36.17. The Connection Service File
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## 36.17. The Connection Service File

The connection service file allows libpq connection parameters to be associated with a single service name. That service name can then be specified in a libpq connection string, and the associated settings will be used. This allows connection parameters to be modified without requiring a recompile of the libpq-using application. The service name can also be specified using the `PGSERVICE` environment variable.

Service names can be defined in either a per-user service file or a system-wide file. If the same service name exists in both the user and the system file, the user file takes precedence. By default, the per-user service file is named `~/.pg_service.conf`. On Microsoft Windows, it is named `%APPDATA%\postgresql\.pg_service.conf` (where `%APPDATA%` refers to the Application Data subdirectory in the user's profile). A different file name can be specified by setting the environment variable `PGSERVICEFILE`. The system-wide file is named `pg_service.conf`. By default it is sought in the `etc` directory of the PostgreSQL installation (use `pg_config --sysconfdir` to identify this directory precisely). Another directory, but not a different file name, can be specified by setting the environment variable `PGSYSCONFDIR`.

Either service file uses an “INI file” format where the section name is the service name and the parameters are connection parameters; see Section 36.1.2 for a list. For example:

    # comment
    [mydb]
    host=somehost
    port=5433
    user=admin

An example file is provided in the PostgreSQL installation at `share/pg_service.conf.sample`.

Connection parameters obtained from a service file are combined with parameters obtained from other sources. A service file setting overrides the corresponding environment variable, and in turn can be overridden by a value given directly in the connection string. For example, using the above service file, a connection string `service=mydb port=5434` will use host `somehost`, port `5434`, user `admin`, and other parameters as set by environment variables or built-in defaults.

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