Many thanks for the advice. I'm starting it with something like the following, as root in /etc/init.d script.
su pgsql -c "/usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_ctl -D /usr/local/pgsql/data -p /usr/local/pgsql/bin/postmaster start" And pgsql has PGDATA3 defined in .cshrc. The PGDATA3 is not being used for new databases. I guess I need to refine the startup script if for the rest of the databases. Will I have to shut down the server and restart it (introduce PGDATA3 properly) before I can drop that particular database? Regards, Ben Kim Database Developer/Systems Administrator College of Education Texas A&M University On Mon, 25 Oct 2004, Tom Lane wrote: > Ben Kim <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > pgsql=# drop database mydb; > > ERROR: Postmaster environment variable 'PGDATA3' not set > > > The database owner is pgsql, and if I echo $PGDATA3 as the owner, it > > returns a valid directory. Also, the datpath is correct. > > You have $PGDATA3 set in your interactive environment, but evidently not > in the environment of the postmaster process. How are you starting the > postmaster exactly, and where are you expecting it to get $PGDATA3 from? > > > Also, I have several databases sharing the datpath of PGDATA3. Is there a > > system table associating the datpath and the actual OS path? > > No, just the environment variable. (This is all changing in 8.0 with > tablespaces, thank goodness.) > > regards, tom lane > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 8: explain analyze is your friend