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Chapter 52. Frontend/Backend Protocol

Table of Contents

52.1. Overview
52.1.1. Messaging Overview
52.1.2. Extended Query Overview
52.1.3. Formats and Format Codes
52.2. Message Flow
52.2.1. Start-up
52.2.2. Simple Query
52.2.3. Extended Query
52.2.4. Function Call
52.2.5. COPY Operations
52.2.6. Asynchronous Operations
52.2.7. Canceling Requests in Progress
52.2.8. Termination
52.2.9. SSL Session Encryption
52.3. SASL Authentication
52.3.1. SCRAM-SHA-256 authentication
52.4. Streaming Replication Protocol
52.5. Logical Streaming Replication Protocol
52.5.1. Logical Streaming Replication Parameters
52.5.2. Logical Replication Protocol Messages
52.5.3. Logical Replication Protocol Message Flow
52.6. Message Data Types
52.7. Message Formats
52.8. Error and Notice Message Fields
52.9. Logical Replication Message Formats
52.10. Summary of Changes since Protocol 2.0

PostgreSQL uses a message-based protocol for communication between frontends and backends (clients and servers). The protocol is supported over TCP/IP and also over Unix-domain sockets. Port number 5432 has been registered with IANA as the customary TCP port number for servers supporting this protocol, but in practice any non-privileged port number can be used.

This document describes version 3.0 of the protocol, implemented in PostgreSQL 7.4 and later. For descriptions of the earlier protocol versions, see previous releases of the PostgreSQL documentation. A single server can support multiple protocol versions. The initial startup-request message tells the server which protocol version the client is attempting to use, and then the server follows that protocol if it is able.

In order to serve multiple clients efficiently, the server launches a new backend process for each client. In the current implementation, a new child process is created immediately after an incoming connection is detected. This is transparent to the protocol, however. For purposes of the protocol, the terms backend and server are interchangeable; likewise frontend and client are interchangeable.