lost pg_xlog // recover database-structure without it?

Hy all,

I request your support for the following problem. (with "postmaster
(PostgreSQL) 7.4.1")

On a development-system I lost the pg_xlog-directory due to a system
crash, where the physical device on which the mountpoint pg_xlog was
located got broken.

LOG:  could not open file
"/usr/local/pgsql/data/./pg_xlog/0000000100000041" (log file 1, segment
65): No such file or directory
LOG:  invalid primary checkpoint record
LOG:  could not open file
"/usr/local/pgsql/data/./pg_xlog/0000000100000041" (log file 1, segment
65): No such file or directory
LOG:  invalid secondary checkpoint record
PANIC:  could not locate a valid checkpoint record
LOG:  startup process (PID 624) was terminated by signal 6
LOG:  aborting startup due to startup process failure

So postmaster is not able to start up.

There is no problem with the data, if that would be lost, but I need the
datadefinition i.e. structure of the tables, as I have no recent backup
of that. :-(

It would even be no problem, if the database would start up and would be
inconsistent or empty, as the data get's imported from an old
to-be-replaced Sybase DBMS.


Is there a possibility to extract the data definition or to force
postmaster to start, even in an inconsistent state or with all
"contents" deleted?

Thanx very much in advance,

Dennis Breithaupt