Reset postgresql

I want to bring postgresql back to its original empty state.

On Ubuntu:

$ sudo service postgresql stop
$ sudo apt-get purge postgresql*

Followed by

$ sudo apt-get install postgresql

Does what I want, but is there any less brutal way of doing the same thing?

What I actually want to do is to check that I can re-create my database from scratch.

Use initdb, creates a new PostgreSQL database cluster. That includes postgresql.conf and pg_hba.conf as well.

First, I have to guess what you mean by "reset"!

If you mean the data, you can just drop all databases using the known SQL statement drop database.

If you mean the configuration, I think it is a good way to remove and re-install it with a fresh config files unless you have an old backup.