Re: pg_ctrl stop problems (psql 8.2.5)

On Mar 25, 2008, at 11:49 AM, LARC/J.L.Shipman/jshipman wrote:
> Hello,
> I am running postgresql 8.2.5 on Solaris 10. When I try to shut
> down postgres using
>
> pg_ctrl -D datafile stop
>
> it does not shutdown. Does anyone know why this is, or what files
> pg_ctrl access to determine
> the shutdown process. We have tried deleting a pgsql semaphore file
> located in tmp. This did not help. Any help is appreciated.

Without more information it's hard to do more than guess. First, I'll
assume that datafile is actually your data directory. Past that, I'd
guess that you still have open connections on your database. pg_ctl
accepts a -m flag for the shutdown mode which can be one of 'smart',
'fast', or 'immediate' with smart being the default which will wait
for all existing connections to close before actually shutting down
the server. If you want to cut those connections off, use fast mode,
which will roll back any open transactions and close any existing
connections then shut down. Don't use immediate unless you really
know what you're doing as it's the equivalent of sending kill -9 to
the postmaster.

Erik Jones

DBA | Emma®
erik(at)myemma(dot)com
800.595.4401 or 615.292.5888
615.292.0777 (fax)

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