On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 8:11 PM, Scott Marlowe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote:

> > wait a min here, postgres is supposed to be able to survive a complete
> box
> > failure without corrupting the database, if killing a process can corrupt
> > the database it sounds like a major problem.
>
> Yes it is a major problem, but not with postgresql.  It's a major
> problem with the linux OOM killer killing processes that should not be
> killed.
>
> Would it be postgresql's fault if it corrupted data because my machine
> had bad memory?  Or a bad hard drive?  This is the same kind of
> failure.  The postmaster should never be killed.  It's the one thing
> holding it all together.
>

I fail to see the difference between the OOM killing it and the power going
out.  And yes, if the power went out and PG came up with a corrupted DB
(assuming I didn't turn off fsync, etc) I *would* blame PG.  I understand
that killing the postmaster could stop all useful PG work, that it could
cause it to stop responding to clients, that it could even "crash" PG, et
ceterabut if a particular process dying causes corrupted DBs, that sounds
borked to me.

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