Re: Trying to understand postgres crash

On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 5:48 PM, Hanns Hartman <hwhartman(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm running postgres 8.3.17 on a redhat linux mips derivative and I've
> observed a postgres crash and the subsequent messages in my postgres
> debug log.
>
> 2011-12-21 19:08:49 UTC - LOG:  shutting down
> 2011-12-21 19:08:49 UTC -s PANIC:  concurrent transaction log activity
> while database system is shutting down
> 2011-12-21 19:08:49 UTC - LOG:  background writer process (PID 1423)
> was terminated by signal 6: Aborted
> 2011-12-21 19:08:49 UTC - LOG:  terminating any other active server processes
>
>
> I'm having trouble understanding what could cause this.  I've looked
> through the postgres sources and I don't understand what is "shutting
> down" since this happens on a live system where no stop has been
> requested.

It says that it's detecting more than one process writing to the logs.
Is there some way you're machine is launching a second postgresql
instance against the same data store? It's just a guess, I've never
seen this error before so It's a stab in the dark.