Start DB giving fatal message.(linux)

On 10/23/07, Farhan Khan <farhankhan@google.com> wrote:

Because of some OS failure I have to reinstall linux and postgres and now
database start gives me following error message. Any pointers will be
apprciated ...

testuser@machine:postgresql-8.2.5$ /usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres -D
/usr/local/pgsql/data
LOG: database system was shut down at 2007-10-23 16:30:49 PDT
LOG: checkpoint record is at 0/42C408
LOG: redo record is at 0/42C408; undo record is at 0/0; shutdown TRUE
LOG: next transaction ID: 0/593; next OID: 10820
LOG: next MultiXactId: 1; next MultiXactOffset: 0
LOG: database system is ready
FATAL: database "db_test1" does not exist
FATAL: database "db_test1" does not exist
FATAL: database "db_test1" does not exist
FATAL: database "db_test1" does not exist

" db_test1" was one the databases I was using before reinstalling
everything. Note during re-installation, I have formatted the harddrive
which has erased the /usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres folder ... but there were
some stuff that persisted as it was on NFS (this includes the installer for
postgres) ...

BTW, where does postgres saves all db related information which is used at
db start time. Is there a utility to edit this information??

If what you've written is correct, your old db, db_test1 is gone, lost
when you formatted your hard drive. postgres stores it's data in
different places depending on the OS and how it was installed. The
part after the -D in your startup up there is where it is storing its
data right now. Where the old version stored it is anybody's guess.
OS / pg version and how pg was installed on the old machine would help
us guess where it might have been before formatting erased it.

Farhan Khan wrote:

Because of some OS failure I have to reinstall linux and
postgres and now database start gives me following error
message. Any pointers will be apprciated ...

testuser@machine:postgresql-8.2.5$
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
LOG: database system was shut down at 2007-10-23 16:30:49 PDT
LOG: checkpoint record is at 0/42C408
LOG: redo record is at 0/42C408; undo record is at 0/0; shutdown TRUE
LOG: next transaction ID: 0/593; next OID: 10820
LOG: next MultiXactId: 1; next MultiXactOffset: 0
LOG: database system is ready
FATAL: database "db_test1" does not exist
FATAL: database "db_test1" does not exist
FATAL: database "db_test1" does not exist
FATAL: database "db_test1" does not exist

" db_test1" was one the databases I was using before
reinstalling everything. Note during re-installation, I have
formatted the harddrive which has erased the
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres folder ... but there were some
stuff that persisted as it was on NFS (this includes the
installer for postgres) ...

BTW, where does postgres saves all db related information
which is used at db start time. Is there a utility to edit
this information??

Your cluster data are stored in /usr/local/pgsql/data. That is
also where your databases live unless you defined them in a
tablespace somewhere else.

Does the server start so that you can connect to database "postgres"?

The correct thing to do for you would be to restore from
a backup, but I guess you know that.

Yours,
Laurenz Albe