Christopher Browne wrote: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Hideyuki Kawashima) wrote: >> Joshua, >> >> I appreciate your quick & informative reply. And, I also really >> appreciate your kind comments. Since I have joined this ML 3 hours >> ago, I tried to be polite and slightly nervous. But I was relieved >> by your message. > > Your idea sounds interesting; there is likely to be a considerable > resistance to mechanisms, however, that would be likely to make > PostgreSQL less robust. > > Be aware, also, that in a public forum like this, people are sometimes > less gentle than Joshua. > > The fundamental trouble with this mechanism is that a power outage can > instantly turn a database into crud.
Correct, that is certainly a problem. However, I think the interesting opportunity here is in devices that don't typically loose power. A PDA for example. The PostgreSQL footprint is actually quite small, and PDAs are getting larger and larger in capacity. Heck, they even have 32GB SD now. In the near future I believe we can expect to see always on, mini laptops as well. >From an deployable application perspective, this could be a big deal. We are already starting to see very large traction in the Win32 desktop app arena. > > One may try to mitigate that problem by supporting the memory device > with multiple power supplies *and* multiple UPSes. > > But there is a not-inconsiderable risk that people will fail to read > warnings, deploy databases in a way that leaves them exposed to total > loss, and then lay blame at this community's feet. I'm sure you can > understand why the community might resist that... I certainly can, but a feature left off by default and documented thoroughly can mitigate a lot of that. Heck if we really wanted to we could even make it a custom build; --with-lazy-wal ;) Sincerely, Joshua D. Drake -- === The PostgreSQL Company: Command Prompt, Inc. === Sales/Support: +1.503.667.4564 || 24x7/Emergency: +1.800.492.2240 Providing the most comprehensive PostgreSQL solutions since 1997 http://www.commandprompt.com/ Donate to the PostgreSQL Project: http://www.postgresql.org/about/donate PostgreSQL Replication: http://www.commandprompt.com/products/ ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 2: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster