Re: [HACKERS] Checkpoint request failed on version 8.2.1.

Tom Lane wrote:
> Magnus Hagander <magnus(at)hagander(dot)net> writes:
>> I find it very unlikely that you would "during normal operations" end up
>> in a situation where you would first have permissions to create files in
>> a directory, and then lose them.
>> What could be is that you have a directory where you never had
>> permissions to create the file in the first place.
>
>> Any chance to differentiate between these?
>
> The cases we're concerned about involve access to an existing file, not
> attempts to create a new one, so I'm not clear what your point is.

Well, then I don't see it as being a big problem, which was the
question, I think. If pgsql had permissions to create the file, it would
never lose it unless the dba changed something - and if the dba changed
something, then he should check his logs afterwards to make sure he
didn't break anything.

My point is that if we know that *we* could create the file, than the
probability of it being an *actual* permissions problem is very low
during normal operations. So it's most likely "the delete issue", and
thus doing what you propose does seem like a fairly safe bet.

> I would certainly *love* to differentiate between these failures and
> ordinary permissions failures, but so far as I've heard we can't.

Right, that's the base problem.

//Magnus