Leftover processes on shutdown - Debian+JDBC

Hi-

I've run across a problem that has a simple workaround, but I wonder if it
indicates a problem that needs fixing on the postgresql server end.
Alternately, it may be considered a feature by some...

My environment is PostgreSQL 7.2.1 on Debian Linux 2.4. On the client side,
I have Tomcat accessing the database using the 7.2 PostgreSQL JDBC Driver.

The problem is that if I attempt to do a PostgreSQL shutdown while tomcat
still has connections open, the backend processes that have been spawned to
serve tomcat don't go away. This surprises me because they are owned by
postgres & hence it seems as if they should be stopped as well.

The simple workaround is to make sure that I shutdown tomcat & make the
client connections go away first. This is a sensible procedure anyway, so it
isn't a serious problem.

Since this involves the start/stop script, I suppose it may be
Debian-specific. It also involves the JDBC driver, but I'm guessing that
this behavior could occur with other client connections.

I have tried to make the same thing happen by leaving a psql connection
open, but the shutdown is complete in that case, and attempting further
access through the psql client results in an informative error message &
then a connection reset, so in the case of psql, the situation is handled
gracefully.

Here is the error message:

morgai:/data1/postgresql# /etc/init.d/postgresql restart
Restarting PostgreSQL database: postmaster
Stopped /usr/lib/postgresql/bin/postmaster (pid 321 323 324 5465 5466 5470
5471 5472 5473 5474 5475 5476 5477).
Starting PostgreSQL postmaster.
pg_ctl: Another postmaster may be running. Trying to start postmaster
anyway.
pg_ctl: cannot start postmaster
Examine the log output.

-Nick

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Nick Fankhauser nickf(at)ontko(dot)com Phone 1.765.935.4283 Fax 1.765.962.9788
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