I just spent half an hour looking for the reason postgres/postmaster (on Linux Mandrake 8.2) would not start. The only thing in the log (even at debug level 4m assuming pg_ctl -o option works) was:
Oct 4 14:05:43 antimony3 su(pam_unix)[3444]: session opened
for user postgres b
y (uid=0)
Oct 4 14:05:44 antimony3 su(pam_unix)[3444]: session closed
for user postgres
Oct 4 14:05:45 antimony3 postgresql: Starting postgresql
service: failed
Maybe, just maybe, it would be nice if the server croaked a bit more vebously?
Rudolf
