RE: [HACKERS] Can't start postmaster

When I try to start the postmaster from the current sources, I get the
following error.

IpcSemaphoreCreate: semget failed (No space left on device) key=5432015, num=16, permission=600

My command is as follows.

/usr/local/postgres/bin/postmaster -S -D /usr/local/postgres/data

The same command works with PostgreSQL 6.5.0 build from sources in
Feb. I did a full distclean, reconfigure, build and initdb. There
is plenty of space on the system so I assume that the above error is
bogus but I can't imagine what has changed to make this fail. Any ideas?

Use pgsql/bin/ipcclean. You have old shared memory around.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://www.op.net/~candle
  maillist@candle.pha.pa.us            |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026

Thus spake Vince Vielhaber

On 23-Apr-99 "D'Arcy" "J.M." Cain wrote:

When I try to start the postmaster from the current sources, I get the
following error.

IpcSemaphoreCreate: semget failed (No space left on device) key=5432015, num=16,
permission=600

Hopefully this won't bounce 'cuze of your quotes that my mailer for some
reason doesn't like.. but anyway...

That's what happens when you have punctuation in your name I suppose. :-)

I had something like this earlier today. Assuming your system has something
like ipcs, what does it say? (if you don't have that command, try apropos
on ipc to find out what the status command is) I had a bunch of old items
hanging on to pieces of shared memory causing my problem.

Here's the output.

Message Queues:
T ID KEY MODE OWNER GROUP

Shared Memory:
T ID KEY MODE OWNER GROUP
m 786432 5432010 --rwa------ postgres postgres
m 720897 5432001 --rw------- postgres postgres
m 327682 5432007 --rw------- postgres postgres
m 65539 296499 --rw-rw-rw- root wheel

Semaphores:
T ID KEY MODE OWNER GROUP
s 65536 1426359859 --rw-rw-rw- root wheel

I assume the postgres ones will go away when I stop the old postmaster.
The thing is that the old one still works so there must be something
that's changed in the current one.

-- 
D'Arcy J.M. Cain <darcy@{druid|vex}.net>   |  Democracy is three wolves
http://www.druid.net/darcy/                |  and a sheep voting on
+1 416 424 2871     (DoD#0082)    (eNTP)   |  what's for dinner.

Thus spake Bruce Momjian

When I try to start the postmaster from the current sources, I get the
following error.

IpcSemaphoreCreate: semget failed (No space left on device) key=5432015, num=16, permission=600

My command is as follows.

/usr/local/postgres/bin/postmaster -S -D /usr/local/postgres/data

The same command works with PostgreSQL 6.5.0 build from sources in
Feb. I did a full distclean, reconfigure, build and initdb. There
is plenty of space on the system so I assume that the above error is
bogus but I can't imagine what has changed to make this fail. Any ideas?

Use pgsql/bin/ipcclean. You have old shared memory around.

Hmm. That didn't do it. I did reboot and it came up. I did have to do
an initdb before using it though.

Thanks.

-- 
D'Arcy J.M. Cain <darcy@{druid|vex}.net>   |  Democracy is three wolves
http://www.druid.net/darcy/                |  and a sheep voting on
+1 416 424 2871     (DoD#0082)    (eNTP)   |  what's for dinner.

"D'Arcy" "J.M." Cain <darcy@druid.net> writes:

When I try to start the postmaster from the current sources, I get the
following error.

IpcSemaphoreCreate: semget failed (No space left on device) key=5432015, num=16,
permission=600

You're out of semaphores, not disk space. Evidently your kernel is only
configured to allow a few dozen semaphores --- you'd be wise to increase
that parameter, especially if you want to be able to run more than one
postmaster at once. (See the current FAQ, item 2.13.)

The thing is that the old one still works so there must be something
that's changed in the current one.

Well, yes, things change... the system is now designed to grab all the
semaphores it wants at postmaster startup, rather than risking not being
able to grab them later.

regards, tom lane