postgresql dies without saying why

Robin Lynn Frank <rlfrank@paradigm-omega.com> writes:

The following appears when the machine is booted, but somehow postgresql
silently dies (no message in logs). If I then use the same init script that
is used during startup, it starts just fine and keeps running. Any thoughts
on how I can determine/avoid the problem would be appreciated.

The postmaster will generally complain before quitting. I suspect you
have things configured so that the complaint message goes nowhere but
/dev/null. I'd suggest altering the init script to send postmaster's
stdout and stderr into a specific log file (make sure postgres has
permission to write this log file, too). Turn off syslog logging if
you have that selected in postgresql.conf.

Once you've managed to obtain a failure message, write back if you need
help interpreting it ...

regards, tom lane