Re: Postgres won't start. Nothing in the log.

2009/10/5 Markus Wollny <Markus(dot)Wollny(at)computec(dot)de>

> Hi!
>
> pgsql-general-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org wrote:
> > Unfortunately there is nothing anywhere telling me what the
> > problem is. The log file is empty, there is nothing in the
> > /var/log/messages or /var/log/syslog either. The only output
> > I get is this.
> >
> > * Starting PostgreSQL 8.3 database server
> > * The PostgreSQL server failed to start. Please check the log output.
> > What can I do to figure out why it won't start?
>
>
>
Was it a minor-release upgrade? (i.e. 8.3.1 to 8.3.7 and not 8.2. to 8.3)
If not, you would have needed to do a complete dump and restore of your
data.

To force a log file, try pg_ctl start -l /path/to/logfile

You might as well use /tmp/pg.log for the logfile for diagnosis. This
should tell you what the problem is.

Thom