Re: pg_ctl is fragile

Neil Conway <neilc(at)samurai(dot)com> writes:
> After an unclean shutdown (e.g. a kernel crash), pg_ctl isn't smart
> enough to realize that it won't be able to successfully shut down the
> postmaster:

> $ pg_ctl -D /pgsql/data stop
> /pgsql/bin/pg_ctl: line 269: kill: (2039) - No such process
> waiting for postmaster to shut down................................................................ failed
> pg_ctl: postmaster does not shut down

> We should probably check the exit code produced by kill(1).

Doesn't seem like kill's exit code is going to tell you enough.
If you got, say, "Permission denied" rather than "No such process",
you shouldn't report that the postmaster isn't running.

regards, tom lane