Re: pg_stop_backup does not complete

Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>

From: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>
To: jd@commandprompt.com
Cc: Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com>, Heikki Linnakangas <heikki.linnakangas@enterprisedb.com>, Simon Riggs <simon@2ndQuadrant.com>, PostgreSQL-development <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>
Date: 2010-02-25T17:47:13Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
Joshua D. Drake wrote:
> On Wed, 2010-02-24 at 12:32 -0800, Josh Berkus wrote:
> > > pg_stop_backup() doesn't complete until all the WAL segments needed to
> > > restore from the backup are archived. If archive_command is failing,
> > > that never happens.
> > 
> > OK, so we need a way out of that cycle if the user is issuing
> > pg_stop_backup because they *already know* that archive_command is
> > failing.  Right now, there's no way out other than a fast shutdown,
> > which is a bit user-hostile.
> 
> Hmmm well... changing the archive_command to /bin/true and issuing a HUP
> would cause the command to succeed, but I still think that is over the
> top. I prefer Kevin's solution or some variant thereof:
> 
> http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2010-02/msg01853.php
> http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2010-02/msg01907.php

Postgres 9.0 will be the first release to mention /bin/true as a way of
turning off archiving in extraordinary circumstances:

	http://developer.postgresql.org/pgdocs/postgres/runtime-config-wal.html

-- 
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB                             http://enterprisedb.com
  PG East:  http://www.enterprisedb.com/community/nav-pg-east-2010.do
  + If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +