Re: Forcing WAL switch

Walker, Jed S wrote:
> How do you do that?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tom Lane [mailto:tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us]
> Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2005 4:12 PM
> To: Walker, Jed S
> Cc: pgsql-novice@postgresql.org
> Subject: Re: [NOVICE] Forcing WAL switch
>
> "Walker, Jed S" <Jed_Walker@cable.comcast.com> writes:
> > If the backup completes, I switch the database out of "backup mode",
> > and then switch a WAL and it archives, then I know my backup directory
>
> > contains the backup and the WAL(s) needed to bring the database to a
> > consistent state. So, if I can switch a WAL after the backup, then I
> > truly have a complete backup.
>
> How is "switch a WAL" an essential component of that scheme?  You can
> archive the latest active segment just as well.

Ah, but that will be over-written later, so you have to store it
somewhere safe, rather than just forcing closure of the current
WAL file and forcing an archive of it.

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