It seems that the init.d and conf.d scripts for 8.4.5 have a slight issue. Line 136 of the init.d script is as follows: -c "env PGDATA=\"${PGDATA}\" PGPORT=\"${PGPORT}\" ${PG_EXTRA_ENV} /usr/lib/postgresql-8.4/bin/pg_ctl start ${WAIT_FOR_START} -t ${START_TIMEOUT} -s -o '--silent-mode=true ${PGOPTS}'" However, in the conf.d script the PGPORT variable is broken as tt is commented out. This causes PGPORT to be set to "" which then overrides the setting in the postgresql.conf file and causes the server to fail to start with the message: FATAL: invalid value for parameter "port": "" Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Start postgresql using the init.d script Actual Results: /etc/init.d/postgresql-8.4 start * Caching service dependencies ... [ ok ] * Starting PostgreSQL ... FATAL: invalid value for parameter "port": "" could not start server [ !! ] * ERROR: postgresql-8.4 failed to start Expected Results: /etc/init.d/postgresql-8.4 start * Caching service dependencies ... [ ok ] * Starting PostgreSQL ... I am running Sabayon but the mantainers told me to file the bug with gentoo.
Have to mark it invalid, sorry for the noise. The conf.d file we ship does not have PGPORT commented out in the conf.d file. This has to be some user error.