diff --git a/src/backend/libpq/pqcomm.c b/src/backend/libpq/pqcomm.c
index e3250862363cd7e41a5a6d69d49299a91bce36e4..81c57a4e8d75dc864256686203be67c6a1fb0d79 100644
--- a/src/backend/libpq/pqcomm.c
+++ b/src/backend/libpq/pqcomm.c
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
  * Portions Copyright (c) 1996-2001, PostgreSQL Global Development Group
  * Portions Copyright (c) 1994, Regents of the University of California
  *
- *	$Id: pqcomm.c,v 1.117 2001/03/22 03:59:30 momjian Exp $
+ *	$Id: pqcomm.c,v 1.118 2001/07/11 19:03:07 tgl Exp $
  *
  *-------------------------------------------------------------------------
  */
@@ -80,11 +80,6 @@
 #include "miscadmin.h"
 
 
-#ifndef SOMAXCONN
-#define SOMAXCONN 5				/* from Linux listen(2) man page */
-#endif
-
-
 static void pq_close(void);
 
 
@@ -185,6 +180,7 @@ StreamServerPort(int family, char *hostName, unsigned short portNumber,
 	SockAddr	saddr;
 	int			fd,
 				err;
+	int			maxconn;
 	size_t		len = 0;
 	int			one = 1;
 
@@ -350,7 +346,25 @@ StreamServerPort(int family, char *hostName, unsigned short portNumber,
 	}
 #endif	 /* HAVE_UNIX_SOCKETS */
 
-	listen(fd, SOMAXCONN);
+	/*
+	 * Select appropriate accept-queue length limit.  PG_SOMAXCONN is
+	 * only intended to provide a clamp on the request on platforms where
+	 * an overly large request provokes a kernel error (are there any?).
+	 */
+	maxconn = MaxBackends * 2;
+	if (maxconn > PG_SOMAXCONN)
+		maxconn = PG_SOMAXCONN;
+
+	err = listen(fd, maxconn);
+	if (err < 0)
+	{
+		snprintf(PQerrormsg, PQERRORMSG_LENGTH,
+				 "FATAL: StreamServerPort: listen() failed: %s\n",
+				 strerror(errno));
+		fputs(PQerrormsg, stderr);
+		pqdebug("%s", PQerrormsg);
+		return STATUS_ERROR;
+	}
 
 	*fdP = fd;
 
diff --git a/src/include/config.h.in b/src/include/config.h.in
index fde5a1385ba5e0b44b60690a33a9a73239c13c81..941cfe8a0663501ca1f14e8db608c1fc09c7e556 100644
--- a/src/include/config.h.in
+++ b/src/include/config.h.in
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
  * or in config.h afterwards.  Of course, if you edit config.h, then your
  * changes will be overwritten the next time you run configure.
  *
- * $Id: config.h.in,v 1.166 2001/06/11 22:12:48 momjian Exp $
+ * $Id: config.h.in,v 1.167 2001/07/11 19:03:07 tgl Exp $
  */
 
 #ifndef CONFIG_H
@@ -232,6 +232,16 @@
  */
 #define DEFAULT_MAX_EXPR_DEPTH	10000
 
+/*
+ * PG_SOMAXCONN: maximum accept-queue length limit passed to listen(2).
+ * You'd think we should use SOMAXCONN from <sys/socket.h>, but on many
+ * systems that symbol is much smaller than the kernel's actual limit.
+ * In any case, this symbol need be twiddled only if you have a kernel
+ * that refuses large limit values, rather than silently reducing the
+ * value to what it can handle (which is what most if not all Unixen do).
+ */
+#define PG_SOMAXCONN	10000
+
 /*
  * You can try changing this if you have a machine with bytes of another
  * size, but no guarantee...