Tod McQuillin <devin(at)spamcop(dot)net> writes:
> I was not aware the binary would behave differently depending on the name
> it was invoked as.
Right. We used to have two separate binaries, and the postmaster would
actually exec() the backend (postgres) binary for every session launch.
About two years ago, Bruce made them into a single executable so that
session launch only needs fork() and not exec(). But he kept the old
switch-parsing mechanisms for backwards compatibiliy with existing
startup scripts. So our current switch syntax is a dreadfully ugly
legacy thingy :-(
Peter E. has done some good work towards providing a less ugly switch
notation for 7.1.
regards, tom lane