diff --git a/src/backend/postmaster/postmaster.c b/src/backend/postmaster/postmaster.c
index 4981152e37d46ee539bd93be23694d6c608eb23b..d3f089e65bb8c6d23a573379e59bfa2bd260835e 100644
--- a/src/backend/postmaster/postmaster.c
+++ b/src/backend/postmaster/postmaster.c
@@ -1064,6 +1064,12 @@ PostmasterMain(int argc, char *argv[])
 						 progname, external_pid_file, strerror(errno));
 	}
 
+	/*
+	 * Remove old temporary files.  At this point there can be no other
+	 * Postgres processes running in this directory, so this should be safe.
+	 */
+	RemovePgTempFiles();
+
 	/*
 	 * If enabled, start up syslogger collection subprocess
 	 */
@@ -1103,12 +1109,6 @@ PostmasterMain(int argc, char *argv[])
 	}
 	load_ident();
 
-	/*
-	 * Remove old temporary files.  At this point there can be no other
-	 * Postgres processes running in this directory, so this should be safe.
-	 */
-	RemovePgTempFiles();
-
 #ifdef HAVE_PTHREAD_IS_THREADED_NP
 
 	/*
@@ -4949,7 +4949,7 @@ read_backend_variables(char *id, Port *port)
 	fp = AllocateFile(id, PG_BINARY_R);
 	if (!fp)
 	{
-		write_stderr("could not read from backend variables file \"%s\": %s\n",
+		write_stderr("could not open backend variables file \"%s\": %s\n",
 					 id, strerror(errno));
 		exit(1);
 	}