Hello I run two PostgreSQL servers in a master-slave setup and set wal_keep_segments=1000 on the master to allow long downtimes on the slave. Meanwhile the disk got fuller than I estimated and I changed the config to wal_keep_segments=500 and restarted the server afterwards. Yet, the number of WAL segments in my archive dir was still at 1000! I tried a random mix of VACUUM, CHECKPOINT, pg_start_backup(), pg_stop_backup(), server restarts, googling and just plain waiting but the number of archived WAL segments just increased to 1018. Although I understand that I may safely delete those WAL files that are older than the last .backup file I wonder if that shouldn't be happen automatically. Why doesn't it? Relevant non-default settings from the master with version 9.1.6: wal_level = hot_standby archive_mode = on archive_command = 'test ! -f /srv/postgresql-archivedir/%f && cp %p /srv/postgresql-archivedir/%f' wal_keep_segments = 500 hot_standby = on bye, -christian- -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general