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Thread: postmaster quits

postmaster quits

From
Marc Prewitt
Date:
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============================================================================
                        POSTGRESQL BUG REPORT TEMPLATE
============================================================================


Your name        :    Marc Prewitt
Your email address    :       mprewitt@chelsea.net


System Configuration
---------------------
  Architecture (example: Intel Pentium)      : Sparcstation 20/sun4m

  Operating System (example: Linux 2.0.26 ELF)     : Solaris 5.8

  PostgreSQL version (example: PostgreSQL-7.1):   PostgreSQL-7.1beta4

  Compiler used (example:  gcc 2.8.0)        : gcc 2.95.3


Please enter a FULL description of your problem:
------------------------------------------------

Our development server, on occaision, runs out of swap space and
inevitably when it does, the postmaster process stops.  When restarted,
the following info is in the log (the machine ran out of swap around
19:17):

DEBUG:  starting up
DEBUG:  database system was interrupted at 2001-08-27 19:17:33
DEBUG:  CheckPoint record at (0, 218748312)
DEBUG:  Redo record at (0, 218748312); Undo record at (0, 0); Shutdown
FALSE
DEBUG:  NextTransactionId: 213780; NextOid: 297035
DEBUG:  database system was not properly shut down; automatic recovery in
progress...
DEBUG:  ReadRecord: record with zero len at (0, 218748376)
DEBUG:  Formatting logfile 0 seg 13 block 78 at offset 5592
DEBUG:  The last logId/logSeg is (0, 13)
DEBUG:  redo is not required
DEBUG:  database system is in production state

It is odd that postgresql doesn't create a core file or retry it's
mallocs.  We are running mysql and Oracle on the same machine and neither
of them have had this problem during the temporary memory shortage.

Please describe a way to repeat the problem.   Please try to provide a
concise reproducible example, if at all possible:
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Run of of swap space.



If you know how this problem might be fixed, list the solution below:
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: postmaster quits

From
Stephan Szabo
Date:
> Please enter a FULL description of your problem:
> ------------------------------------------------
>
> Our development server, on occaision, runs out of swap space and
> inevitably when it does, the postmaster process stops.  When restarted,
> the following info is in the log (the machine ran out of swap around
> 19:17):
>
> DEBUG:  starting up
> DEBUG:  database system was interrupted at 2001-08-27 19:17:33
> DEBUG:  CheckPoint record at (0, 218748312)
> DEBUG:  Redo record at (0, 218748312); Undo record at (0, 0); Shutdown
> FALSE
> DEBUG:  NextTransactionId: 213780; NextOid: 297035
> DEBUG:  database system was not properly shut down; automatic recovery in
> progress...
> DEBUG:  ReadRecord: record with zero len at (0, 218748376)
> DEBUG:  Formatting logfile 0 seg 13 block 78 at offset 5592
> DEBUG:  The last logId/logSeg is (0, 13)
> DEBUG:  redo is not required
> DEBUG:  database system is in production state
>
> It is odd that postgresql doesn't create a core file or retry it's
> mallocs.  We are running mysql and Oracle on the same machine and neither
> of them have had this problem during the temporary memory shortage.

It looks like you've got the logs from restarting, but is there anything
from before that?  Also, if you're sure that a core didn't get created in
your database directory, you may need to make sure it's being started
with options that allow it to create a core (check the ulimit setting).

Re: postmaster quits

From
Tom Lane
Date:
Marc Prewitt <mprewitt@chelsea.net> writes:
>   PostgreSQL version (example: PostgreSQL-7.1):   PostgreSQL-7.1beta4

Why are you still running a beta release?

> Our development server, on occaision, runs out of swap space and
> inevitably when it does, the postmaster process stops.

I think you are seeing a problem that was fixed back in March: fork()
failure for routine checkpoint subprocesses was treated as a fatal
condition, instead of just trying again later.

Update to 7.1.3.  If you still see a problem, let us know...

            regards, tom lane