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-$PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/pg_ctl-ref.sgml,v 1.50 2010/04/08 01:39:37 rhaas Exp $
+$PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/pg_ctl-ref.sgml,v 1.51 2010/06/22 16:19:36 momjian Exp $
PostgreSQL documentation
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<para>
In <option>start</option> mode, a new server is launched. The
- server is started in the background, and standard input is attached to
- <filename>/dev/null</filename>. The standard output and standard
- error are either appended to a log file (if the <option>-l</option>
- option is used), or redirected to <application>pg_ctl</application>'s
- standard output (not standard error). If no log file is chosen, the
- standard output of <application>pg_ctl</application> should be redirected
- to a file or piped to another process such as a log rotating program
- like <application>rotatelogs</>; otherwise <command>postgres</command>
- will write its output to the controlling terminal (from the background)
- and will not leave the shell's process group.
+ server is started in the background, and standard input is attached
+ to <filename>/dev/null</filename> (or <literal>nul</> on Windows).
+ On Unix-like systems, by default, the server's standard output and
+ standard error are send to <application>pg_ctl</application>'s
+ standard output (not standard error). The standard output of
+ <application>pg_ctl</application> should then be redirected to a
+ file or piped to another process such as a log rotating program
+ like <application>rotatelogs</>; otherwise <command>postgres</command>
+ will write its output to the controlling terminal (from the
+ background) and will not leave the shell's process group. On
+ Windows, by default the server's standard output and standard error
+ are sent to the terminal. These default behaviors can be changed
+ by using <option>-l</option> to append server output to a log file.
</para>
<para>