On Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 4:24 PM, Kevin Grittner <kevin.gritt...@wicourts.gov> wrote: > OK, to get back to the question -- pg_dump's transaction (T0) could > see an inconsistent version of the database if one transaction (TN) > writes to a table, another transaction (T1) overlaps TN and can't > read something written by TN because they are concurrent, TN commits > before T0 acquires its snapshot, T1 writes to a table, T0 starts > before T1 commits, and T0 can't read something which T1 wrote (which > is sort of a given for a database dump and overlapping transactions).
Can I collapse this into a single list of events (apologies, this isn't going to line up, I'm writing it in a proportional font :( ) TN starts T1 starts TN writes T1 reads TN commits T0 starts (pg_dump) T1 writes T0 reads (pg_dump) T1 commits So T1 must have happened before TN because it wrote something based on data as it was before TN modified it. But T0 can see TN but not T1 so there's no complete ordering between the three transactions that makes them all make sense. The thing is that the database state is reasonable, the database state is after it would be if the ordering were T1,TN with T0 happening any time. And the backup state is reasonable, it's as if it occurred after TN and before T1. They just don't agree. -- greg -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers