the following thread might help you with the killing problem...

http://openacs.org/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0001y
y

You may modify your init.d/postgres scripts try this one out.  It may not be exactly what you have since mine is modified.  Use postmaster -o and put in single quotes the options you want it to run.  In my case I use "-B 2000 -o -S2000 -i"


Here is what I have:

su -l postgres -s /bin/sh -c "LC_ALL=C ${PGHOME}/bin/pg_ctl  -D $PGDATA -p ${PGHOME}/bin/postmaster -o '-B 2000 -o -S2000 -i' start  > /dev/null 2>&1" < /dev/null

Look around the for postmaster it should be around the start case of the shell script.  If you need further help just email me.  You may even email me your init.d/postgres

I use daemon tools to start stop and restart my services like aolserver.  Take a look at it on http://cr.yp.to/daemontools.html.  Its not very friendly but once you get the hang of it you will want all your unix services being supervised by it.  Plus in a multi developer environment I can assign who can start and restart which aolserver.  Normally I run about a dozen aolserver on a single machine so daemontools helps a lot.

I think your method is better.  So its possible to tune postgres on a per db level right?  Has anyone run PG with 2 or more db running?  Not the db that is created using createdb but the db that is created in initdb.

Much like Oracle can run 2 or more database each db instance is different from another.

*Off-topic* what happend to c-cup.com?  Its a good site to get ACS newbies.  I think it is the best site, you get good technical stuff aside from the side show.

Cristian, if for some reason you really, really want to do this in the startup script, you can. I've hacked the rc.d init script that ships with the PostgreSQL 7.1.3 source (file: contrib/start-scripts/linux) by adding a PGOPTIONS variable that gets passed to postmaster.

#! /bin/sh

# This is an example of a start/stop script for SysV-style init, such
# as is used on Linux systems.  You should edit some of the variables
# and maybe the 'echo' commands.
#
# Place this file at /etc/init.d/postgresql (or
# /etc/rc.d/init.d/postgresql) and make symlinks to
#   /etc/rc.d/rc0.d/K02postgresql
#   /etc/rc.d/rc1.d/K02postgresql
#   /etc/rc.d/rc2.d/K02postgresql
#   /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S98postgresql
#   /etc/rc.d/rc4.d/S98postgresql
#   /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S98postgresql
# Or check out the chkconfig program, if you have it.
#
# Proper init scripts on Linux systems normally require setting lock
# and pid files under /var/run as well as reacting to network
# settings, so you should treat this with care.

# Original author:  Ryan Kirkpatrick <pgsql@rkirkpat.net>

# $Header: /home/projects/pgsql/cvsroot/pgsql/contrib/start-scripts/linux,v 1.2 2001/04/19 19:17:44 petere Exp $

## EDIT FROM HERE

# Installation prefix
prefix=/usr/local/pgsql

# Data directory
PGDATA="/usr/local/pgsql/data"

# Who to run pg_ctl as, should be "postgres".
PGUSER=postgres

# Where to keep a log file
PGLOG="$PGDATA/serverlog"

# options for postmaster (a.k.a. postgres)
# we're setting shared_buffers to 1000 and sort_mem to 2000
# N.B. this can be done in /usr/local/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf now
PGOPTIONS='-B 1000 -o "-S 2000"'

## STOP EDITING HERE

# Check for echo -n vs echo c
if echo 'c' | grep -s c >/dev/null 2>&1 ; then
    ECHO_N="echo -n"
    ECHO_C=""
else
    ECHO_N="echo"
    ECHO_C='c'
fi

# The path that is to be used for the script
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

# What to use to start up the postmaster
DAEMON="$prefix/bin/pg_ctl"

set -e

# Only start if we can find pg_ctl.
test -f $DAEMON || exit 0

# Parse command line parameters.
case $1 in
  start)
	$ECHO_N "Starting PostgreSQL: "$ECHO_C
	# original
	# su - $PGUSER -c "$DAEMON start -D '$PGDATA' -s -l $PGLOG" 
	# passing options to postmaster
	su - $PGUSER -c "$DAEMON start -D '$PGDATA' -s -l $PGLOG -o '$PGOPTIONS'" 
	echo "ok"
	;;
  stop)
	echo -n "Stopping PostgreSQL: "
	su - $PGUSER -c "$DAEMON stop -D '$PGDATA' -s -m fast"
	echo "ok"
	;;
  restart)
	echo -n "Restarting PostgreSQL: "
	su - $PGUSER -c "$DAEMON restart -D '$PGDATA' -s -m fast"
	echo "ok"
	;;
  status)
	su - $PGUSER -c "$DAEMON status -D '$PGDATA'"
	;;
  *)
	# Print help
	echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|status}" 1>&2
	exit 1
	;;
esac

exit 0

Use at your own risk, no warranties, blah, blah. Enjoy.

And now, step by step.

David,
Perhaps I'm the newbie of the newbies but that thread did not help. In command line I have no problem with ps aux and there is nothing with aux in the restart-aolserver script.

Richard,
Of course, you are perfectly right, but I am crowded with lots of docs printed and I don't know which to use firs. Documentation of OpenACS, AOL Server, PostgreSQL, SuSE, ACS, Tcl, SQL, etc. I know it was better to have some background. I don't, but at least I want to do this.

Jun & Sean,
Again, you show me the benefits of a community beyond Philip Greenspun's books.

I have tried both variants from Sean. The modified script listed above by Sean did start OK the postmaster although something went wrong because I was unable to connect to db.
Modifying the /usr/local/data/postgresql.conf file seemed to me the easy way. Done and it's working, but how can I verify that the postmaster is using the .conf file and now I have those flags set.

Don Baccus,
I don't figure why is still hard to start and configure properly an Open ACS system, as long as this has been done so many times by others. Yes, the documentation is great but it could be better. I think that could be more Open ACS systems working, faster to set up and configure and more reliable and have more active users at openacs.org with a better documentation.
Did you think how many newbies give it up because seemed too complicated for them and couldn't even see how great is working?

Perhaps OpenACS4 comes with lots of enhancements regarding this subject.

Thank you again for beeing there!