Bruce Momjian wrote:
Alvaro Herrera wrote:
Bruce Momjian wrote:
Alvaro Herrera wrote:
Huh, why is it awkward?

    Alternatively, you can send the signal directly using <command>kill</>
    (or <command>pg_ctl kill TERM [process id]</>).
I think we should mention Windows in there somewhere, because it isn't
"alternatively" on Windows.
Actually, this whole change is a bit silly, because the text now says
something like:

"You can send these signals using pg_ctl kill.  Alternatively you can
use kill (or pg_ctl kill)"

Wow, yea, I see that now, but it is alone a paragraph above.  I updated
the text to:

   The <xref linkend="app-pg-ctl"> program provides a convenient
   interface for sending these signals to shut down the server.
   Alternatively, you can send the signal directly using
   <command>kill</> on non-Windows systems.

My documentation point is that in administering the service, I cannot drop a database if there is still an active connection. To drop a process in linux appears to be easy using "kill", but this does not seem to be the case in windows using taskkill. I would rather see some reference to killing rogue connections using pg_ctl in the "Managing Databases" chapter, and reference to it in "Destroying a Database" and "DROP DATABASE" documentation because this would be where I would first search for a solution when I had the problem.

In the pg_ctl documentation, I would recommend explicitly stating that "pg_ctl kill -TERM pid" can be used to kill individual connections to a database in windows, because "taskkill" and "select pg_cancel_backend()" do not seem to always work (for me anyway) in windows. Also HUP and other signals mean nothing to a windows user.

In general the documentation, understandably, is geared toward *nix, I do not know what proportion of installations are Windows, but I suspect they are growing at a rapid rate since version 8. Postgres on Windows is a fabulous product, and the migration to the windows platform has been much cleaner than the migration of Mysql, so it would be a shame to lose market share on the basis that the documentation still has sections biased towards *nix. Removal of *nix-isms from the main strand of the documentation and additions of clearly marked build dependant comments where appropriate would make a big difference in uniting the world! So for example, the documentation for pg_ctl would have a description and common options, and then list any linux/bsd/unix/windows differences in section similar to the User Comments sections of the documentation.

I enjoyed that!

Anyway - Merry Christmas / Eid / Holidays to you all and I'm looking forward to 8.3 under the christmas tree.

Howard.




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