I had a need to read such things as the backend locale and the catalog

I had a need to read such things as the backend locale and the catalog
version number from the current database, and couldn't find any existing
program to do that.

linda:~$ pg_controldata
Log file id:                          0
Log file segment:                     5
Last modified:                        Wed Feb  7 19:35:47 2001
Database block size:                  8192
Blocks per segment of large relation: 131072
Catalog version number:               200101061
LC_COLLATE:                           en_GB
LC_CTYPE:                             en_GB
Log archive directory:

Oliver Elphick                                Oliver.Elphick@lfix.co.uk