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From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Mikko_Ty=F6l=E4j=E4rvi?= <mbsd@pacbell.net>
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To: Dan Langille <dan@langille.org>
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cc: freebsd-database@freebsd.org
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cc: Jason Stone <freebsd-performance@dfmm.org>
Subject: Re: Tuning for PostGreSQL Database
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On Tue, 22 Jul 2003, Dan Langille wrote:

> On 21 Jul 2003 at 20:35, Jason Stone wrote:
>
> > I feel like this is an extremely important point.  If softupdates changes
> > the semantics of sync(2)/fsync(2), then it absolutely has to be off for a
> > postgresql server because postgresql counts on fsync in order to make its
> > durability guarantees.
>
> If this means all FreeBSD-PostgreSQL users need to change their
> setup, we need to do something ASAP.  I'd first recommend getting the
> confirmation from the PostgreSQL team, then adjusting the PostgreSQL
> documenation and the FreeBSD port.
>
> Does anyone feel this is urgent enough that they'll do something
> about it?

I think you can relax.  Check the mailing lists, or google a bit and
you'll find similar discussions.  For example:

<http://www.ornl.gov/cts/archives/mailing-lists/qmail/2000/02/msg00703.html>

In short: fsync() works with soft-updates.  Too many things would
break otherwise.

  $.02,
  /Mikko