Received: from malur.postgresql.org ([217.196.149.56]) by arkaria.postgresql.org with esmtps (TLS1.3) tls TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (Exim 4.96) (envelope-from ) id 1vlYnD-000jE1-2g for pgsql-general@arkaria.postgresql.org; Thu, 29 Jan 2026 20:39:07 +0000 Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=malur.postgresql.org) by malur.postgresql.org with esmtp (Exim 4.96) (envelope-from ) id 1vlYmC-000pz1-2B for pgsql-general@arkaria.postgresql.org; Thu, 29 Jan 2026 20:38:05 +0000 Received: from magus.postgresql.org ([2a02:c0:301:0:ffff::29]) by malur.postgresql.org with esmtps (TLS1.3) tls TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (Exim 4.96) (envelope-from ) id 1vlYmC-000pys-14 for pgsql-general@lists.postgresql.org; Thu, 29 Jan 2026 20:38:05 +0000 Received: from sss.pgh.pa.us ([68.162.161.243]) by magus.postgresql.org with esmtps (TLS1.3) tls TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (Exim 4.98.2) (envelope-from ) id 1vlYmA-000000004bH-33UG for pgsql-general@lists.postgresql.org; Thu, 29 Jan 2026 20:38:04 +0000 Received: from sss1.sss.pgh.pa.us (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by sss.pgh.pa.us (8.15.2/8.15.2) with ESMTP id 60TKc1Jv1266797; Thu, 29 Jan 2026 15:38:01 -0500 From: Tom Lane To: "stevej@stevej.name" cc: pgsql-general@lists.postgresql.org Subject: Re: What happens if the socket lock file is deleted? In-reply-to: References: Comments: In-reply-to "stevej@stevej.name" message dated "Thu, 29 Jan 2026 12:29:46 -0800" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-ID: <1266795.1769719081.1@sss.pgh.pa.us> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2026 15:38:01 -0500 Message-ID: <1266796.1769719081@sss.pgh.pa.us> List-Id: List-Help: List-Subscribe: List-Post: List-Owner: List-Archive: Archived-At: Precedence: bulk "stevej@stevej.name" writes: > Does PostgreSQL periodically touch the lock file so it won’t be > deleted? Yes. > Alternatively, does PostgreSQL simply re-create the lock file if it > has been deleted? No. The risk you take in that situation is that if you try to start another postmaster, it might not realize the socket is already in use. regards, tom lane