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To: Dale Gallagher <dale.gallagher@gmail.com>
cc: pgsql-admin@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: Strange behaviour: create database hangs (v 8.4.4) 
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Comments: In-reply-to Dale Gallagher <dale.gallagher@gmail.com>
	message dated "Mon, 31 May 2010 13:31:42 +0200"
Date: Mon, 31 May 2010 12:59:34 -0400
Message-ID: <14831.1275325174@sss.pgh.pa.us>
From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
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Dale Gallagher <dale.gallagher@gmail.com> writes:
> On 31 May 2010 13:10, Dale Gallagher <dale.gallagher@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I am now using strace on postgres startup and watching the filesystem
>> during the creation of the database. So far, it seems that files in
>> PGHOME/base/1234/ are appearing, but VERY slowly. Thus far it's taken
>> 7 minutes and 92 files have been created. The command has not
>> completed within psql....
>> 
>> Could this be a filesystem corruption issue? The host is using ext4.

> The command finally completed. It took a VERY long time. Something is
> wrong, but I have no clue what.

Seems like you must have a kernel/filesystem issue, but I don't know
what either.  CREATE DATABASE just copies the contents of template1
using some absolutely straightforward code (look into src/port/copydir.c)
so it's entirely filesystem-limited.

You could try tracing the backend that's doing the command with
"strace -r -p <pid>" to try to get an idea of which system calls
are eating all the time.

			regards, tom lane