Re: Postgres won't start

Oliver Elphick <olly(at)lfix(dot)co(dot)uk> writes:
> Linux Mint (from Ubuntu) version 9.1.
> Postgres will no longer start, but I cannot find out why.

> Command line:
> $ /usr/lib/postgresql/9.1/bin/pg_ctl start -D /home/postgresql/9.1/main -l
> /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-9.1-main.log -s -w -o '-c
> config_file="/etc/postgresql/9.1/main/postgresql.conf"'
> pg_ctl: could not start server
> Examine the log output.

> There is no error message in the log:

This log file seems suspiciously incomplete. Is it the file mentioned in
the pg_ctl -l switch? If so, that file would only be used until the
syslogger process took over logging (which we know it did since we see its
exit messages in there). To find out what happened after that, you need
to look wherever your postgresql.conf is telling PG to log.

I wonder whether we shouldn't change the syslogger to emit something to
stderr when it takes over logging, saying "logging is now redirected to
<someplace>". This isn't the first case I've seen of people forgetting
to look in the right place.

regards, tom lane