PostgreSQL 9 Administration Cookbook - Second Edition

Locating the database server's message log

The database server's message log is a record of all messages recorded by the database server. This is the first place to look if you have server problems, and a good place to check regularly.

This log will have messages in it that look something like the following:

2013-01-29 23:15:41 CET LOG:  database system was not properly shut down; automatic recovery in progress
2013-01-29 23:15:41 CET LOG:  record with zero length at A/A3478F08
2013-01-29 23:15:41 CET LOG:  redo is not required
2013-01-29 23:15:42 CET LOG:  database system is ready to accept connections
2013-01-29 23:15:42 CET LOG:  autovacuum launcher started

We'll explain some more about these logs once we've located the files.

Getting ready

You'll need ...