Re: Manually clearing "database "foo" is being accessed by other users"

Sysadmin <linux(at)alteeve(dot)com> writes:
> I'm finding that routinely when I try to reload a database on a server
> where I know there are no connections to a given DB I get the error:

> $ dropdb foo && createdb foo -O bar && psql foo -f /path/to/db.out
> dropdb: database removal failed: ERROR: database "foo" is being
> accessed by other users

If it says there are other connections, then there really are other
connections --- there are not any known bugs in that logic.

What I am wondering though is whether you are allowing for the nonzero
exit time of a backend process. If the above is part of a script that
was just doing something in database foo, then the drop could fail
because the backend that was serving that session is still cleaning up.
The quickest solution is a 'sleep 1' (or so) before the dropdb.

(FWIW, 8.3 will have some delay built in here to help mask this issue.)

regards, tom lane