Re: bad posix_fadvise support causes initdb to exit ungracefully

Merlin Moncure <mmoncure@gmail.com> writes:
> Due to unfortunate environmental conditions (don't ask) I've been
> trying to get postgres 9.0 up and running on a fairly ancient linux --
> redhat EL 3 which as kernel 2.4.21.   initdb borks on the create
> database step with the error message "child process exited with error
> code 139".  A bit of tracing revealed the exit was happening at the
> pg_flush_data which basically wraps posix_fadvise.   Disabling fadvise
> support in pg_config_manual.h fixed the problem.

> Things brings up a couple of questions:
> *) Are linuxes this old out of support?

RHEL3 is just about dead as far as Red Hat is concerned: only critical
security bugs will be addressed, and even that is going to stop in a
year or two.  RH would certainly not recommend that you be trying to
put any new applications on that platform.

> *) Should configure be testing for working posix_fadvise?

There isn't any reliable way to do that at configure time, I think.
We could add an AC_TRY_RUN call but it wouldn't be trustworthy; think
cross-compiles, or running on some other kernel version than where you
compiled.  Unless the problem manifests on some not-quite-so-dead
platform, I'm not in favor of it.
        regards, tom lane