How to tune TRACK_ACTIVITY_QUERY_SIZE in PostgreSQL.conf?

In PostgreSQL, the track_activity_query_size parameter determines the maximum size of the SQL query that can be recorded in the pg_stat_activity view. By default, this parameter is set to 1024 bytes, which means that only the first 1024 bytes of a long SQL query will be recorded.

To fix the track_activity_query_size parameter in the postgresql.conf file, you can follow these steps:

  1. Locate the postgresql.conf file: The postgresql.conf file is usually located in the PostgreSQL data directory. You can use the following command to locate the data directory:

2. Edit the postgresql.conf file: Open the postgresql.conf file in a text editor and locate the track_activity_query_size parameter. If the parameter is not present in the file, you can add it to the end of the file. For example, to set the track_activity_query_size parameter to 2048 bytes, add the following line:

  1. Save and close the postgresql.conf file: After making the changes to the file, save the changes and close the file.
  2. Restart the PostgreSQL server: To apply the changes to the postgresql.conf file, you need to restart the PostgreSQL server. You can use the following command to restart the server:

After restarting the server, the track_activity_query_size parameter will be set to the value you specified in the postgresql.conf file. This will allow PostgreSQL to record longer SQL queries in the pg_stat_activity view, which can be useful for monitoring and troubleshooting purposes.

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Open Source Database Systems Engineer with a deep understanding of Optimizer Internals, Performance Engineering, Scalability and Data SRE. Shiv currently is the Founder, Investor, Board Member and CEO of multiple Database Systems Infrastructure Operations companies in the Transaction Processing Computing and ColumnStores ecosystem. He is also a frequent speaker in open source software conferences globally.