It now appears that I was presumptuous in blaming libpq for my application's shutdown. It probably was down to a problem with the way I was remote debugging the application - a fluke. I can now get the message to appear, and then re-establish a connection by either disconnecting and reconnecting the ethernet cable that connects the postgreSQL server to its switch, or by walking out of and into range of the wi-fi access point with the handheld. Both work consistently. I was able to consistently lose and regain a connection as desired. I guess I'm happy so. Can my approach be improved upon? Regards, Peter Geoghegan -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general