Re: RE: Intermittent Startup Failures

Debra LaVille <debra.laville@digeo.com> writes:
> I'm using the script file included with the postgresql distribution:

Hmm, is this from an RPM?  It's certainly not part of what *I* consider
the Postgres distribution ...

>         #all systems go -- remove any stale lock files
>         rm -f /tmp/.s.PGSQL.* > /dev/null
>         echo -n "$PSQL_START"
>         su -l postgres -s /bin/sh -c "/usr/bin/pg_ctl  -D $PGDATA -p
> /usr/bin/postmaster start  > /dev/null 2>&1" < /dev/null
>          sleep 1
>          pid=`pidof -s postmaster`
>          if [ $pid ]
>         then
>             echo "  [ OK ]"
>             touch /var/lock/subsys/postgresql
>             echo $pid > /var/run/postmaster.pid
>             echo
>         else
>             echo " [ FAILED ]"
>             echo
>         fi

Since this thing is sending the postmaster's stderr output to /dev/null,
it's impossible to tell what's going wrong.  Change the su line to be
something like

su -l postgres -s /bin/sh -c "/usr/bin/pg_ctl  -D $PGDATA -p /usr/bin/postmaster start  >> /some/handy/logfile 2>&1" <
/dev/null

and then let us know what you see in /some/handy/logfile after you get a
failure.

            regards, tom lane