Re: PostgreSQL - Debian - Processes: postgres: writer process, etc.

On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 11:05:10AM -0500, Tom Lane wrote:
> >> What is weird to me is the "COMMAND" column as far as these four processes
> >> are concerned.
> >> In the "COMMAND "column I would expect a real command, not a description.
> >> Can you explain?
>
> We intentionally change the command string reported by ps for each
> postmaster child process, so that you can tell the various processes
> apart.  If we did not, every postmaster child would show the exact
> same command string as the postmaster itself was launched with.
> (To get an idea of how useless that is, try looking at "top" sometime
> --- on most systems I've worked with, it ignores the changed command
> strings, so you can't tell what's what.)

I belive the 'c' command in modern versions of top toggles display of
the current command string.

--
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB                             http://enterprisedb.com

  + It's impossible for everything to be true. +