Configuration parameter

trace_notify — PostgreSQL configuration parameter

Category Developer Options

Generates a great amount of debugging output for the LISTEN and NOTIFY commands.

At a glance

Property Value
Parameter trace_notify
Category Developer Options
Default (see documentation)
Value type boolean (on/off)
Change scope Per-session (SET)
Available in PostgreSQL 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 (added in 12)

What it does

Generates a great amount of debugging output for the LISTEN and NOTIFY commands. client_min_messages or log_min_messages must be DEBUG1 or lower to send this output to the client or server logs, respectively.

(Description quoted from the official PostgreSQL documentation.)

How to apply a change

Can be set per session with SET, per role/database with ALTER ROLE/DATABASE ... SET, or globally in postgresql.conf.

Inspect the current value and source with SHOW trace_notify; or SELECT name, setting, unit, context, source FROM pg_settings WHERE name = 'trace_notify';.

Tuning guidance

This is a developer and debugging aid, not a performance knob. Leave it at the default in production; enable it only temporarily, on a non-production or carefully controlled system, while diagnosing a specific problem. Several options in this group add overhead, generate large volumes of log output, or can damage data if misused — turn them off again as soon as the investigation is done.

Reference

PostgreSQL documentation — trace_notify.

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Related & next steps

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