This documentation is for an unsupported version of PostgreSQL.
You may want to view the same page for the
current
version, or one of the other supported versions listed above instead.
Nothing can happen to a database unless the postmaster process
is running. As the site administrator, there are a number of things
you should remember before starting the postmaster. These are
discussed in the section of this manual titled, "Administering
Postgres." However, if Postgres has been installed by following the
installation instructions exactly as written, the following simple
command is all you should need to start the postmaster:
% postmaster
The postmaster occasionally prints out messages which are
often helpful during troubleshooting. If you wish to view debugging
messages from the postmaster, you can start it with the -d option
and redirect the output to the log file:
% postmaster -d >& pm.log &
If you do not wish to see these messages, you can type
% postmaster -S
and the postmaster will be "S"ilent. Notice that there is no
ampersand ("&") at the end of the last example.