How to log the DROP TABLE Statement in the log file of PostgreSQL?

Above is a common question/suggestion by the PostgreSQL DBA. We should log all the type of statements like DDL, DML. But DDL is most important than DML logging.

For logging the DDL statement into log files, we should change the following parameters in the postgresql.conf file.

log_statement=’ddl’
log_line_prefix = ‘%t %c %u ‘ (time, sessionid, user)
logging_collector = ON

For example:
I dropped a tbl_student table. Now, I can see below the line in my log file.

2017-12-08 16:23:12 CET LOG:  statement: DROP TABLE tbl_student;

In this post, I am sharing an important topic for PostgreSQL Database Professional.

A database log is necessary for finding different statuses, errors, bad queries and any changes on the Database Server.
A Database Administrator can also log different executed queries and analyze those for performance tuning.

Following are few relevant parameters for enabling the PostgreSQL log for all the queries.

Please open your postgresql.conf file and make sure about all logs related parameter’s value which are mentioned below.

• log_directory = ‘pg_log’ (default directory name)
• log_filename = ‘postgresql-%Y-%m-%d_%H%M%S.log’ (default file name structure)
• log_statement = ‘all’ (value ‘all’ is recommended {none, ddl, mod, all})
• logging_collector = ON
• log_line_prefix = ‘%t %c %u ‘ (time, sessionid, user)
• log_destination = ON (stderr,syslog,csvlog,eventlog)
• log_rotation_size = 15MB
• log_rotation_age = 1d (create new log file every day)