Shell script Postgres Running

Hi all,

I'm writing a shell script to get the information if postgres is or is not
running.

#!/usr/bin/ksh
> # the path to the PID file
> PIDFILE=/var/lib/pgsql/9.2/data/postmaster.pid
> if [ -f $PIDFILE ] ; then
> PID=`cat $PIDFILE`
> if [ "x$PID" != "x" ] && kill -0 $PID 2>/dev/null ; then
> STATUS="There is a pidfile, YES, Postgres is running."
> else
> STATUS="There is no pidfile, Postgres is not running."
> fi
> else
> STATUS="There is no pidfile, Postgres is not running."
> fi
> echo $STATUS

The script above works.. But, is there any way to get the same information,
but with the checkpoints?

When you have a huge shared_buffer, when stopping the postgres' process, it
will take some time to get it running again, right? Because the server will
be writing a checkpoint?

So I'd like to check that... Is it possible?

Cheers
Lucas