Cannot find pg_hba.conf and postgreql.conf file on OS X?

I installed postgres using homebrew. I would like to locate he files pg_hba.conf and postgresql.conf but I cannot find them.

I followed this :

https://askubuntu.com/questions/256534/how-do-i-find-the-path-to-pg-hba-conf-from-the-shell

and this

http://www.kelvinwong.ca/tag/pg_hba-conf/

but I still cannot find it.

By default homebrew puts everything in /usr/local

So the postgresql conf files will be /usr/local/var/postgres/

If you can connect to Pg as the superuser (usually postgres) simply SHOW hba_file; to see its location.

Otherwise you have to find out how PostgreSQL is started to locate its data directory.

Worst case, you can search for it:

find / -type f -name pg_hba.conf 2> /dev/null

It's possible to edit those files without knowing their locations with pg admin https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/61193/how-to-edit-postgresql-conf-with-pgadmin

> - To edit the postgresql.conf file: Choose Tools > Server Configuration > postgresql.conf > - To edit the pg_hba.conf file: Choose Tools > Server Configuration > pg_hba.conf

This could be a possible location to find the postgresql.conf/pg_hba.conf file

/opt/homebrew/var/postgres/postgresql.conf  

/opt/homebrew/var/postgres/pg_hba.conf  

In MacOS Catalina are under the folder:

 ./Library/PostgreSQL/{postgres_version}/share/postgresql/

Whatever your OS is, you always can use the psql utility, DBeaver or any other client tool, to type the SQL show command to see the value of any run-time setting.

For example, on my BigSur OSX system, where I have installed PostgreSQL v13 with the EDB installer, these are the locations for postgresql.conf and pg_hba.conf files using the psql utility:

psql -U postgres -c 'show config_file'
Password for user postgres: 
                 config_file                 
---------------------------------------------
 /Library/PostgreSQL/13/data/postgresql.conf
(1 row)

psql -U postgres -c 'show hba_file'
Password for user postgres: 
                hba_file                 
-----------------------------------------
 /Library/PostgreSQL/13/data/pg_hba.conf
(1 row)

Another solution to know the location of postgresql.conf is to start psql and type \show all Then search for the value of 'config_file'. For my docker configuration, this will be /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf then I can connect to Docker with docker exec -it postgres bash -c "export TERM=xterm-256color ; bash" and view its content with cat /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf