Re: postgres startup failure

On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 3:36 PM, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:

> Matt Bartolome <mattxbart(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> > Setting the breakpoint (b exit) got me a little farther...
>
> > DEBUG: invoking IpcMemoryCreate(size=32595968)
> > DEBUG: max_safe_fds = 980, usable_fds = 1000, already_open = 10
> > Detaching after fork from child process 19066.
> > Detaching after fork from child process 19067.
>
> > Breakpoint 1, 0x0046efb6 in exit () from /lib/libc.so.6
> > (gdb) bt
> > #0 0x0046efb6 in exit () from /lib/libc.so.6
> > #1 0x082286de in proc_exit ()
> > #2 0x0820bbdf in ?? ()
> > #3 0x0820eb63 in ?? ()
> > #4 <signal handler called>
> > #5 0x003ec424 in __kernel_vsyscall ()
> > #6 0x0051433d in ___newselect_nocancel () from /lib/libc.so.6
> > #7 0x0820d489 in ?? ()
> > #8 0x08210489 in PostmasterMain ()
> > #9 0x081b92df in main ()
>
> Hmm. Not tremendously helpful --- if you were to install the
> appropriate postgresql-debuginfo RPM, the stack trace might get
> more useful. However, this does appear to confirm the theory
> that postmaster.c is doing proc_exit(1), and I don't see any code
> paths in there where there isn't a error message logged first.
> So right now I'm wondering whether you're not failing to notice
> a relevant log message(s). You've evidently managed to launch
> the syslogger --- where is it configured to write the postmaster
> log?
>
>
Gosh, you know I never even bothered looking in pg_log. Stupid! I was
expecting to see some sort of error when doing:
$ postgres -d 3 -D /data/postgres/

I even have this written down in my own recovery instructions:

4. Create pg_xlog directory as postgres user, remove backup_label

I had forgotten when doing a backup with WAL enabled you want to exclude the
pg_xlog directory because you are restoring from the WAL's written on the
standby server in the event of failure. In the pg_log it clearly prints the
error.

> regards, tom lane
>

Thanks Tom, I probably would have been running in circles for days without
your help.

-Matt