Re: Losing records when server hang

Scott Marlowe wrote:

On Sun, 2004-08-08 at 19:43, lec wrote: 

Hi,

I'm observing the following:
If I commit the following records 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 to the database 
and the server hangs, I could lose records 5,6,7,8,9 but record 10 is 
there.  How is this possible and do anyone know how Postgresql 
physically writes the records?   

Assuming a properly function storage subsystem and a kernel that does
not lie about fsync, this is not possible.

Are you running on top of IDE drives with the write cache enabled? 
Most, if not all, IDE drives lie about FSYNC and can lose data if power
is disconnected abrubtly. 

SCSI

Or if you are running with fsync=false in postgresql.conf the same thing
can happen.  Otherwise, not, it should not happen.  More info perhaps?

 

I didn't change the default fsync, which I believe is fsync=true.