Re: FATAL: bogus data in lock file "postmaster.pid": ""

Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> writes:
> I have developed the attached patch to report a zero-length file, as you
> suggested.

DIRECTORY_LOCK_FILE is entirely incorrect there.

Taking a step back, I don't think this message is much better than the
existing behavior of reporting "bogus data".  Either way, it's not
obvious to typical users what the problem is or what to do about it.
If we're going to emit a special message I think it should be more user
friendly than this.

Perhaps something like:
FATAL: lock file "foo" is emptyHINT: This may mean that another postmaster was starting at thesame time.  If not,
removethe lock file and try again.
 
        regards, tom lane