> >IIRC, the win32 installer will enable autovacuum by default.
> And yes,
> >autovacuum was my first thought as well after Thomas last
> mail - that
> >would be a good explanation to why it happens when the postmaster is
> >idle.
> >
> >
> I used the win32 installer defaults so autovacuum is
> probably a safe assumption.

Right. Please try turning it off and see if the problem goes away.

//Magnus

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Magnus Hagander wrote:

>Right. Please try turning it off and see if the problem goes away.
>
>
It does (go away).

- thomas




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Magnus Hagander wrote:

>Right. Please try turning it off and see if the problem goes away.
>
>
No, wait! It does *not* go away. Do I need to do anything more than
setting this in my postgresql.conf file:

autovacuum = false # enable autovacuum subprocess?

and restart the service?

The two zombie entries occurs directly when I start the service, then
there's two new entries popping up every minute.

- thomas



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On Fri, Sep 30, 2005 at 08:29:07AM +0200, Thomas Hallgren wrote:
> Magnus Hagander wrote:
>
> >Right. Please try turning it off and see if the problem goes away.
> >
> >
> No, wait! It does *not* go away. Do I need to do anything more than
> setting this in my postgresql.conf file:
>
> autovacuum = false # enable autovacuum subprocess?
>
> and restart the service?
>
> The two zombie entries occurs directly when I start the service, then
> there's two new entries popping up every minute.

If it's two zombies per minute, then I bet it's the stat collector and
stat bufferer. They are restarted by the postmaster if not found to be
running.

The weird thing is that the postmaster _should_ call wait() for them if
it detects that they died (when receiving a SIGCHLD signal AFAIR). If
it doesn't, maybe it indicates there's a problem with the signal
handling on Win32.

--
Alvaro Herrera Valdivia, Chile ICBM: S 39º 49' 17.7", W 73º 14' 26.8"
"We are who we choose to be", sang the goldfinch
when the sun is high (Sandman)

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Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org> writes:
> If it's two zombies per minute, then I bet it's the stat collector and
> stat bufferer. They are restarted by the postmaster if not found to be
> running.

That would make some sense, because the stat processes need to set up new
sockets (for the pipe between them). The autovacuum theory didn't hold
any water in my eyes because autovacuum doesn't create any new sockets.

However, why two zombies? That would mean that the grandchild process
started, which should mean that the pipe was already created ...

Does Windows have any equivalent of strace whereby we could watch what's
happening during stats process launch?

regards, tom lane

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Tom Lane wrote:

>However, why two zombies? That would mean that the grandchild process
>started, which should mean that the pipe was already created ...
>
>
To clarify, I talk about the tcpview window and connections, and thus
zombi-connections. They both belong to the same pid and seems to point
to eachother. The actual process no longer exists (it can't be viewed
anywhere).

Regards,
Thomas Hallgren



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