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authorTom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>2003-09-18 20:30:15 +0000
committerTom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>2003-09-18 20:30:15 +0000
commit689015748f8dd7267355eb6b7088684183fc1159 (patch)
tree73c9e1886ac8280295dbe297a629f84eaf1dd3eb /doc/src/sgml/ref/postgres-ref.sgml
parent723a9bde3335daa32e90bf804241eec8d1dda597 (diff)
downloadpostgresql-689015748f8dd7267355eb6b7088684183fc1159.tar.gz
postgresql-689015748f8dd7267355eb6b7088684183fc1159.zip
Put a tad more detail in the discussion of postmaster and postgres
signal handling.
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/src/sgml/ref/postgres-ref.sgml')
-rw-r--r--doc/src/sgml/ref/postgres-ref.sgml28
1 files changed, 22 insertions, 6 deletions
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/ref/postgres-ref.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/ref/postgres-ref.sgml
index 9c961492a9e..b80c9caafac 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/ref/postgres-ref.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/ref/postgres-ref.sgml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
<!--
-$Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/postgres-ref.sgml,v 1.35 2003/08/31 17:32:24 petere Exp $
+$Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/postgres-ref.sgml,v 1.36 2003/09/18 20:30:15 tgl Exp $
PostgreSQL documentation
-->
@@ -365,13 +365,29 @@ PostgreSQL documentation
<title>Notes</title>
<para>
- To stop a running query use the <literal>SIGINT</literal> signal. To
- tell <command>postgres</command> to reread the configuration file,
- use a <literal>SIGHUP</literal> signal. The
- <command>postmaster</command> uses <literal>SIGTERM</literal>
+ To cancel a running query, send the <literal>SIGINT</literal> signal
+ to the <command>postgres</command> process running that command.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ To tell <command>postgres</command> to reread the configuration file,
+ send a <literal>SIGHUP</literal> signal. Normally it's best to
+ <literal>SIGHUP</literal> the <command>postmaster</command> instead;
+ the <command>postmaster</command> will in turn <literal>SIGHUP</literal>
+ each of its children. But in some cases it might be desirable to have only
+ one <command>postgres</command> process reread the configuration file.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ The <command>postmaster</command> uses <literal>SIGTERM</literal>
to tell a <command>postgres</command> process to quit normally and
<literal>SIGQUIT</literal> to terminate without the normal cleanup.
- These <emphasis>should not</emphasis> be used by users.
+ These signals <emphasis>should not</emphasis> be used by users. It is also
+ unwise to send <literal>SIGKILL</literal> to a <command>postgres</command>
+ process --- the <command>postmaster</command> will interpret this as
+ a crash in <command>postgres</command>, and will force all the sibling
+ <command>postgres</command> processes to quit as part of its standard
+ crash-recovery procedure.
</para>
</refsect1>