Re: Unhelpful initdb error message

On 6 March 2012 18:51, dennis jenkins <dennis(dot)jenkins(dot)75(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 10:11 AM, Thom Brown <thom(at)linux(dot)com> wrote:
>> On 6 March 2012 16:04, Adrian Klaver <adrian(dot)klaver(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
>>> The postmaster.pid is located outside the data directory, but points back to the
>>> data directory.   Not sure where Debian, though at a guess somewhere in /var.
>>> Any way search for postmaster.pid.
>>
>> I'm not sure, because if I use a new data directory, initdb it and
>> start the service, the postmaster.pid appears in it, and not as a
>> symbolic link.
>>
>> I did a search for postmaster.pid in the whole of /var and it only
>> shows up "/var/lib/postgresql/9.1/main/postmaster.pid"
>>
>> --
>> Thom
>
> I know that I'm late to the party, but a small suggestion: Run
> "initdb" with "strace" (truss on Solaris) and examine the syscalls
> made.  It should show you, conclusively, what files are being
> "open"ed, "unlink"ed, etc...
>
> Example:
>
> strace -o /tmp/x initdb -D /tmp/data-1
> grep -E '^(open|unlink)' /tmp/x

The reboot removed the opportunity to do this unfortunately. I'll
have to wait an see if it happens again, but if it does, I'll try the
suggestion.

--
Thom