Re: postmaster stopps

Andrew Sullivan <ajs(at)crankycanuck(dot)ca> writes:
>> LOG: unexpected EOF on client connection

> These are cases where the client has gone away without shutting down
> its connection properly. At the TCP timeout, the postmaster checks
> the client, discovers it isn't there, and shuts down the connection.
> So this tells you that a client disconnected abnormally, but it also
> tells you that the postmaster was working correctly then.

Strictly speaking, it's possible that the postmaster died earlier,
leaving orphan backends that logged these messages sometime later.

My private suspicion is that the postmaster is being killed either
because of exceeding a ulimit setting or by the infamous Linux "OOM
kill" kernel bug^H^H^Hfeature. In either case, the postmaster log
will not be the place to look; instead check for a core file left behind
or for a notice in the kernel log about OOM kill.

But really the first thing to do is to check that the postmaster is
being started under reasonable ulimit settings ... and while you are at
it, make sure it's "ulimit -c unlimited" not "ulimit -c 0". The latter
would prevent a core file from being dropped. If it's not an OOM kill
situation then the core file is the only way to learn more.

regards, tom lane