Re: PostgreSQL crashes with Qmail-SQL

Michael Devogelaere <michael(at)digibel(dot)be> writes:
>> The crash he reported this time looks like a backend dumping
>> core. I wonder how he killed the postmaster the last time
>> and if he by doing it with -9 corrupted the database?

> He killed the database with -9, rebooted the machine, removed /var/lib/pgsql
> and created a new database from scratch. Then he populated the database again
> and ran the test again.

In any case, the original report mentioned something that looked
suspiciously like a backend crash:

: Ok: the client reported something like: "Unexpected EOF from
: PostgreSQL-backend". When looking with ps aux, i noted that all
: postmaster-childs where <defunct>. I couldn't connect anymore with psql
: (i aborted the test and no other processes tried to access the database
: since my machine was in single user mode). After killing the master
: process and restarting, the database worked fine.

The disappearing-socket-file theory explains most of this, but (AFAICS)
not the "unexpected EOF" message. That was why I was pressing Michael
for more details to begin with.

I've been running Michael's test script on an RH 7.2 box since yesterday
afternoon, but have yet to reproduce any failure (other than the
expected symptoms from manually removing the socket file).

regards, tom lane