Re: untracked child process (PID XXXXX) exited with exit code 120

My guess would be that the postmaster in your container is running with
PID=1.
The unexpected process was probably started by docker entrypoint before it
did exec postgres [...].
As a result, this subprocess became a direct child of the postmaster and we
got the problem.

The most common solution is to avoid running postmaster with PID=1.
There are two options available:
1. dumb-init
2. start container using "docker run --init [...]"

On Thu, 7 May 2026 at 19:37, Torsten Krah <krah(dot)tm(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am running PostgreSQL 18.3 (Debian 18.3-1.pgdg13+1) (docker image)
> and found this in my database logs the other day:
>
> 2026-05-07 18:39:13.947 CEST [1] LOG: untracked child process (PID 33254)
> exited with exit code 120
> 2026-05-07 18:39:13.947 CEST [1] LOG: terminating any other active server
> processes
> 2026-05-07 18:39:14.077 CEST [1] LOG: all server processes terminated;
> reinitializing
>
>
> Anyone an idea about that untracked child process and what exit code
> 120 of that process would mean / want to tell me?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Torsten
>
> PS: I used https://www.postgresql.org/search/ , but was unsuccessful so
> far to get any hints on this, but maybe I just did not find the correct
> question yet ;).
>
>
>
>

--
Regards,
--
Alexander Kukushkin