Postgre 12.2 - pg_ctl: could not start server but no other info is shown

Question

good evening to you all! Im working with PostgreSQL 12.2 over FreeBSD 12.0-RELEASE and currently having this issue: Error

Background:

Im trying to set Streaming Replication according with the docs (https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/warm-standby.html). I set up an NFS server to receive the WAL archives on this secondary machine.
I followed the instructions to boot a standby server from a backup. Worked with pg_basebackup (https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/continuous-archiving.html#BACKUP-BASE-BACKUP) and did all the necessary steps to boot from the backup (https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/continuous-archiving.html#BACKUP-PITR-RECOVERY).
The backup of my primary node was sent to the NFS server. When restarting from the backup, I copied the files from the NFS server to the PGDATA directory. Noticed that the user was postgre but the group was wheel (which postgre is not a member of) so changed that with chwon recursively.
Also it gave me a permsissions error, since it allowed others to execute (o+x). Changed permissions to 700 as requested, and now I have this error without a description of what is causing it.

The user repl is created in pg_hba.conf of the main server and has the permissions, although that has nothing to do with this (I think). I suspect the issue has something to do with the original permissions the files had. I've researched this for quite some time but couldn't find and answer. Thank you for your time, and sorry If I missed some file you needed to see. I'll put it here if needed.

My recovery.conf file:

primary_conninfo='host=192.168.1.100 port=5432 user=repl pass=foo'
restore_command='cp /nfs/pg_wal_archive/%f %p'
restore_cleanup='' #I clean the NFS directory manually

You have redirected log to syslog: do you have any message in syslog ? — pifor, Jul 06 '20 at 17:45
Try to modify `postgresql.conf` to log in `$PGDATA\log` with `logging_collector`, `log_destination`, `log_directory` and restart PostgreSQL (or try to fix `syslog.conf`: but here I cannot help especially on FreeBSD). — pifor, Jul 06 '20 at 18:32
@pifor I can't find it. My syslog.conf has the entry `local.* /var/log/postgre` but it doesn't generate any file. Trying to run pg_ctl start > logfile 2>&1 generate the same output I show. — Ivanovich, Jul 06 '20 at 18:34
Usually `postgresql.conf` is in the same directory as `recovery.conf` . — pifor, Jul 06 '20 at 18:37
@pifor Thanks! I'd read the documentation but for some reason didn't think on checking the logging part! It confused me that some errors were actually displayed when i tried to intiiate the server but this not, so I changed the logging to stderror. Now I see that recovery.conf it is not valid anymore, the name has to be recovery.signal. — Ivanovich, Jul 06 '20 at 18:41
`recovery.conf` doesn't exist in v12. Its contents were moved into `postgresql.conf`, and the fact it exists is now represented by the existence of file `recovery.signal`. — jjanes, Jul 06 '20 at 18:44
@pifor Thanks! I feel like a stupid right now. I got stuck in the same thing and didn't think on the basics. — Ivanovich, Jul 06 '20 at 18:47

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 17 '20 at 02:32

0

Okey, my error was simply I had syslogd misconfigured and had read the wrong documentation. Shout outs to pifor for making me notice it. Despite it was a "I forgot the basics error" I'm leaving this in case someone misconfigures his logging :P

answered Jul 17 '20 at 02:32

Ivanovich

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Postgre 12.2 - pg_ctl: could not start server but no other info is shown

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