Sorry if this is a FAQ, but I couldn't find it.
If my (RH 7.1) system crashes PostgreSQL does not restart automatically
because the shared memory segment identifier and the .pid file remains,
as a manual start explains:
% pg_ctl start
pg_ctl: Another postmaster may be running. Trying to start postmaster
anyway.
Found a pre-existing shared memory block (ID 693600256) still in use.
If you're sure there are no old backends still running,
remove the shared memory block with ipcrm(1), or just
delete "/var/lib/pgsql/data/postmaster.pid".
pg_ctl: cannot start postmaster
Examine the log output.
What is the "proper" way of ensuring (as far as possible) that
PostgreSQL starts automatically after a crash? Is it sufficient (and
safe) to include a 'rm -f $PGDATA/postmaster.pid' in the system boot
scripts?
Allan.