On Mon, Jul 28, 2003 at 12:36:29PM +0200, Andre Truter wrote: > I have PostgreSQL 7.3.2 server running. > I could normally view the sessions by doing > 'ps auxww | grep ^postgres' like the documentation states. > > But, recently it is not showing me expected output anymore. > > THis is what I get: > postgres 1661 0.0 0.0 9132 176 ? S Jul18 0:00 [postmaster] > postgres 1848 0.0 0.0 9944 0 ? SW Jul27 0:00 [postmaster]
The processes with the W status are swapped out. In some Linux versions and maybe some other platforms, swapped out processes have the /proc/<pid>/cmdline file truncated, so ps uses the /proc/<pid>/exe symlink instead, which does know what executable file the process is running ("postmaster"), but not the nice status line that Postgres sets. Well, whether you understand or not what I just said, truth is the mechanism for showing process status in ps is not bulletproof, and this is one example where it fails :-( -- Alvaro Herrera (<alvherre[a]dcc.uchile.cl>) "A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to." (Gandalf, en LoTR FoTR) ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 9: the planner will ignore your desire to choose an index scan if your joining column's datatypes do not match