Re: temporary file log lines

On Thu, 2021-07-08 at 17:22 -0400, MichaelDBA wrote:
> I got a question about PG log lines with temporary file info like this:
>
> case 1: log line with no contextual info
> 2021-07-07 20:28:15 UTC:10.100.11.95(50274):myapp(at)mydb:[35200]:LOG:
> temporary file: path "base/pgsql_tmp/pgsql_tmp35200.0", size 389390336
>
> case 2: log line with contextual info
> 2021-07-07 20:56:18 UTC:172.16.193.118(56080):myapp(at)mydb:[22418]:LOG:
> temporary file: path "base/pgsql_tmp/pgsql_tmp22418.0", size 1048576000
> 2021-07-07 20:56:18
> UTC:172.16.193.118(56080):myapp(at)mydb:[22418]:CONTEXT: PL/pgSQL function
> memory.f_memory_usage(boolean) line 13 at RETURN QUERY
>
> There are at least 2 cases where stuff can spill over to disk:
> * queries that don't fit in work_mem, and
> * temporary tables that don't fit in temp_buffers
>
> Question, if log_temp_files is turned on (=0), then how can you tell
> from where the temporary log line comes from?
> I see a pattern where work_mem spill overs have a CONTEXT line that
> immediately follows the LOG LINE with keyword, temporary. See case 2 above.
>
> For other LOG lines with keyword, temporary, there is no such pattern.
> Could those be the ones caused by temp_buffer spill overs to disk? case
> 1 above.
>
> I really want to tune temp_buffers, but I would like to be able to
> detect when temporary tables are spilling over to disk, so that I can
> increase temp_buffers.
>
> Any help would be appreciated.

I am not sure if you can istinguish those two cases from the log.

What I would do is identify the problematic query and run it with
EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS). Then you should see which part of the query
creates the temporary files.

If it is a statement in a function called from your top level query,
auto_explain with the correct parameters can get you that output for
those statements too.

Yours,
Laurenz Albe
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