PostgreSQL 7.0.3 SunOS amber 5.8 Generic_108529-05 i86pc i386 i86pc gcc version 2.95.2 19991024 (release) configure --with-perl --enable-syslog --with-locale --with-odbc postmaster -S -i -D su - <user> psql Password: psql: pqReadData() -- backend closed the channel unexpectedly. This probably means the backend terminated abnormally before or while processing the request. psql psql: connectDBStart() -- connect() failed: No such file or directory Is the postmaster running at 'localhost' and accepting connections on Unix socket '5432'? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comment: in this way, a user can kill postmaster. It seems, that the problem concerns only one database.