Re: BUG #1208: Invalid page header

Dear Tom,
	I tried another load of the databases with fsync off (-F to
the postmaster), and I encountered at least one invalid page
header. Is there code in Postgres that handles the buffer cache
differently if fsync is off? Could this be a timing issue, since -F
does make PostgreSQL run faster?
	BTW, I'll be out of the office for two weeks, so you'll hear
back from me around Labor Day. Thanks. --Bob

Tom Lane writes:
> 
> 
> "Robert E. Bruccoleri" <bruc@stone.congenomics.com> writes:
> > 	Besides a no optimization compilation of 7.4.3, what else
> > would you recommend to explore this problem further? Thanks. --Bob
> 
> I really haven't the foggiest where to look :-(  I don't actually
> believe that it's a spinlock problem; that would explain pages getting
> substituted for other pages, in whole or in part, but you showed at
> least one example where a page was just overwritten with garbage.
> That looks more like a memory-stomp problem (again, assuming that it's
> software) and so could be anywhere.
> 
> Are you using any off-the-beaten-track code (contrib modules,
> non-btree indexes, non-mainstream data types)?  That stuff is less
> well debugged than the mainstream ...
> 
> 			regards, tom lane
> 

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