Re: Cannot get postgres started on Fedora core 3

I've placed several "echo" statements into /etc/rc.d/init.d/postgresql to
see what branches the scripts are executing and what the variables are.

I've narrowed it down to the final call
$SU -l postgres -c "$PGENGINE/postmaster -p
(snipped the rest of the line from this post because it's the standard line
in the file)

All of the env variables are correctly set in this statement, but no pid is
generated.

If I manually enter the command on the command line

postgres -c /usr/bin/postmaster -p 5432 -D /var/lib/pgsql

I get nothing.... not even a warning that I shouldn't start postgres as
root.

If I just type "postgres" on the command line.... nothing. No warnings, no
nothing.....

Mark
> I've been trying to get postgres to start on my machine for a few days (on
> and off) and have not been successful in understanding why it will not
> start.

>The pre-8.0 RPMs have a bad habit of sending the postmaster log to
>/dev/null :-(.  You could edit /etc/rc.d/init.d/postgresql to point
>the log (i.e. postmaster's stderr) someplace more useful, or change the
>postgresql.conf file to log to syslog instead of stderr.  Once you have
>hold of the postmaster's dying words, let us know ...

>            regards, tom lane