On Mon, Jul 28, 2003 at 12:36:29PM +0200, Andre Truter wrote:
> I have PostgreSQL 7.3.2 server running.
> I could normally view the sessions by doing
> 'ps auxww | grep ^postgres' like the documentation states.
>
> But, recently it is not showing me expected output anymore.
>
> THis is what I get:
> postgres 1661 0.0 0.0 9132 176 ? S Jul18 0:00 [postmaster]
> postgres 1848 0.0 0.0 9944 0 ? SW Jul27 0:00 [postmaster]
The processes with the W status are swapped out. In some Linux versions
and maybe some other platforms, swapped out processes have the
/proc/<pid>/cmdline file truncated, so ps uses the /proc/<pid>/exe
symlink instead, which does know what executable file the process is
running ("postmaster"), but not the nice status line that Postgres sets.
Well, whether you understand or not what I just said, truth is the
mechanism for showing process status in ps is not bulletproof, and this
is one example where it fails :-(
--
Alvaro Herrera (<alvherre[a]dcc.uchile.cl>)
"A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins, nor is he early.
He arrives precisely when he means to." (Gandalf, en LoTR FoTR)
