On Thu, 2005-06-23 at 10:55 -0700, Jeff Frost wrote: > When reading the docs on recovery.conf, I noticed this: > > WAL segments that cannot be found in the archive will be sought in pg_xlog/; > this allows use of recent un-archived segments. However segments that are > available from the archive will be used in preference to files in pg_xlog/. The > system will not overwrite the existing contents of pg_xlog/ when retrieving > archived files. > > If the system will use the files in the archive in preference to the ones in > pg_xlog, how can this actually happen if it will not overwrite the contents of > pg_xlog? That was the bit I thought of. The files are streamed in one by one using a temp filename, so you never run out of space no matter how big the archive of transaction logs. Thats an important feature if a base backup goes bad and you have to go back to n-1 base backup. > I also noticed that if there is not at least one wal archive available in > the archive or the pg_xlog dir, the restore errors out and exits. So the > base backup is really not complete without at least one wal archive > following it. Is this by design? That was the bit I didn't. Fix partially implemented and I am to submit for 8.1, godspeed my typing fingers. There's a simple workaround if you have a low transaction rate system: load up enough data to trip into the next xlog. Best Regards, Simon Riggs
