Logical decoding client has the power to crash the server

From: Meel Velliste <meel(at)fivetran(dot)com>
To: pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Logical decoding client has the power to crash the server
Date: 2017-09-20 06:14:26
Message-ID: CADCgt-KUEjDV=8TAko01dJydeSgW_QX4-KryLDw1wy8wWPygbw@mail.gmail.com
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From what I understand about logical decoding, there is no limit to how
many log entries will be retained by the server if nobody reads them from
the logical slot. This means that a client that fails to read from the slot
has the power to bring down the master database because the server's disk
will get full at which point all subsequent write operations will fail and
even read operations will fail because they too need temporary space. Even
the underlying operating system may be affected as it too may need
temporary disk space to carry out its basic functions.

This essentially means that the client has the power to bring down the
server without even doing anything malicious, merely by being passive.
Seems like it should not be this way.

Is there really no way to limit the retained log entries, for example by
specifying the amount of time (e.g. 24 hours or 7 days), so that any
entries older than that would be automatically dropped?

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