Received: from makus.postgresql.org (makus.postgresql.org [98.129.198.125]) by mail.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ABF0E19CDE14 for ; Mon, 5 Dec 2011 16:54:05 -0400 (AST) Received: from sss.pgh.pa.us ([66.207.139.130]) by makus.postgresql.org with esmtp (Exim 4.72) (envelope-from ) id 1RXfY5-0005eR-Qm for pgsql-admin@postgresql.org; Mon, 05 Dec 2011 20:54:06 +0000 Received: from sss2.sss.pgh.pa.us (tgl@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by sss.pgh.pa.us (8.14.2/8.14.2) with ESMTP id pB5KrqD4004080; Mon, 5 Dec 2011 15:53:52 -0500 (EST) To: Scott Marlowe cc: Yann ROBIN , pgsql-admin@postgresql.org Subject: Re: Database corrupted In-reply-to: References: <4EDCCF3A0200002500043859@gw.wicourts.gov> Comments: In-reply-to Scott Marlowe message dated "Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:31:19 -0700" Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:53:52 -0500 Message-ID: <4079.1323118432@sss.pgh.pa.us> From: Tom Lane X-Pg-Spam-Score: -3.1 (---) X-Archive-Number: 201112/32 X-Sequence-Number: 38790 Scott Marlowe writes: > On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 1:18 PM, Yann ROBIN wrote: >> kill -9 of the writer process > Are you sure you killed all the postgres backends before restarting > the server? If other backends are still running, with a dead > postmaster, and you restart the server, instant corruption. There are interlocks against that ... although if you were foolish enough to manually remove postmaster.pid, you could defeat them :-( regards, tom lane