris.


--

Chris Mair
http://www.1006.org

 

I don't believe it's stored in the database. The closer you can get is to check the date/timestamp of PG_VERSION file or possibly any file that may have an earlier date/timestamp, under your database base subdirectory ($PGDATA/base/your_database_oid/). For instance, for a database with OID of 34332 :

 

ls -lt  $PGDATA/base/34332/PG*

-rw-------  1 postgres postgres 4 Aug 24 10:41 PG_VERSION

 

(Note that the PG_VERSION file in your $PGDATA data directory signifies when the Postgres cluster was created, not a specific database)

 

--

  Husam

  http://firstdba.googlepages.com

 

---

From: pgsql-admin-owner@postgresql.org [mailto:pgsql-admin-owner@postgresql.org] On Behalf Of Jessica Richard
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 8:45 AM
To: pgsql-admin@postgresql.org
Subject: [ADMIN] how to check the creation date of a postgres database?

\l and  \l+ show only the database name, owner and description.
select * from pg_database does not have date info, either.

I would like to know when each of my databases were created.

Thanks,
Jessica

---

Get your own web address for just $1.99/1st yr. We'll help. Yahoo! Small Business.

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> It didn't seem to work....
>
> I just checked one $PGDATA/base directory,  they all have today's time
> stamp (9/20/06)  around 6:00 am this morning, that was when my daily
> database dump cron job was running...

You can check the PG_VERSION file under each database's directory as
Husam said...


Bye, Chris.

> Thanks, but I still can't get the database creation date....
>
>
> % cat PG_VERSION
> 8.1
>
> 16% ls -lt PG*
> -rw-------    1 postgres users          4 Jun 22 10:34 PG_VERSION
>
> This date was the date that the Postgres server was upgraded to 8.1
> and the timestamp of this file is same under each of all database
> directories....

Ah, then the information was lost when you upgraded :/

Backups of the data files prior to the upgrade?

Bye, Chris.

On Sep 20, 2006, at 11:45 AM, Jessica Richard wrote:
> \l and  \l+ show only the database name, owner and description.
> select * from pg_database does not have date info, either.
>
> I would like to know when each of my databases were created.

You're not the first person to ask for this, but it's still pretty
unclear what the use-case for that info is (and without a decent use-
case, it's pretty unlikely that this info will get stored).

So... why is it you want to know this?
--
Jim Nasby                                    jimn@enterprisedb.com
EnterpriseDB      http://enterprisedb.com      512.569.9461 (cell)




--
Jim Nasby                                    jimn@enterprisedb.com
EnterpriseDB      http://enterprisedb.com      512.569.9461 (cell)

Jim Nasby <jim@nasby.net> writes:
> On Sep 20, 2006, at 11:45 AM, Jessica Richard wrote:
>> I would like to know when each of my databases were created.

> You're not the first person to ask for this, but it's still pretty
> unclear what the use-case for that info is (and without a decent use-
> case, it's pretty unlikely that this info will get stored).

If we did store it, it would presumably reflect the time of issuance of
CREATE DATABASE, which would mean it wouldn't survive a dump and reload
anyway (as the OP seems to be wishing for).

            regards, tom lane

Please include the list in your replies.

On Fri, Sep 22, 2006 at 09:04:08AM -0700, Jessica Richard wrote:
> Thanks for your reply.
>
> It is for database documentation.

Is it really that important to know when a database was created?

I'm doubtful that anyone in the community will get excited enough to
make a patch based just on that use case; though if you were to create
one it might get accepted.

> Jim Nasby <jim@nasby.net> wrote: On Sep 20, 2006, at 11:45 AM, Jessica Richard wrote:
> > \l and  \l+ show only the database name, owner and description.
> > select * from pg_database does not have date info, either.
> >
> > I would like to know when each of my databases were created.
>
> You're not the first person to ask for this, but it's still pretty
> unclear what the use-case for that info is (and without a decent use-
> case, it's pretty unlikely that this info will get stored).
>
> So... why is it you want to know this?
--
Jim C. Nasby, Database Architect                   jim@nasby.net
512.569.9461 (cell)                         http://jim.nasby.net

On Fri, Sep 22, 2006 at 10:30:55AM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> Jim Nasby <jim@nasby.net> writes:
> > On Sep 20, 2006, at 11:45 AM, Jessica Richard wrote:
> >> I would like to know when each of my databases were created.
>
> > You're not the first person to ask for this, but it's still pretty
> > unclear what the use-case for that info is (and without a decent use-
> > case, it's pretty unlikely that this info will get stored).
>
> If we did store it, it would presumably reflect the time of issuance of
> CREATE DATABASE, which would mean it wouldn't survive a dump and reload
> anyway (as the OP seems to be wishing for).

Well, that case could be handled as well, it's just a SMOC. But as I
mentioned, it's unlikely an existing developer will get excited about
any of this.
--
Jim Nasby                                            jim@nasby.net
EnterpriseDB      http://enterprisedb.com      512.569.9461 (cell)

On Fri, 2006-09-22 at 11:17, Jim C. Nasby wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 22, 2006 at 10:30:55AM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> > Jim Nasby <jim@nasby.net> writes:
> > > On Sep 20, 2006, at 11:45 AM, Jessica Richard wrote:
> > >> I would like to know when each of my databases were created.
> >
> > > You're not the first person to ask for this, but it's still pretty
> > > unclear what the use-case for that info is (and without a decent use-
> > > case, it's pretty unlikely that this info will get stored).
> >
> > If we did store it, it would presumably reflect the time of issuance of
> > CREATE DATABASE, which would mean it wouldn't survive a dump and reload
> > anyway (as the OP seems to be wishing for).
>
> Well, that case could be handled as well, it's just a SMOC. But as I
> mentioned, it's unlikely an existing developer will get excited about
> any of this.

How about a default database comment on creation if the user doesn't set
one, of "database created 2006-09-21 12:34:56"

On Fri, Sep 22, 2006 at 11:30:55AM -0500, Scott Marlowe wrote:
> On Fri, 2006-09-22 at 11:17, Jim C. Nasby wrote:
> > On Fri, Sep 22, 2006 at 10:30:55AM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> > > Jim Nasby <jim@nasby.net> writes:
> > > > On Sep 20, 2006, at 11:45 AM, Jessica Richard wrote:
> > > >> I would like to know when each of my databases were created.
> > >
> > > > You're not the first person to ask for this, but it's still pretty
> > > > unclear what the use-case for that info is (and without a decent use-
> > > > case, it's pretty unlikely that this info will get stored).
> > >
> > > If we did store it, it would presumably reflect the time of issuance of
> > > CREATE DATABASE, which would mean it wouldn't survive a dump and reload
> > > anyway (as the OP seems to be wishing for).
> >
> > Well, that case could be handled as well, it's just a SMOC. But as I
> > mentioned, it's unlikely an existing developer will get excited about
> > any of this.
>
> How about a default database comment on creation if the user doesn't set
> one, of "database created 2006-09-21 12:34:56"

If we had catalog triggers, one could do that automagically...
--
Jim Nasby                                            jim@nasby.net
EnterpriseDB      http://enterprisedb.com      512.569.9461 (cell)