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 [...]"
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
