PostgreSQL error 57P02 (crash_shutdown) means the backend terminated because another server process crashed, forcing an immediate shutdown or recovery state.
PostgreSQL Error 57P02 (crash_shutdown) signals that your session was killed because another PostgreSQL backend process crashed. Restart the PostgreSQL service, inspect server logs for the crashing PID, and patch hardware or extension issues to resolve the problem.
PostgreSQL Error 57P02
Error 57P02 is a PostgreSQL system-level alarm raised when any backend process crashes unexpectedly. To prevent data corruption, PostgreSQL immediately ends all client connections and enters crash recovery. Your session receives SQLSTATE 57P02 and the message “terminating connection because of crash of another server process.”
The error is critical because it indicates a possible data-file inconsistency.
Until the server finishes crash recovery and restarts cleanly, no client connection will succeed. Ignoring the error risks lost transactions and prolonged downtime.
PostgreSQL’s postmaster detects a child process exit with a non-zero code or signal. It writes a PANIC entry to the log, forces all remaining backends to abort, sets shared memory to recovery mode, flushes WAL, and restarts.
Clients already connected are disconnected with SQLSTATE 57P02.
During restart, PostgreSQL replays WAL to achieve consistency. Once recovery completes, the postmaster listens for new connections again. The error therefore marks the transition between crash detection and server restart.
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Native code extensions, unsafe C functions, or buggy foreign data wrappers can segfault, killing the worker process and cascading to crash_shutdown.
The Linux OOM killer may terminate a PostgreSQL backend that exceeds the memory budget.
The postmaster treats this as a crash.
Unstable hardware can corrupt memory pages or interrupt IO, causing backend panic and a cluster-wide shutdown.
Running backends linked to outdated libraries may crash when the underlying OS components change after package upgrades.
If WAL cannot be flushed to disk, PostgreSQL raises PANIC, terminating all backends with 57P02 to safeguard durability.
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Not necessarily. PostgreSQL’s write-ahead logging typically allows full recovery, but verify recent transactions and run pg_checksums or pg_verifybackup.
No. PostgreSQL forcibly disconnects all sessions to guarantee consistency. Clients must reconnect after restart.
Review the postmaster log. The line "terminating other backends" cites the offending PID and its last executed statement or function.
Galaxy’s query history, AI code analysis, and endorsement workflow let teams identify unsafe extensions or heavy queries before they reach production, reducing crash risk.
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