Re: pg_group_name_index corrupt?

On Thu, 4 May 2000, Tom Lane wrote:

> I wrote:
> > It occurred to me that this would be the likely symptom if a CREATE
> > GROUP or ALTER GROUP command had neglected to update the indexes on
> > pg_group. However, I can't spot any such problem in the code nor
> > cause it to happen by hand. Anyone else have an idea?
>
> After further looking, I notice that users.c is one of the few places
> that will drop AccessExclusiveLock at heap_close time rather than
> holding it till xact commit. I wonder whether this is a bug...
> it could allow another backend to get in and start vacuuming the file
> before our updates have committed. I am not sure that vacuum would do
> the wrong thing in that case, but maybe so. Comments anyone (Vadim?)
>
> I also notice that there definitely is a glaring bug there:
> write_password_file() leaks one kernel file descriptor each time it runs
> (note the creat() call). Alter enough pg_shadow entries in one session
> and your backend stops working. I think this is a "must fix" problem
> --- any objections?

None from me ...

Marc G. Fournier ICQ#7615664 IRC Nick: Scrappy
Systems Administrator @ hub.org
primary: scrappy(at)hub(dot)org secondary: scrappy(at){freebsd|postgresql}.org