Thread

1. How to destroy your entire Postgres installation

   Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> — 1998-09-25T22:18:12Z

   It's easy: just destroydb one database that has active backends
   still running in it.  Then stand back and watch the carnage.
   (Hint: back up all your *other* databases first, because you'll
   be lucky if you can still access them.)
   
   There really, really needs to be an interlock to prevent this mistake
   :-(
   
   			regards, tom lane
   
   

2. Re: [HACKERS] How to destroy your entire Postgres installation

   Nick Bastin <nbastin@rbbsystems.com> — 1998-09-26T01:07:43Z

   Tom Lane wrote:
   > 
   > It's easy: just destroydb one database that has active backends
   > still running in it.  Then stand back and watch the carnage.
   > (Hint: back up all your *other* databases first, because you'll
   > be lucky if you can still access them.)
   
   So just for fun I tried this.. ;-)  I did a destroydb on a database with 2
   active backends and only 90 megs of data, and it managed to munge through the
   other running database, which is fast approaching 2 gigs, in short order.  The
   first time I did it, I was able to rescue the second database just using the
   audit trails that I'd built into it, but the second time it completely trashed
   it.  Now I'm no programming neophyte, but can somebody explain to me why this
   happened?  What exactly is destroydb doing, or am I missing something obvious here?
   
   --
   Nick Bastin
   RBB Systems, Inc.