Re: "full_page_writes" makes no difference? - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

From Pavan Deolasee
Subject Re: "full_page_writes" makes no difference?
Date
Msg-id BANLkTi=i4G3F90+jSCum38mdCywTrhp51A@mail.gmail.com
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In response to "full_page_writes" makes no difference?  (Tian Luo <jackrobin@gmail.com>)
Responses Re: "full_page_writes" makes no difference?  (Pavan Deolasee <pavan.deolasee@gmail.com>)
List pgsql-hackers


On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 7:16 AM, Tian Luo <jackrobin@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi guys,

No matter I turn on or turn off the "full_page_writes", I always
observe 8192-byte writes of log data for simple write operations
(write/update).


Not sure how you measured it, but ISTM that the correct GUC to play with is "fsync". If thats turned off, the WAL buffers won't be fsynced to the disk at every commit. But that would mean reduced reliability in case of database crash.

 
But according to the document, when this is off, it could speed up
operations but may cause problems during recovery. So, I guess this is
because it writes less when the option is turned off. However, this
contradicts my observations ....


When full_page_writes is turned off, the full page won't be backed up in the WAL record after the first modification after a checkpoint. So yes, it can reduce the amount of WAL written to the disk.
 
Thanks,
Pavan

--
Pavan Deolasee
EnterpriseDB     http://www.enterprisedb.com

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