Sorry, I should have checked the source first. Just found this in miscinit.c :
* By convention, the owning process' PID is negated if it is a standalone * backend rather than a postmaster. This is just for informational purposes. ==================== > -----Original Message----- > I see this code in pg_ctl: > > PID=`sed -n 1p $PIDFILE` > if [ "$PID" -lt 0 ];then > PID=`expr 0 - $PID` > > > Wnen it is possible (and why) to have a negative number in postmaster.pid? ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 2: you can get off all lists at once with the unregister command (send "unregister YourEmailAddressHere" to [EMAIL PROTECTED])