Bonjour

        Working on linux with postgres (postgresql-6.5.3) I found
        indication the postmaster is not flushing everything from
        system cache while receiving the SIGTERM or SIGINT signal.

        conditions:
        I start (on an empty data-base) to upload a data-base
        via the commands:

        first I start portmaster such:
        /usr/bin/postmaster -B512 -D /bigbase  -p port# -s -o -F

        then load the database
        psql -q -p -f bigbase.tbl -p port# database name        

        Once the database is loaded, if I "kill -TERM postmaster_pid"
        then restart postmaster and use psql, I can see all indexes
        and data-records A_OK (so everything is on disk).

        Now If I start postmaster in silent mode "-S"
        /usr/bin/postmaster -B512 -D /bigbase  -p port# -s -o -F -S
        reload the data-base base again:
        psql -q -p -f bigbase.tbl -p port# database name        
        (previous data-base has been fully deleted)

        Do my "kill -TERM postmaster_pid"
        
        Then if I restart postmaster and use psql, I can see indexes
        are incomplete (obviously, previous to the kill indexes are A_ONE).
        as fare I can see the problem stand only on the indexes (data
        records seems all here, bigbase is around 120000 records, 1K record).

        I know "-F" is dangerous if you have a system crash, but
        according my understanding and my postgres source code review,
        "fsync" is done everytime a "gentle" kill is done (no -KILL).
        
        I first noticed the problem while starting the command
        /usr/bin/postmaster -B512 -D /bigbase  -p port# -s -o -F
        (note: no -S) via a "rsh".

        I feel the problem is related to stdin state, (but why
        the problem only show up for indexes), any help or hint
        will higly appreciated.
        
        I looked at previous post, was not able to locate
        post about same kind of problem.
        
A bientot
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