We've seen reports of people firing this particular foot-gun before, haven't we? Would it make sense to rename pg_xlog to something that doesn't sound like it's "just" full of log files? Eg pg_wal - something where the half-educated will have no idea what it is, and therefore not think they know what they can do with it.
Would it be wise or insane for us to to mention in the startup error a HINT that if you've removed such files, only hope is full restore from backup or pg_resetxlog with data loss?
Chris ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 9: In versions below 8.0, the planner will ignore your desire to choose an index scan if your joining column's datatypes do not match