I've just started fooling with some modifications to the backend.
I'm new at doing this in PG, so I'm blundering I'm sure.

In any event when I start the backend standalone (i.e. running
the 'postgres -D ....' command, it seems I have to be the root
or postgres root user because of file permissions.  But I want
access to the database of my normal username, which is 'kevin'.

Questions: have I identified the problem right?  Is that why I
can't see my tables?  If so, is there a way to change databases,
given that the \ commands don't work in the backend?

Or am I just going at this all wrong in some way?

++ kevin


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   -- Alfred North Whitehead

Tue, 07 Nov 2000 11:38:40 -0800
"Kevin O'Gorman" <kogorman@pacbell.net>
Need a debugging tip or two
Kevin O'Gorman writes:

> In any event when I start the backend standalone (i.e. running
> the 'postgres -D ....' command, it seems I have to be the root
> or postgres root user because of file permissions.

Yup.

> But I want access to the database of my normal username, which is
> 'kevin'.

postgres [options] dbname

> Questions: have I identified the problem right?  Is that why I
> can't see my tables?  If so, is there a way to change databases,
> given that the \ commands don't work in the backend?

Not sure when a \ command *changed* a database last time.

> Or am I just going at this all wrong in some way?

There's probably little reason to start a backend standalone.  If you want
to do stock-of-the-trade debugging you simply start a postmaster, then
psql (or whatever floats your boat), and attach gdb to the resulting
backend process.

-- 
Peter Eisentraut      peter_e@gmx.net       http://yi.org/peter-e/


Tue, 7 Nov 2000 21:08:20 +0100 (CET)
Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>
Re: Need a debugging tip or two
Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net> writes:
> There's probably little reason to start a backend standalone.  If you want
> to do stock-of-the-trade debugging you simply start a postmaster, then
> psql (or whatever floats your boat), and attach gdb to the resulting
> backend process.

Right, that's what I always do (unless I have to debug a crash at initdb
time :-().  A tip here is that you can even debug backend-startup-time
problems this way, and no you don't have to be superhumanly quick on the
trigger: you set PGOPTIONS="-W n" in the environment of psql.  This
will cause an n-second sleep() call very early in the backend startup
process.  I find 30 seconds plenty of time to run ps, start gdb, and
attach.  You can also throw in things like "-d2" to crank up the
postmaster log level for just the backend under test.

I thought this lore was in the developer's FAQ already, but I don't
see it there at the moment.  Bruce, is it lurking someplace else?

			regards, tom lane

Tue, 07 Nov 2000 19:12:41 -0500
Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Re: Need a debugging tip or two 

I see the mention of -w in the main FAQ.

> Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net> writes:
> > There's probably little reason to start a backend standalone.  If you want
> > to do stock-of-the-trade debugging you simply start a postmaster, then
> > psql (or whatever floats your boat), and attach gdb to the resulting
> > backend process.
> 
> Right, that's what I always do (unless I have to debug a crash at initdb
> time :-().  A tip here is that you can even debug backend-startup-time
> problems this way, and no you don't have to be superhumanly quick on the
> trigger: you set PGOPTIONS="-W n" in the environment of psql.  This
> will cause an n-second sleep() call very early in the backend startup
> process.  I find 30 seconds plenty of time to run ps, start gdb, and
> attach.  You can also throw in things like "-d2" to crank up the
> postmaster log level for just the backend under test.
> 
> I thought this lore was in the developer's FAQ already, but I don't
> see it there at the moment.  Bruce, is it lurking someplace else?
> 
> 			regards, tom lane
> 


-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
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Mon, 22 Jan 2001 01:35:28 -0500 (EST)
Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
Re: Need a debugging tip or two