"Markus Wollny" <Markus.Wollny@computec.de> writes:
> pgsql-general-owner@postgresql.org wrote:
>> Unfortunately there is nothing anywhere telling me what the
>> problem is. The log file is empty, there is nothing in the
>> /var/log/messages or /var/log/syslog either. The only output
>> I get is this.
>>
>> * Starting PostgreSQL 8.3 database server
>> * The PostgreSQL server failed to start. Please check the log output.
>> What can I do to figure out why it won't start?
> Did you check if the directory PostgreSQL wants to write the logfile to
> has appropriate rights to allow the user PostgreSQL runs under to write
> to it? Another fairly common issue would be a postgresql.conf that is
> not readable by the PostgreSQL-user. In case of such an outright failure
> to start, it's usually something fairly simple to fix such as file or
> directory permissions.
As Markus suggests, it's highly unlikely that Postgres is failing
without any message whatsoever. What is more likely is that the message
is being sent somewhere you're not looking, or there is a permissions
problem or something with where it was told to send it. Take a look at
the init script you're using to start the server, and see where it sends
the postmaster's stderr. You need to check that in case of failures
that occur before the configured log destination has taken effect.
(I have seen some scripts that redirect stderr to /dev/null :-( ...
if you have one of those, change it, and file a bug report with the
packager.)
regards, tom lane
