Re: disk filling up

["Merlin Moncure" <mmoncure(at)gmail(dot)com>]

On 7/31/07, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
> "Merlin Moncure" <mmoncure(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> > third (but unlikely) possibility is there are various dropped tables,
> > etc which need to be deleted but there are stale postgresql processes
> > holding on to the fd.  This would only happen following a postmaster
> > crash or some other bizarre scenario, but i've seen it on production
> > box.
>
> Brent Reid reported something similar in bug #3483 but I'm still quite
> unclear how it'd happen in any realistic scenario.  Can you create a
> test case?

No, but I've seen it on a production 8.1 box (once).  I didn't
actually cause the problem, just cleaned it up.  It was unnoticed for
several weeks/months because the postmaster processes showed up
without a controlling tty.

My best guess is the postmaster was killed improperly out of haste
during a maintenance window, or possibly an out of disk space related
issue at an earlier point.  I never really considered that it was a
postgresql problem.

merlin