> In an ideal world it would be best if pg_stop_backup could actually
> print the error status of the archiving command.
Agreed.
> And do we have closure on whether a "fast" shutdown is hanging? Or was
> that actually a smart shutdown?
No, I need to retest and verify 100% that the issue wasn't something
other than stop_backup.
> Perhaps "smart" shutdown needs to print out what it's waiting on
> periodically as well, and suggest a fast shutdown to abort those
> transactions.
That would be a good thing to have for PostgreSQL in general. Given
that any number of things can stop a smart shutdown, it's more than a
little baffling to users why one hangs forever.
BUT ... since most users run smart shutdown via a services script,
output on what shutdown is waiting on would need to be written to the
log rather than given interactively.
--Josh Berkus
