Re: Improve checks for GUC recovery_target_xid

Hüseyin Demir <huseyin.d3r@gmail.com>

From: Hüseyin Demir <huseyin.d3r@gmail.com>
To: pgsql-hackers@lists.postgresql.org
Cc: David Steele <david@pgbackrest.org>
Date: 2026-02-26T07:20:18Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
Hi David, 

The approach LGTM and checked the previous patch too. I have a few things to add. 

The following grammar can be changed by adding "without epoch must be greater than or equal to %u"
+           GUC_check_errdetail("\"%s\" without epoch must greater than or equal to %u.",
+                               "recovery_target_xid",
+                               FirstNormalTransactionId);


Secondly, 

The comment on the lower-bound XID test says # Timeline target out of min range — should be # XID target out of min range.

+# Timeline target out of min range
+$node_standby->append_conf('postgresql.conf',
+   "recovery_target_xid = '0'");
+

When it comes to *endp validations I suppose the validation passes when we provide   recovery_target_xid = '-1'.  This passes the endp validation and FirstNormalTransactionId checks. Is it a valid approach to allow negative values to this GUC ? 

When -1 is provided the following checks allow them to be a valid GUC. 

+       /*
+        * This cast will remove the epoch, if any
+        */
+       xid = (TransactionId) strtou64(*newval, &endp, 0);
+
+       if (*endp != '\0' || errno == EINVAL || errno == ERANGE)
+       {
+           GUC_check_errdetail("\"%s\" is not a valid number.",
+                               "recovery_target_xid");
+           return false;
+       }


Regards.

Commits

Same data as JSON: GET /api/v1/messages/:b64id/commits the thread's linked commits as JSON, with link sources. API reference →
  1. Improve tests for recovery_target_timeline GUC.

  2. Improve validation of recovery_target_xid GUC values.