Re: Read db files directly

Thanks Scott.
That is a much clearer way of putting it.
That old PostgreSQL runs just fine,
in one place, but I have 50 GB of files in
another place. PostgreSQL is not reading it.
How can I persuade this PostgreSQL,
or any PostgeSQL, to read that 50 GB of files.
Or any independent tool to read the files.

Tom Lane mentioned "vacuum".
If only I knew the database name,
I could try "psql dbname".
But I don't know the database name either.
I did run "vacuum" in my new testdb.

Yeah. I guess the previous DBA put those files
on a different file system,
and then forgot about them, probably with
good reason. But as I said, the previous DBA
is no longer available.

Imagine I send just those files to you,
and you try to get some text out of them.
I do not have the SQL used to create
the tables, no table structures.

--- Scott Marlowe <smarlowe(at)g2switchworks(dot)com> wrote:

> It sounds like the current postgresql is running in
> one directory, and
> you're looking in another directory. If you can see
> how postgresql was
> started, does it have a -D switch that shows the
> directory? My guess is
> you could chmod 000 the master directory you're
> looking at right now and
> postgresql could still startup, because it's not
> where you think it is.