Search code examples
sqlpostgresqlpgadmin

How to use Debugger in PostgreSQL PG-ADMIN?

I was used Oracle SQL developer in that debugger is worked fine after Grant Debugger but I am now using PostgreSQL PG-ADMIN and I am trying to use debug function but debug is not work.

Is there any grant or any other procedure?

debugImage

I also refer:

Debug PostgreSQL function using pgAdmin

Solution

  • You have to enable debugging in two places. On PGAdmin and on the database itself. That article you referenced does a wonderful job explaining it but there were some nuances.

    PGAdmin

    When updating your postgresql.conf file to load the debugging library, I was running PGAdmin on Windows so the file was here:

    C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.4\data\postgresql.conf

    And the path to the plugin_debugger.dll was actually

    $libdir/plugin_debugger.dll

    not

    $libdir/plugins/plugin_debugger.dll

    as specified in the article. So your postgresql.conf would need a line like this

    shared_preload_libraries = '$libdir/plugin_debugger.dll'

    Search for the actual .dll if you're in doubt. If you're on Linux the file you'll be looking for is plugin_debugger.so. Don't forget that changing the postgresql.conf file will require a restart for the change to take effect.

    PostgreSQL Database

    Assuming you're running your PostgreSQL database on a Linux server this gist does an excellent job at explaining how to download the dependencies for enabling debugging. Make sure you're running as root when you install.

    The part that's easy to miss is issuing the command against the actual database you want to debug. For newer versions on PostgreSQL all you'll need to do is this:

    CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS pldbgapi;

    If that doesn't return an error, you should be good to go.

    Some additional things of note:

    • As mentioned above, you can only debug when running as a super user account
    • From their docs you can only debug pl/pgsql functions. So if your function says something like LANGUAGE c PGAdmin won't even show a right-click Debug menu option when you select the function. Look for something that has LANGUAGE plpgsql and the Debug menu should show.