Hi,

I'm unsure if this is the correct forum for such a question so please feel free to move the thread if it isn't.

We compile CSV's into postgres using the psql COPY command. This is all done through the command, "sh -c `psql <psql parameters>`". The list of CSV's may vary so this command is executed via java which verifies certain CSV details (among other things) before executing the COPY command along with the filename.

This was all working fine and dandy for a year until last week when suddenly it stopped. After 3 days of debugging we finally realised that instead of spawning one instance of the 'sh' command, 2 or 3 of them were being created which caused postgres to enter into a race condition. We figured this was due to java misbehaving so went on a bug hunt. Another 2 days later we finally realised that it wasn't java which was the problem. It appears that the 'sh -c' command creates childs of itself (I was able to see this using ps -H) for no reason.

Is it possible for the shell to misbehave in such a manner or am I overlooking something?

Are you running this from a shell script already?
Why do you need the sh -c at all? If psql is a command, just
run
psql <psql parameters>

If you really need the sh -c, take away the ticks, they are another
child process, use single or double quotes, add a \ in front of quotes
inside the psql parameters string if necessary;