Re: Is my database done for?

Hi Mark --

I'm a complete novice som excuse me if I'm way off base.

From the way I've seen postmaster run normally, when it starts, it stays
in a state where it keeps running and no prompt comes up.  Try to open a
new xterm/dos/cygwin window and connect via psql.

    Rgs,
    Aurangzeb


On Fri, 16 Aug 2002, Mark Nelson wrote:

:Hi,
:
:Let me explain what I've done and hopefully somebody out there can tell me to
:either relax or continue panicking.
:
:I'm running postgres on Red Hat 7.2 and after moving the server to a new
:location, I rebooted the machine and noticed that the postgres server wasn't
:working. When I tried psql, it said it couldn't because the postmaster wasn't
:running. When I tried running the postmaster command, I got:
:
:"postmaster does not know where to find the database system data.  You must
:specify the directory that contains the database system either by specifying
:the -D invocation option or by setting the PGDATA environment variable."
:
:I found the files in /var/lib/pgsql/data/ but when I tried to run the
:postmaster, it would not allow me to do it because of the permissions set. I
:switched to user postgres and reissued the command. This time it took. The
:postmaster had to be run by user postgres because postgres owns the
:directories and files in /var/lib/pgsql/.
:
:Upon issuing the postmaster -D /var/lib/pgsql/data command:
:
:"Found a pre-existing shared memory block (ID 131075) still in use.
:If you're sure there are no old backends still running,
:delete "/var/lib/pgsql/data/postmaster.pid"."
:
:I wasn't aware of any processes running because I just started the machine and
:it told me that postmaster wasn't working. So I removed postmaster.pid, and
:then:
:
:DEBUG:  database system was interrupted at 2002-08-15 16:06:01 MDT
:DEBUG:  CheckPoint record at (0, 10393040)
:DEBUG:  Redo record at (0, 10393040); Undo record at (0, 0); Shutdown TRUE
:DEBUG:  NextTransactionId: 47382; NextOid: 36837
:DEBUG:  database system was not properly shut down; automatic recovery in
:progress...
:DEBUG:  ReadRecord: record with zero len at (0, 10393104)
:DEBUG:  redo is not required
:DEBUG:  database system is in production state
:
:and it has been like that for about 20 minutes. I have not been returned to a
:prompt of any kind, it is just holding there. What does that mean? Is it
:stuck? Is the data gone? Should I interrupt it or let it finish? How long
:should I wake?
:
:Advice, support, consolation all very welcome right now. :)
:/mark
:
:
:
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