(PHP 5)
pg_parameter_status — Looks up a current parameter setting of the server.
$connection
   ], string $param_name
   )Looks up a current parameter setting of the server.
    Certain parameter values are reported by the server automatically at 
    connection startup or whenever their values change. pg_parameter_status() can be 
    used to interrogate these settings. It returns the current value of a 
    parameter if known, or FALSE if the parameter is not known.
  
Parameters reported as of PostgreSQL 8.0 include server_version, server_encoding, client_encoding, is_superuser, session_authorization, DateStyle, TimeZone, and integer_datetimes. (server_encoding, TimeZone, and integer_datetimes were not reported by releases before 8.0.) Note that server_version, server_encoding and integer_datetimes cannot change after PostgreSQL startup.
PostgreSQL 7.3 or lower servers do not report parameter settings, pg_parameter_status() includes logic to obtain values for server_version and client_encoding anyway. Applications are encouraged to use pg_parameter_status() rather than ad hoc code to determine these values.
On a pre-7.4 PostgreSQL server, changing client_encoding via SET after connection startup will not be reflected by pg_parameter_status().
connection
       PostgreSQL database connection resource.  When 
       connection is not present, the default connection 
       is used. The default connection is the last connection made by 
       pg_connect() or pg_pconnect().
      
param_name
         Possible param_name values include server_version, 
        server_encoding, client_encoding, 
        is_superuser, session_authorization, 
        DateStyle, TimeZone, and 
        integer_datetimes.
        
A string containing the value of the parameter, FALSE on failure or invalid
  param_name.
Example #1 pg_parameter_status() example
<?php
  $dbconn = pg_connect("dbname=publisher") or die("Could not connect");
  echo "Server encoding: ", pg_parameter_status($dbconn, "server_encoding");
?>
The above example will output:
Server encoding: SQL_ASCII