Re: [postgres no lnger launches

Alexander Reichstadt <lxr(at)mac(dot)com> writes:
>> So sure enough that process claimed to might be starting does not end up being a process. Where do I look for what's actually going on?

In the postmaster log ...

>> This is the log output:
>> 04.06.12 00:26:29,792 com.edb.launchd.postgresql-9.1: If the request size is already small, it's possible that it is less than your kernel's SHMMIN parameter, in which case raising the request size or reconfiguring SHMMIN is called for.

You seem to have trimmed off the useful part of this error message, but
I'm going to take a wild guess that what is happening is (a) you have
another postmaster running someplace, and (b) it is chewing up all the
allowed space for shared memory. If you have not mucked with OSX's
default shared-memory limits then there is only enough room to run one
postmaster at a time. The trouble with this theory is that the other
postmaster probably ought to be visible in ps output; I'm not sure why
it might not be. Anyway, try running "ipcs" to see if any SysV shared
memory or semaphores are active. If there are any, it's a pretty good
tip that there's a Postgres running somewhere.

regards, tom lane