Re: freebsd/softupdates for data dir

On Apr 4, 2006, at 10:41 AM, Vivek Khera wrote:
> On Apr 3, 2006, at 10:10 PM, Mark Kirkwood wrote:
>
>> I've always left them on, and never had any issues...(even after
>> unscheduled power loss - which happened here yesterday). As I
>> understand it, the softupdate code reorders *metadata* operations,
>> and does not alter data operations - so the effect of fysnc(2) on
>> a preexisting file is not changed by softupdates being on or off.
>
> This is also my understanding, and I also leave softupdates on for
> the data partition. Even if it doesn't improve performance, it
> will not reduce it, and otherwise does no harm with respect to
> postgres' disk usage.

More importantly, it allows the system to come up and do fsck in the
background. If you've got a large database that's a pretty big benefit.
--
Jim C. Nasby, Sr. Engineering Consultant jnasby(at)pervasive(dot)com
Pervasive Software http://pervasive.com work: 512-231-6117
vcard: http://jim.nasby.net/pervasive.vcf cell: 512-569-9461