> You have to put the WAL files *somewhere* while you do the base backup. > PostgreSQL can't itself work out where that is, nor can it work out > ahead of time how big it will need to be, since it is up to you how you > do your base backup. Setting a parameter to -1 doesn't make the problem > go away, it just pretends and hopes it doesn't exist, but screws you > badly if you do hit the wall.
Agreed. That's why I like the idea of having a max_wal_size/min_wal_time instead of keep_wal_segments or checkpoint_segments. It's relatively simple for a DBA to know how much disk space s/he has for WAL, total, before locking up the system. And to answer Robert's question, because now I understand what he was getting at. The reason we want a min_wal_time is because we don't want to keep a larger WAL around always. If more WAL were always better, then we'd only need max_wal_size and we'd only recycle when we hit it. Instead, we'd recycle whenever we passed max_wal_time. That's why I said that I was assuming nothing of the sort. -- -- Josh Berkus PostgreSQL Experts Inc. http://www.pgexperts.com -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers