I restored the filesystem backup tar and ran postgres 7.3.8 on the data folder. there was no problem at all.
DEBUG: FindExec: found "/opt/usr/local/pgsql7.3/bin/postgres" using argv[0] DEBUG: invoking IpcMemoryCreate(size=1466368) DEBUG: FindExec: found "/opt/usr/local/pgsql7.3/bin/postmaster" using argv[0] LOG: database system was shut down at 2006-12-04 12:30:21 IST LOG: checkpoint record is at 0/39DF3C2C LOG: redo record is at 0/39DF3C2C; undo record is at 0/0; shutdown TRUE LOG: next transaction id: 2006905; next oid: 15212626 LOG: database system is ready DEBUG: proc_exit(0) DEBUG: shmem_exit(0) DEBUG: exit(0) DEBUG: reaping dead processes
I think the above messages support the fact that the database was shutdown properly before the filesystem level backup. Can anyone kindly confirm it ?
I listed the tables and did some selects the data seems to be there. I think postgres was not starting for some peripheral issues not because that data folder was corrupted.
BTW when i first started postmaster it gave an error related to too liberal permissions. Probably the original poster was doing the same mistake.
