<term><option>--show</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Show internal settings and exit, without doing anything else. This
can be used to debug the <application>initdb</application>
installation.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry id="app-initdb-option-sync-method">
<term><option>--sync-method=<replaceable>method</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
When set to <literal>fsync</literal>, which is the default,
<command>initdb</command> will recursively open and synchronize all
files in the data directory. The search for files will follow symbolic
links for the WAL directory and each configured tablespace.
</para>
<para>
On Linux, <literal>syncfs</literal> may be used instead to ask the
operating system to synchronize the whole file systems that contain the
data directory, the WAL files, and each tablespace. See
<xref linkend="guc-recovery-init-sync-method"/> for information about
the caveats to be aware of when using <literal>syncfs</literal>.
</para>
<para>
This option has no effect when <option>--no-sync</option> is used.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry id="app-initdb-option-sync-only">
<term><option>-S</option></term>
<term><option>--sync-only</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Safely write all database files to disk and exit. This does not
perform any of the normal <application>initdb</application> operations.
Generally, this option is useful for ensuring reliable recovery after
changing <xref linkend="guc-fsync"/> from <literal>off</literal> to
<literal>on</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</para>
<para>
Other options:
<variablelist>
<varlistentry id="app-initdb-option-version">
<term><option>-V</option></term>
<term><option>--version</option></term>