Re: Getting started

Tom, speaking of the init scripts, I really like Ubuntu variety which
also includes the version. I am scratching my head what to do with a Red
Hat 8.3.8 version and how to migrate it to 8.4, because setting up 2
homes and using a migrator is a pain. I would recommend emulating
Ubuntu structure from the scratch on Red Hat and split everything into
/var/lib/postgres/8.x and /etc/postgres/8.x, with the init scripts
reflecting that.

Tom Lane wrote:
> Donn Washburn <n5xwb(at)comcast(dot)net> writes:
>
>> After looking at /etc/init.d/postgresql there is no mention to initdb
>> other than under start) /usr/bin/initdb. The script is a openSuSE
>> script that only has things like start), stop) and status) which are
>> recognized.
>>
>
> Mph. So what you've got is one of the ones that automatically fires off
> initdb if it doesn't see something that looks like a Postgres data
> directory in the right place at "start" time. This is nice in that
> it saves one step for newbies, but I think most distros are migrating
> to a separate "initdb" action for that. There have been a couple of
> well-publicized catastrophes wherein somebody's database got trashed by
> a start script mistakenly firing up initdb, so people are now taking the
> view that auto-initdb is more risk than it's worth. I'd counsel against
> using an auto-initdb start script if you have the database on any sort
> of external storage (particularly NFS/SAN), but if it's on the same
> drive as the OS then it's probably safe enough. Just FYI.
>
>
>> It is not the one that likely comes with postgres.
>>
>
> There isn't really a "standard" init script for Postgres; every distro
> rolls their own.
>
> regards, tom lane
>
>

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