Re: a provocative question?

Tom Lane wrote:
> "TJ O'Donnell" <tjo(at)acm(dot)org> writes:
>
>> I ran across this quote on Wikipedia at
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudora_%28e-mail_client%29
>> "Text files are also much safer than databases, in that should disk
>> corruption occur, most of the mail is likely to be unaffected, and any
>> that is damaged can usually be recovered."
>>

Should probably insert as well the standard disclaimer about Wikipedia.
Great source of info, but that particular sentence has not been
corrected yet by the
forces-that-dictate-everything-ends-up-correct-sooner-or-later to point
out the design trade-offs between simple systems like files (or paper
for that matter) vs more complex but safer systems such as databases.

And no, I wont write it.... :)

>
> This is mostly FUD. You can get data out of a damaged database, too.
> (I'd also point out that modern filesystems are nearly as complicated
> as databases --- try getting your "simple" text files back if the
> filesystem metadata is fried.)
>
> In the end there is no substitute for a good backup policy...
>
> regards, tom lane
>
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> TIP 2: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster
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--
Kenneth Downs
Secure Data Software, Inc.
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