Re: Get version info

I might be missing something, but...

You are asking for a shell command - surely

psql -d ... -c "select version();"

Is a shell command?

But for a non-psql option:

Note that version() is built into the postgres binary itself, if you put the postgres bin folder in your system or user path you can simply run:
postgres -V
postgres (PostgreSQL) 16.14 (Ubuntu 16.14-0ubuntu0.24.04.1)

If it is not in your path, you need to use the full path:
/usr/lib/postgresql/16/bin/postgres -V
postgres (PostgreSQL) 16.14 (Ubuntu 16.14-0ubuntu0.24.04.1)

Easy to wrap in a script (given you want a shell command I figure you want a Linux solution):

#! /bin/bash
# return Postgres version from the command line
CMD=`locate postgresql | grep bin | grep postgres$`
$CMD -V | cut -f 3 -d " "

Eg: with this text in a file called get_ver

bash get_ver
16.14

You can simplify it slightly, but make the script a bit more arcane:

#! /bin/bash
# return Postgres version from the command line

`locate postgresql | grep bin | grep postgres$` -V | cut -f 3 -d " "

Hope this helps...

Brent Wood
________________________________
From: Igor Korot <ikorot01(at)gmail(dot)com>
Sent: Monday, 6 July 2026 6:14 am
To: Adrian Klaver <adrian(dot)klaver(at)aklaver(dot)com>; pgsql-generallists.postgresql.org <pgsql-general(at)lists(dot)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: Get version info

Hi, Adrian,

On Sun, Jul 5, 2026 at 9:53 AM Adrian Klaver <adrian(dot)klaver(at)aklaver(dot)com> wrote:
>
> On 7/5/26 1:18 AM, rob stone wrote:
> > On Sun, 2026-07-05 at 01:32 -0500, Igor Korot wrote:
> >> Hi, ALL,
> >> Google recommends using pg-config.
> >>
> >> However, some distro prefer to use pkg-config and don't even include
> >> local configuration file.
> >>
> >> Is this file located everywhere and if not - how do I check it inside
> >> configure.ac?
> >>
> >> Thank you.
> >>
> >
> >
> > See chapter 9.27.11, not Mr. Google.
> >
> > select version();
> >
> > PostgreSQL 18.4 (Debian 18.4-1+b1) on x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by
> > x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc (Debian 15.3.0-1) 15.3.0, 64-bit
> > (1 row)
>
> In addition:
>
> show server_version;
> server_version
> ------------------------------------
> 17.10 (Ubuntu 17.10-1.pgdg24.04+1)
>
>
> show server_version_num;
> server_version_num
> --------------------
> 170010

Again this is inside psql not inside shell/configure.ac

Thank you.

>
> --
> Adrian Klaver
> adrian(dot)klaver(at)aklaver(dot)com

Brent Wood
Principal Technician - GIS and Spatial Data Management
+64-4-386-0529
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