Thread: bgwriter update question

bgwriter update question

From
"Mark Steben"
Date:

I'm running on 7.4.5 (pre bgwriter) and moving to 8.2 in 3 weeks. I turn fsync off on my testing server. When I update a table I expect the file in the base directory to remain the same size until the next syncpoint when it would then update. But it increases immediately. I thought updates remain in memory until syncpoint in pre-8.0. Am I missing somethng?

 

Thanks for your time

 

Mark Steben

Senior Database Administrator
@utoRevenue™
A Dominion Enterprises Company
480 Pleasant Street
Suite B200
Lee, MA 01238
413-243-4800 Home Office 
413-243-4809 Corporate Fax

msteben@autorevenue.com

Visit our new website at
www.autorevenue.com

 

IMPORTANT: The information contained in this e-mail message is confidential and is intended only for the named addressee(s). If the reader of this e-mail message is not the intended recipient (or the individual responsible for the delivery of this e-mail message to the intended recipient), please be advised that any re-use, dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail message is prohibited.  If you have received this e-mail message in error, please reply to the sender that you have received this e-mail message in error and then delete it.  Thank you.

 

Re: bgwriter update question

From
Tom Lane
Date:
"Mark Steben" <msteben@autorevenue.com> writes:
> I'm running on 7.4.5 (pre bgwriter) and moving to 8.2 in 3 weeks. I turn
> fsync off on my testing server. When I update a table I expect the file in
> the base directory to remain the same size until the next syncpoint when it
> would then update. But it increases immediately. I thought updates remain in
> memory until syncpoint in pre-8.0. Am I missing somethng?

The updates don't go to disk immediately (they didn't in 7.4 either).
But we always allocate disk space immediately when needed, to make sure
it's available.  Otherwise we could face the embarrassing situation of
having noplace to put rows inserted by an already-reported-committed
transaction.

            regards, tom lane

Re: bgwriter update question

From
"Mark Steben"
Date:
Thanks Tom, every piece of new information adds to my education.
I'm going to put to bed this effort of trying to verify BGWRITER,
knowing that it works in 8.2 and move on.

Regards,
Mark Steben

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Lane [mailto:tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us]
Sent: Monday, October 22, 2007 2:18 PM
To: Mark Steben
Cc: pgsql-admin@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: [ADMIN] bgwriter update question

"Mark Steben" <msteben@autorevenue.com> writes:
> I'm running on 7.4.5 (pre bgwriter) and moving to 8.2 in 3 weeks. I turn
> fsync off on my testing server. When I update a table I expect the file in
> the base directory to remain the same size until the next syncpoint when
it
> would then update. But it increases immediately. I thought updates remain
in
> memory until syncpoint in pre-8.0. Am I missing somethng?

The updates don't go to disk immediately (they didn't in 7.4 either).
But we always allocate disk space immediately when needed, to make sure
it's available.  Otherwise we could face the embarrassing situation of
having noplace to put rows inserted by an already-reported-committed
transaction.

            regards, tom lane