Re: Unhelpful initdb error message

Adrian Klaver <adrian.klaver@gmail.com> writes:
> The postmaster.pid is located outside the data directory, but points back to the
> data directory.   Not sure where Debian, though at a guess somewhere in /var.
> Any way search for postmaster.pid.

Really?  That seems like an extremely dangerous/stupid/unnecessary hack
on the part of the Debian packagers.  What's keeping users from
accidentally starting two postmasters in the same data directory, if
they can put their pidfiles in (different) other places?

(This seems unrelated to Thom's issue, but it's still worrisome.)

            regards, tom lane