--- On Thu, 7/5/09, Massa, Harald Armin <chef@xxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > mentioning those @@@@@ symbols ... > > 1,5 weeks ago there was reported on this list the problem > "postgres service > not starting on windows"; after consulting event log > the user reported as > message "bogus data in postmaster.pid". After > deleting postmaster.pid the > service started up fine. > > Soon after a customer of mine reported the same error, also > on windows; and > before deleting postmaster.pid I got a copy of that > "bogus one". AND: there > where also a lot of @@@@ symobols in postmaster.pid (hex 0) > > After reading the answers to the funny chars in the logs > and no fsync on the > logs: is there a fsync on postmaster.pid? Or is that file > not considered > important enough? > > (just digging for the reason for corrupted data in > postmaster.pid)... > Aha, nice one Harald, So the @ symbols are hex 0. Perhaps all the @ symbols are the pattern of the text that was written to the log - but since ext3 is in data=writeback mode it knows that there should be some data there *but* it doesn't know what that data is, so it just ends up as 0's. With regards to your question, if the .pid is not fsynced I agree doing so would perhaps be a good idea, is there any reason why not to? -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general