Re: Trying to understand postgres crash

On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 8:57 PM, Scott Marlowe <scott(dot)marlowe(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 5:48 PM, Hanns Hartman <hwhartman(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm running postgres 8.3.17 on a redhat linux mips derivative and I've
>> observed a postgres crash and the subsequent messages in my postgres
>> debug log.
>>
>> 2011-12-21 19:08:49 UTC - LOG:  shutting down
>> 2011-12-21 19:08:49 UTC -s PANIC:  concurrent transaction log activity
>> while database system is shutting down
>> 2011-12-21 19:08:49 UTC - LOG:  background writer process (PID 1423)
>> was terminated by signal 6: Aborted
>> 2011-12-21 19:08:49 UTC - LOG:  terminating any other active server processes
>>
>>
>> I'm having trouble understanding what could cause this.  I've looked
>> through the postgres sources and I don't understand what is "shutting
>> down" since this happens on a live system where no stop has been
>> requested.
>
> It says that it's detecting more than one process writing to the logs.
>  Is there some way you're machine is launching a second postgresql
> instance against the same data store? It's just a guess, I've never
> seen this error before so It's a stab in the dark.

If I was running a second postgresql then I'd have some pretty huge
problems! ;-)
Thanks for the suggestion.
-HH