Re: How to use postgres 7.0.3 with -F?

elwood(at)agouros(dot)de (Konstantinos Agouros) writes:
> someone gave me the tip to use the -F-flag to improve performance. Since
> I can't run the postmaster with -F but just postgres how do I do it, if I
> want to import a big amount of data?

In 7.0.* (but not prior versions) it is safe to run individual backends
with -F; other backends will still fsync their changes. So, you can
start a backend that's going to do an import with

export PGOPTIONS="-F"
psql mydb
....

(adjust 'export' command syntax depending on your preferred shell.)
libpq passes the value of the environment variable PGOPTIONS over to the
backend, and away you go. -dN (debug level) is another backend command-
line switch commonly set this way.

regards, tom lane