Re: Killing a session in windows - Mailing list pgsql-general

Bruce Momjian wrote:
> Alvaro Herrera wrote:
>
>> Bruce Momjian wrote:
>>
>>> Alvaro Herrera wrote:
>>>
>>>> Huh, why is it awkward?
>>>>
>>>>     Alternatively, you can send the signal directly using <command>kill</>
>>>>     (or <command>pg_ctl kill TERM [process id]</>).
>>>>
>>> I think we should mention Windows in there somewhere, because it isn't
>>> "alternatively" on Windows.
>>>
>> Actually, this whole change is a bit silly, because the text now says
>> something like:
>>
>> "You can send these signals using pg_ctl kill.  Alternatively you can
>> use kill (or pg_ctl kill)"
>>
>
> Wow, yea, I see that now, but it is alone a paragraph above.  I updated
> the text to:
>
>    The <xref linkend="app-pg-ctl"> program provides a convenient
>    interface for sending these signals to shut down the server.
>    Alternatively, you can send the signal directly using
>    <command>kill</> on non-Windows systems.
>
>
My documentation point is that in administering the service, I cannot
drop a database if there is still an active connection. To drop a
process in linux appears to be easy using "kill", but this does not seem
to be the case in windows using taskkill. I would rather see some
reference to killing rogue connections using pg_ctl in the "Managing
Databases" chapter, and reference to it in "Destroying a Database" and
"DROP DATABASE" documentation because this would be where I would first
search for a solution when I had the problem.

In the pg_ctl documentation, I would recommend explicitly stating that
"pg_ctl kill -TERM pid" can be used to kill individual connections to a
database in windows, because "taskkill" and "select pg_cancel_backend()"
do not seem to always work (for me anyway) in windows. Also HUP and
other signals mean nothing to a windows user.

In general the documentation, understandably, is geared toward *nix, I
do not know what proportion of installations are Windows, but I suspect
they are growing at a rapid rate since version 8. Postgres on Windows is
a fabulous product, and the migration to the windows platform has been
much cleaner than the migration of Mysql, so it would be a shame to lose
market share on the basis that the documentation still has sections
biased towards *nix. Removal of *nix-isms from the main strand of the
documentation and additions of clearly marked build dependant comments
where appropriate would make a big difference in uniting the world! So
for example, the documentation for pg_ctl would have a description and
common options, and then list any linux/bsd/unix/windows differences in
section similar to the User Comments sections of the documentation.

I enjoyed that!

Anyway - Merry Christmas / Eid / Holidays to you all and I'm looking
forward to 8.3 under the christmas tree.

Howard.