Thanks for your reply, Mark:
I'm back to my original question: How do you kill a runaway query
without bringing down the whole database? Is there really no answer
to this?
... if you actually want to disconnect a backend
process then there is nothing to let you do this remotely. I recently
did a patch for Bizgres that just implements the
pg_terminate_backend(pid) function (currently #ifdef'ed out of the
codebase) as a contrib so it can be easily installed. See
http://pgfoundry.org/pipermail/bizgres-general/2006-May/000484.html
This answers my question. I've finally got a statement in concrete terms, Postgres has no way to kill a backend process via an SQL statement. "If Mark had to resort to this, then there is no other way."
If you want to try it out, please read the README (it discusses possible
dangers associated with sending SIGTERM to backends). And I would
certainly be interested in hearing what level of success (or otherwise)
you have with it!
Thanks, but I've already implemented my own, which is essentially identical in concept to yours, but simpler in the sense of being even less safe than yours -- I just let anyone send the signal, since I have no users other than my own app. I'll keep my version since it's embedded in my own plug-in. That way I won't have to keep remembering to modify the Postgres code when I upgrade. I like to keep Postgres "stock".
Craig
