Re: detecting a dead db not seeming to work

Graeme Hinchliffe <graeme(dot)hinchliffe(at)zeninternet(dot)co(dot)uk> writes:
> However one of the tests I performed was to kill -9 the postmaster
> process to see how it would handle that (assuming the same behaviour).
> However nothing happens! no segfault, no db connection failure etc.

That's the intended behavior on postmaster crash. It doesn't (and
shouldn't) affect existing backends.

> If I kill my daemon which is trying to talk to it, postgres starts
> without problem agian!
> it's as though my daemon trying to talk to it is keeping the connection
> open and preventing the db from being started!

A new postmaster can't start until the last old backend is gone. This
is a necessary interlock to avoid data corruption.

regards, tom lane