How to customize the configuration file of the official PostgreSQL Docker image?

Question

I'm using the official Postgres Docker image trying to customize its configuration. For this purpose, I use the command sed to change max_connections for example:

sed -i -e"s/^max_connections = 100.*$/max_connections = 1000/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf

I tried two methods to apply this configuration. The first is by adding the commands to a script and copying it within the init folder "/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d". The second method is by running them directly within my Dockerfile with "RUN" command (this method worked fine with a non-official Postgresql image with a different path to the configuration file "/etc/postgres/..."). In both cases the changes fail because the configuration file is missing (I think it's not created yet).

How should I change the configuration?

Edit 1:

Here is the Dockerfile used to create the image:

# Database (http://www.cs3c.ma/)

FROM postgres:9.4
MAINTAINER Sabbane <contact@cs3c.ma>

ENV TERM=xterm

RUN apt-get update
RUN apt-get install -y nano

ADD scripts /scripts
# ADD scripts/setup-my-schema.sh /docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/

# Allow connections from anywhere.
RUN sed -i -e"s/^#listen_addresses =.*$/listen_addresses = '*'/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN echo "host    all    all    0.0.0.0/0    md5" >> /var/lib/postgresql/data/pg_hba.conf

# Configure logs
RUN sed -i -e"s/^#logging_collector = off.*$/logging_collector = on/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^#log_directory = 'pg_log'.*$/log_directory = '/var/log/postgresql'/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^#log_filename = 'postgresql-\%Y-\%m-\%d_\%H\%M\%S.log'.*$/log_filename = 'postgresql_\%a.log'/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^#log_file_mode = 0600.*$/log_file_mode = 0644/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^#log_truncate_on_rotation = off.*$/log_truncate_on_rotation = on/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^#log_rotation_age = 1d.*$/log_rotation_age = 1d/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^#log_min_duration_statement = -1.*$/log_min_duration_statement = 0/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^#log_checkpoints = off.*$/log_checkpoints = on/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^#log_connections = off.*$/log_connections = on/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^#log_disconnections = off.*$/log_disconnections = on/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^log_line_prefix = '\%t [\%p-\%l] \%q\%u@\%d '.*$/log_line_prefix = '\%t [\%p]: [\%l-1] user=\%u,db=\%d'/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^#log_lock_waits = off.*$/log_lock_waits = on/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^#log_temp_files = -1.*$/log_temp_files = 0/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^#statement_timeout = 0.*$/statement_timeout = 1800000        # in milliseconds, 0 is disabled (current 30min)/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^lc_messages = 'en_US.UTF-8'.*$/lc_messages = 'C'/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf

# Performance Tuning
RUN sed -i -e"s/^max_connections = 100.*$/max_connections = 1000/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^shared_buffers =.*$/shared_buffers = 16GB/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^#effective_cache_size = 128MB.*$/effective_cache_size = 48GB/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^#work_mem = 1MB.*$/work_mem = 16MB/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^#maintenance_work_mem = 16MB.*$/maintenance_work_mem = 2GB/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^#checkpoint_segments = .*$/checkpoint_segments = 32/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^#checkpoint_completion_target = 0.5.*$/checkpoint_completion_target = 0.7/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^#wal_buffers =.*$/wal_buffers = 16MB/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
RUN sed -i -e"s/^#default_statistics_target = 100.*$/default_statistics_target = 100/" /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf


VOLUME ["/var/lib/postgresql/data", "/var/log/postgresql"]

CMD ["postgres"]

With this Dockerfile the build process shows the error: sed: can't read /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf: No such file or directory

Answer 1

With Docker Compose

When working with Docker Compose, you can use command: postgres -c option=value in your docker-compose.yml to configure Postgres.

For example, this makes Postgres log to a file:

command: postgres -c logging_collector=on -c log_destination=stderr -c log_directory=/logs

Adapting Vojtech Vitek's answer, you can use

command: postgres -c config_file=/etc/postgresql.conf

to change the config file Postgres will use. You'd mount your custom config file with a volume:

volumes:
   - ./customPostgresql.conf:/etc/postgresql.conf

---

Here's the docker-compose.yml of my application, showing how to configure Postgres:

# Start the app using docker-compose pull && docker-compose up to make sure you have the latest image
version: '2.1'
services:
  myApp:
    image: registry.gitlab.com/bullbytes/myApp:latest
    networks:
      - myApp-network
  db:
     image: postgres:9.6.1
     # Make Postgres log to a file.
     # More on logging with Postgres: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/runtime-config-logging.html
     command: postgres -c logging_collector=on -c log_destination=stderr -c log_directory=/logs
     environment:
       # Provide the password via an environment variable. If the variable is unset or empty, use a default password
       # Explanation of this shell feature: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/122845/using-a-b-for-variable-assignment-in-scripts/122848#122848
       - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=${POSTGRES_PASSWORD:-4WXUms893U6j4GE&Hvk3S*hqcqebFgo!vZi}
     # If on a non-Linux OS, make sure you share the drive used here. Go to Docker's settings -> Shared Drives
     volumes:
       # Persist the data between container invocations
       - postgresVolume:/var/lib/postgresql/data
       - ./logs:/logs
     networks:
       myApp-network:
         # Our application can communicate with the database using this hostname
         aliases:
           - postgresForMyApp
networks:
  myApp-network:
    driver: bridge
# Creates a named volume to persist our data. When on a non-Linux OS, the volume's data will be in the Docker VM
# (e.g., MobyLinuxVM) in /var/lib/docker/volumes/
volumes:
  postgresVolume:

---

Permission to write to the log directory

Note that when on Linux, the log directory on the host must have the right permissions. Otherwise you'll get the slightly misleading error

FATAL: could not open log file "/logs/postgresql-2017-02-04_115222.log": Permission denied

I say misleading, since the error message suggests that the directory in the container has the wrong permission, when in reality the directory on the host doesn't permit writing.

To fix this, I set the correct permissions on the host using

chgroup ./logs docker && chmod 770 ./logs