Re: Help me recovering data

Stephan Szabo <sszabo@megazone.bigpanda.com> writes:
> Right, but since the how to resolve it currently involves executing a
> query, simply stopping dead won't allow you to resolve it. Also, if we
> stop at the exact wraparound point, can we run into problems actually
> trying to do the vacuum if that's still the resolution technique?

We'd have to do something with a fair amount of slop.  The idea I was
toying with just now involved a forcible shutdown once we get within
say 100,000 transactions of a wrap failure; but apply this check only
when in interactive operation.  This would allow the DBA to perform
the needed VACUUMing manually in a standalone backend.

The real question here is exactly how large a cluestick do you want to
hit the DBA with.  I don't think we can "guarantee" no data loss with
anything less than forced shutdown, but that's not so much a cluestick
as a clue howitzer.

Maybe

(a) within 200,000 transactions of wrap, every transaction start
delivers a WARNING message;

(b) within 100,000 transactions, forced shutdown as above.
        regards, tom lane