during</secondary>
   </indexterm>
   Autostart scripts are operating-system-specific.
   There are a few example scripts distributed with
   <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> in the
   <filename>contrib/start-scripts</filename> directory. Installing one will require
   root privileges.
  </para>

  <para>
   Different systems have different conventions for starting up daemons
   at boot time. Many systems have a file
   <filename>/etc/rc.local</filename> or
   <filename>/etc/rc.d/rc.local</filename>. Others use <filename>init.d</filename> or
   <filename>rc.d</filename> directories. Whatever you do, the server must be
   run by the <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> user account
   <emphasis>and not by root</emphasis> or any other user. Therefore you
   probably should form your commands using
   <literal>su postgres -c '...'</literal>.  For example:
<programlisting>
su postgres -c 'pg_ctl start -D /usr/local/pgsql/data -l serverlog'
</programlisting>
  </para>

  <para>
   Here are a few more operating-system-specific suggestions. (In each
   case be sure to use the proper installation directory and user
   name where we show generic values.)

   <itemizedlist>
    <listitem>
     <para>
      For <productname>FreeBSD</productname>, look at the file
      <filename>contrib/start-scripts/freebsd</filename> in the
      <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> source distribution.
      <indexterm><primary>FreeBSD</primary><secondary>start script</secondary></indexterm>
     </para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
     <para>
      On <productname>OpenBSD</productname>, add the following lines
      to the file <filename>/etc/rc.local</filename>:
      <indexterm><primary>OpenBSD</primary><secondary>start script</secondary></indexterm>
<programlisting>
if [ -x /usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_ctl -a -x /usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres ]; then
    su -l postgres -c '/usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_ctl start -s -l /var/postgresql/log -D /usr/local/pgsql/data'
    echo -n ' postgresql'
fi
</programlisting>
     </para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
     <para>
      On <productname>Linux</productname> systems either add
      <indexterm><primary>Linux</primary><secondary>start script</secondary></indexterm>
<programlisting>
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_ctl start -l logfile -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
</programlisting>
      to <filename>/etc/rc.d/rc.local</filename>
      or <filename>/etc/rc.local</filename> or look at the file
      <filename>contrib/start-scripts/linux</filename> in the
      <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> source distribution.
     </para>

     <para>
      When using <application>systemd</application>, you can use the following
      service unit file (e.g.,
      at <filename>/etc/systemd/system/postgresql.service</filename>):<indexterm><primary>systemd</primary></indexterm>
<programlisting>
[Unit]
Description=PostgreSQL database server
Documentation=man:postgres(1)
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=notify
User=postgres
ExecStart=/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
KillMode=mixed
KillSignal=SIGINT
TimeoutSec=infinity

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
</programlisting>
      Using <literal>Type=notify</literal> requires that the server binary was
      built with <literal>configure --with-systemd</literal>.
     </para>

     <para>
      Consider carefully the timeout
      setting.  <application>systemd</application> has a default timeout of 90
      seconds as of this writing and will kill a process that does not report
      readiness within that time.  But a <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
      server that might have to perform crash recovery at startup could take
      much longer to become ready.  The suggested value
      of <literal>infinity</literal> disables the timeout logic.
     </para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
     <para>
      On <productname>NetBSD</productname>, use either the
      <productname>FreeBSD</productname>