Reviewing earlier threads, I realised that there was a potential bug/loophole in PITR backups in conjunction with avoiding WAL for bulk operations. This would be rare, but should be fixed. http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-05/msg01113.php
Say you issue COPY, CREATE INDEX etc.. pg_start_backup() pg_stop_backup() ...then bulk operation ends. This will result in a base backup that does not contain the data written during the bulk operation and the changes aren't in WAL either. I propose to fix this by making two new calls bool RequestBulkCommandUseNoWAL(void) void ResetBulkCommandUseNoWAL(void) so we would use it like this use_wal = RequestBulkCommandUseNoWAL() and then at end of operation if (!use_wal) ResetBulkCommandUseNoWAL(); The routine would record a flag on the shmem ControlFile data that would prevent pg_start backup functions from executing while a bulk operation was in progress. It would also prevent a bulk operation from using no WAL while a backup was in progress, as is already the case, since the backup can only take place while archiving is enabled. A new entry point pg_start_backup(text, bool) would allow the user to specify whether to wait for bulk ops to finish, or not. The old entry point would always wait, to ensure safety in all cases. Thoughts? -- Simon Riggs EnterpriseDB http://www.enterprisedb.com ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 3: Have you checked our extensive FAQ? http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faq
