just like star wars, rebel fighters in the trench heading towards the exhaust port: "almost there.... almost there...."
the "apt-get --reinstall" worked really well. now there's something weird with the initlocation script, probably a setting i've got going someplace. as the initlocation script goes thru its arguments, looking for -u and so forth, it gives $PGALTDATA anything it can't figure out what else to do with: case "$1" in <snipsnip> *) PGALTDATA="$1"; ;; esac turns out, with my settings the whole bloomin' ENVIRONMENT get crammed into $PGALTDATA. this is bad because (here's a "sh -xv `which initlocation` -u postgres" trace): >>> if [ ! -d $PGALTDATA ]; then echo "Creating Postgres database system directory $PGALTDATA" echo mkdir $PGALTDATA if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then exit 1; fi chown $POSTGRES_SUPERUSERNAME $PGALTDATA fi + '[' '!' -d PWD=/var/postgres/data LESSEDIT=%E '?lt+%lt.' %f VENDOR=intel PAGER=less REMOTEHOST=jonathon HZ=100 HOSTNAME=server HIS TFILESIZE=1000 'LESSOPEN=|' lesspipe %s VISUAL=vi LESS=-M-Q-s USER=root MACHTYPE=i386-pc-linux-gnu MAIL=/var/spool/mail/root EDITOR= vi LANG=C HOST=server LOGNAME=root SHLVL=3 GROUP=serensoft HUSHLOGIN=FALSE SHELL=/usr/bin/tcsh HOSTTYPE=i386 OSTYPE=linux-gnu HISTSI ZE=1000 TERM=vt220 HOME=/root PATH=/usr/lib/postgresql/bin/:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/ bin LESSCHARSET=latin1 _=/usr/bin/printenv ']' /usr/lib/postgresql/bin//initlocation: [: too many arguments if [ ! -d $PGALTDATA/base ]; then echo "Creating Postgres database system directory $PGALTDATA/base" echo mkdir $PGALTDATA/base if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then exit 1; fi chown $POSTGRES_SUPERUSERNAME $PGALTDATA/base fi + '[' '!' -d PWD=/var/postgres/data LESSEDIT=%E '?lt+%lt.' %f VENDOR=intel PAGER=less REMOTEHOST=jonathon HZ=100 HOSTNAME=server HIS TFILESIZE=1000 'LESSOPEN=|' lesspipe %s VISUAL=vi LESS=-M-Q-s USER=root MACHTYPE=i386-pc-linux-gnu MAIL=/var/spool/mail/root EDITOR= vi LANG=C HOST=server LOGNAME=root SHLVL=3 GROUP=serensoft HUSHLOGIN=FALSE SHELL=/usr/bin/tcsh HOSTTYPE=i386 OSTYPE=linux-gnu HISTSI ZE=1000 TERM=vt220 HOME=/root PATH=/usr/lib/postgresql/bin/:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/ bin LESSCHARSET=latin1 _=/usr/bin/printenv/base ']' /usr/lib/postgresql/bin//initlocation: [: too many arguments <<< luckily it bombed, or it'd be creating all kinds of colorful filenames and subdirectories for me to dessimate by hand... not that big a deal, of course, in this instance, but maybe it's a situation to trap for? (i'm using tcsh, like any self- respecting ex-sysadmin would, of course.) --- just so you know: THANKS for being so understanding with me, i really appreciate it. this has been a hellacious ordeal, and it looks like i'm at the end of the tunnel, finally! i'm not feeling so snappish any more... you have the patience of a saint! (maybe you could spread it around? bottle it up and sell it?)