How do I set and get custom database variables?

Question

Using PGAdmin III I can right-click on a database, navigate to the Variables tab, and put a variable name-value property on the database itself. Is there a way to customize these? I saw an application_name variable, but I'd like to have an application_version variable.

Answer 1

You have to add the variable to the end of your postgresql.conf like

#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# CUSTOMIZED OPTIONS
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------

custom_variable_classes = 'general'     # list of custom variable class names

general.application_version = 'v1.0'

When restarted, you can add general.application_version manually in PgAdmin (it will not show up in the drop-down - at least not for me). Otherwise, you can use it just like any other PostgreSQL variable.