Re: [PATCHES] Cleaning up unreferenced table files

Heikki Linnakangas <hlinnaka(at)iki(dot)fi> writes:
> Maybe we should take a different approach to the problem:
> 1. Create new file with an extension to mark that it's not
> yet committed (eg. 1234.notcommitted)

This is pushing the problem into the wrong place, viz the lowest-level
file access routines, which will now all have to know about
.notcommitted status. It also creates race conditions --- think about
backend A trying to commit file 1234 at about the same time that
backend B is trying to flush some dirty buffers belonging to that file.
But most importantly, it doesn't handle the file-deletion case.

regards, tom lane