Re: Decreasing WAL size effects

* Aidan Van Dyk <aidan(at)highrise(dot)ca> [081031 15:11]:
> How about something like the attached. It's been spun quickly, passed
> regression tests, and some simple hand tests on REL8_3_STABLE. It seem slike
> HEAD can't initdb on my machine (quad opteron with SW raid1), I tried a few
> revision in the last few days, and initdb dies on them all...

OK, HEAD does work, I don't know what was going on previosly... Attached is my
patch against head.

I'll try and pull out some machines on Monday to really thrash/crash this but
I'm running out of time today to set that up.

But in running head, I've come accross this:
regression=# SELECT pg_stop_backup();
WARNING: pg_stop_backup still waiting for archive to complete (60 seconds elapsed)
WARNING: pg_stop_backup still waiting for archive to complete (120 seconds elapsed)
WARNING: pg_stop_backup still waiting for archive to complete (240 seconds elapsed)

My archive script is *not* running, it ran and exited:
mountie(at)pumpkin:~/projects/postgresql/PostgreSQL/src/test/regress$ ps -ewf | grep post
mountie 2904 1 0 16:31 pts/14 00:00:00 /home/mountie/projects/postgresql/PostgreSQL/src/test/regress/tmp_check/install/usr/local/pgsql
mountie 2906 2904 0 16:31 ? 00:00:01 postgres: writer process
mountie 2907 2904 0 16:31 ? 00:00:00 postgres: wal writer process
mountie 2908 2904 0 16:31 ? 00:00:00 postgres: archiver process last was 00000001000000000000001F
mountie 2909 2904 0 16:31 ? 00:00:01 postgres: stats collector process
mountie 2921 2904 1 16:31 ? 00:00:18 postgres: mountie regression 127.0.0.1(56455) idle

Those all match up:
mountie(at)pumpkin:~/projects/postgresql/PostgreSQL/src/test/regress$ pstree -acp 2904
postgres,2904 -D/home/mountie/projects/postgres
├─postgres,2906
├─postgres,2907
├─postgres,2908
├─postgres,2909
└─postgres,2921

strace on the "archiver process" postgres:
select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {1, 0}) = 0 (Timeout)
getppid() = 2904
select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {1, 0}) = 0 (Timeout)
getppid() = 2904
select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {1, 0}) = 0 (Timeout)
getppid() = 2904
select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {1, 0}) = 0 (Timeout)
getppid() = 2904
select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {1, 0}) = 0 (Timeout)
getppid() = 2904

It *does* finally finish, postmaster log looks like ("Archving ..." is what my
archive script prints, bytes is the gzip'ed size):
Archiving 000000010000000000000016 [16397 bytes]
Archiving 000000010000000000000017 [4405457 bytes]
Archiving 000000010000000000000018 [3349243 bytes]
Archiving 000000010000000000000019 [3349505 bytes]
LOG: ZEROING xlog file 0 segment 27 from 7954432 - 16777216 [8822784 bytes]
Archiving 00000001000000000000001A [3349590 bytes]
Archiving 00000001000000000000001B [1596676 bytes]
LOG: ZEROING xlog file 0 segment 28 from 8192 - 16777216 [16769024 bytes]
Archiving 00000001000000000000001C [16398 bytes]
LOG: ZEROING xlog file 0 segment 29 from 8192 - 16777216 [16769024 bytes]
Archiving 00000001000000000000001D [16397 bytes]
LOG: ZEROING xlog file 0 segment 30 from 8192 - 16777216 [16769024 bytes]
Archiving 00000001000000000000001E [16393 bytes]
Archiving 00000001000000000000001E.00000020.backup [146 bytes]
WARNING: pg_stop_backup still waiting for archive to complete (60 seconds elapsed)
WARNING: pg_stop_backup still waiting for archive to complete (120 seconds elapsed)
WARNING: pg_stop_backup still waiting for archive to complete (240 seconds elapsed)
LOG: ZEROING xlog file 0 segment 31 from 8192 - 16777216 [16769024 bytes]
Archiving 00000001000000000000001F [16395 bytes]

So what's this "pg_stop_backup still waiting for archive to complete" for 5
minutes state? I've not seen that before (runing 8.2 and 8.3).

a.
--
Aidan Van Dyk Create like a god,
aidan(at)highrise(dot)ca command like a king,
http://www.highrise.ca/ work like a slave.