Hi,

I am seeing something odd when trying to start up the postgresql service (for the first time) on my RHEL6.7 box. When I try to start it using either or , it fails.

In an attempt to find out what was failing in the script I ran , and it worked! WTF? I am at a loss as to how this would make a difference, but it does. I can then stop the service normally, but then cannot start again unless I use bash -x...

Does anyone know why this would be? Obviously starting up postgres like this is not a solution.....

Oh, nearly forgot...When starting without bash -x I get the following (not verbatim) in my pgstartup.log:

postmaster is unable to open /home/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf: permission denied. I checked permissions and all look ok and of course postmaster has no problems reading this file when running the service with bash -x.....???



Thanks!

When you run bash it is spawning subshell then executing the commands in the script as an argument.

Have you checked the permissions on the init script itself to make sure it is executable? If it isn't that might explain why a run with bash being executed with the script as an argument works but it doesn't work if run within the current shell.

Sorry for the late response, I have figured my problem out (with some help). I installed postgres in a non-standard location (not /var/lib/pgsql) and so SELlinux would not allow postgres to start from my new location. After I created a policy for the new location it runs fine.

I still have no idea why running the postgresql init script from a new bash subshell worked, but just calling the script by running /etc/init.d/postgresql start did not... I'd love to know why. Permissions were fine since as soon as I added the SElinux policy, postgres started...

Does anyone have any ideas why I could start postgres like this:

bash /etc/init.d/postgresql start

but not like this:

/etc/init.d/postgresql start

??


Thanks