Thread: BUG #1789: Error starting up server

The following bug has been logged online:

Bug reference:      1789
Logged by:          Chris Saringolis
Email address:      chris@apacsystems.com.au
PostgreSQL version: 8.0.3
Operating system:   Red Hat Linux 9.0
Description:        Error starting up server
Details:

I have downloaded Postgresql 8.0.3 from the Australian mirror site, and am
following the online documentation for installation.

I get to the pointof initialising the database via initdb -D
/usr/local/pgsql/data

I then try starting up postmaster in the background as per the
documentation:

Postmaster -D /usr/local/pgsql/data >>serverlog 2>&1 &

Postmaster cannot start up and I get the following error in the serverlog
file:

"The data directory was initialized by PostgreSQL 7.3 which is not
compatible with this version 8.0.3"

This is a fresh install including the Linux OS. Why am I getting this error
and could it be the download has some old version components??

Regards,

Chris

On Wed, Jul 27, 2005 at 07:36:05AM +0100, Chris Saringolis wrote:
>
> I have downloaded Postgresql 8.0.3 from the Australian mirror site, and am
> following the online documentation for installation.
>
> I get to the pointof initialising the database via initdb -D
> /usr/local/pgsql/data
>
> I then try starting up postmaster in the background as per the
> documentation:
>
> Postmaster -D /usr/local/pgsql/data >>serverlog 2>&1 &
>
> Postmaster cannot start up and I get the following error in the serverlog
> file:
>
> "The data directory was initialized by PostgreSQL 7.3 which is not
> compatible with this version 8.0.3"

Does your system have an older version of PostgreSQL installed?
Might your PATH be finding the 7.3 version of initdb instead of the
newer version?  Where was the 8.0.3 initdb installed?  What's the
output of "which initdb" and "initdb --version"?

--
Michael Fuhr
http://www.fuhr.org/~mfuhr/