Thread: 'startup waiting' status message

A client was recently complaining about problems with not being able to
use a database during a vacuum. It wasn't completely clear what exactly
wasn't working, but what I'm really wondering about is the last status
message:

postgres  1857  0.6  0.8 20964 12900 ?       D    15:03   0:00 postgres:
aspadmin test 192.168.100.7(34212) VACUUM 
postgres  1861  0.0  0.2 19636 4240 ?        S    15:03   0:00 postgres:
aspadmin test 192.168.100.7(34217) idle   
postgres  1862  0.0  0.2 19636 4240 ?        S    15:03   0:00 postgres:
aspadmin test 192.168.100.7(34218) idle   
postgres  1863  0.0  0.2 19636 4240 ?        S    15:03   0:00 postgres:
aspadmin test 192.168.100.7(34219) idle   
postgres  2038  0.0  0.2 19628 3328 ?        S    15:04   0:00 postgres:
aspadmin test 192.168.100.7(34223) startup waiting

I've grepped through the source code (grep -ri startup src|grep -i
waiting) and can't find this anywhere... anyone have any ideas where it
could be coming from?
-- 
Jim C. Nasby, Sr. Engineering Consultant      jnasby@pervasive.com
Pervasive Software      http://pervasive.com    work: 512-231-6117
vcard: http://jim.nasby.net/pervasive.vcf       cell: 512-569-9461

"Jim C. Nasby" <jnasby@pervasive.com> writes:
> postgres  2038  0.0  0.2 19628 3328 ?        S    15:04   0:00 postgres:
> aspadmin test 192.168.100.7(34223) startup waiting

> I've grepped through the source code (grep -ri startup src|grep -i
> waiting) and can't find this anywhere...

You wouldn't, because that's a composite of two messages: we are waiting
for some lock while still in startup mode.  A reasonable bet is that
someone's got a more-or-less-exclusive lock on one of the system
catalogs that startup needs to read.  The contents of pg_locks would
help, if this state persists long enough to investigate ...
        regards, tom lane