PostgreSQL Services – Differences Between System Service and pg_ctl

Installed PostgreSQL 10 by a normal user.

Enabled and started its service:

sudo systemctl start postgresql-10
sudo systemctl enable postgresql-10

Then login with postgres user:

sudo su - postgres

Add this setting to .bash_profile file:

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/pgsql-10/bin/

Restart PostgreSQL by pg_ctl:

-bash-4.2$ pg_ctl restart

Then exit to normal user and check postgresql's status again, it failed. Even use this way to restart can't success:

sudo systemctl restart postgresql-10
sudo systemctl stop postgresql-10

It always failed.

But if I use postgres user to test restart, stop, start, all of them can success.

These 2 ways aren't controlling the same process?

Add postgresql-10 service content

$ sudo systemctl cat postgresql-10.service

# /usr/lib/systemd/system/postgresql-10.service
# It's not recommended to modify this file in-place, because it will be
# overwritten during package upgrades.  If you want to customize, the
# best way is to create a file "/etc/systemd/system/postgresql-10.service",
# containing
#       .include /usr/lib/systemd/system/postgresql-10.service
#       ...make your changes here...
# For more info about custom unit files, see
# http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Systemd#How_do_I_customize_a_unit_file.2F_add_a_custom_unit_file.3F

# Note: changing PGDATA will typically require adjusting SELinux
# configuration as well.

# Note: do not use a PGDATA pathname containing spaces, or you will
# break postgresql-setup.
[Unit]
Description=PostgreSQL 10 database server
Documentation=https://www.postgresql.org/docs/10/static/
After=syslog.target
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=notify

User=postgres
Group=postgres

# Note: avoid inserting whitespace in these Environment= lines, or you may
# break postgresql-setup.

# Location of database directory
Environment=PGDATA=/var/lib/pgsql/10/data/

# Where to send early-startup messages from the server (before the logging
# options of postgresql.conf take effect)
# This is normally controlled by the global default set by systemd
# StandardOutput=syslog

# Disable OOM kill on the postmaster
OOMScoreAdjust=-1000
Environment=PG_OOM_ADJUST_FILE=/proc/self/oom_score_adj
Environment=PG_OOM_ADJUST_VALUE=0

ExecStartPre=/usr/pgsql-10/bin/postgresql-10-check-db-dir ${PGDATA}
ExecStart=/usr/pgsql-10/bin/postmaster -D ${PGDATA}
ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
KillMode=mixed
KillSignal=SIGINT


# Do not set any timeout value, so that systemd will not kill postmaster
# during crash recovery.
TimeoutSec=0

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target