Thread

1. can disks be read only?

   mikeo <mikeo@spectrumtelecorp.com> — 2000-07-25T18:10:49Z

   hi, 
     we wish to have a database that is history so we 
   want to make the disks read only after loading.  
   would this cause any problems with POSTGRES?  it's on 
   a linux 6.2 box with POSTGRES 7.0.2.  what we're 
   looking for here is that if the system crashes we 
   can do a fast boot and not have the system do an FSCK.
   
   one company bought another and we're going to warehouse
   the purchased company's data for reference.  they'll be
   no additions to it once loaded.  
   
   
   thanks,
      mikeo
   
   

2. Re: can disks be read only?

   Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> — 2000-07-25T21:43:24Z

   mikeo <mikeo@spectrumtelecorp.com> writes:
   >   we wish to have a database that is history so we 
   > want to make the disks read only after loading.  
   > would this cause any problems with POSTGRES?
   
   In theory you could do it given that you vacuum the tables
   before locking down the files.  (The vacuum is needed to
   ensure that on-row commit status bits are up to date.)
   
   In practice you'd likely have problems with the minor detail
   that md.c opens everything with O_RDWR privilege requests.
   You could probably do a quick hack to try O_RDONLY if
   O_RDWR fails...
   
   			regards, tom lane
   
   

3. Re: can disks be read only?

   Thomas Lockhart <lockhart@alumni.caltech.edu> — 2000-07-26T04:52:26Z

   > >   we wish to have a database that is history so we
   > > want to make the disks read only after loading.
   > > would this cause any problems with POSTGRES?
   
   You mentioned Linux: try using one of the logging file systems like
   reiserfs, which will reduce or eliminate the time now spent in fsck
   during boot.
   
                       - Thomas