33.16. The Connection Service File

The connection service file allows libpq connection parameters to be associated with a single service name. That service name can then be specified by a libpq connection, and the associated settings will be used. This allows connection parameters to be modified without requiring a recompile of the libpq application. The service name can also be specified using the PGSERVICE environment variable.

The connection service file can be a per-user service file at ~/.pg_service.conf or the location specified by the environment variable PGSERVICEFILE , or it can be a system-wide file at `pg_config --sysconfdir`/pg_service.conf or in the directory specified by the environment variable PGSYSCONFDIR . If service definitions with the same name exist in the user and the system file, the user file takes precedence.

The file uses an " INI file " format where the section name is the service name and the parameters are connection parameters; see Section 33.1.2 for a list. For example:

# comment
[mydb]
host=somehost
port=5433
user=admin

An example file is provided at share/pg_service.conf.sample .