Re: postmaster stopps

Ashley Maher <ashley(dot)maher(at)didymodesigns(dot)com(dot)au> writes:
> I installed postgresql-7.4.3 about three months ago.

> Twice, with no known reason the postmaster has stopped.

The postmaster is not known for "just stopping". There will certainly
be some evidence either in the postmaster's log (if it aborted for some
internal reason) or in the kernel log (if you got hit by the Linux OOM
killer) or at worst in a core dump file left by the postmaster (though
I really seriously doubt that one).

Now it's entirely possible that you're starting the postmaster in a way
that destroys the evidence. Check to see if you are sending postmaster
stderr to /dev/null, and if so put it someplace more useful. Also make
sure the postmaster is not being launched under "ulimit -c 0", and that
it's being started in a directory that postgres is allowed to write (so
that a core file can be created, if worst comes to worst).

When you've got some evidence to look at, we'll be glad to help you
interpret it, but there's no point in speculating without evidence.

regards, tom lane