Re: We really ought to do something about O_DIRECT and data=journalled on ext4

Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net>

From: Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net>
To: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Cc: Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com>, PostgreSQL-development <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>
Date: 2010-12-01T03:25:22Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers

On 11/30/2010 10:09 PM, Tom Lane wrote:
> Josh Berkus<josh@agliodbs.com>  writes:
>> Apparently, testing for O_DIRECT at compile time isn't adequate.  Ideas?
> We should wait for the outcome of the discussion about whether to change
> the default wal_sync_method before worrying about this.
>
> 			

Tom,

we've just had a significant PGX customer encounter this with the latest 
Postgres on Redhat's freshly released flagship product. Presumably the 
default wal_sync_method will only change prospectively. But this will 
feel to every user out there who encounters it like a bug in our code, 
and it needs attention. It was darn difficult to diagnose, and many 
people will just give up in disgust if they encounter it.

cheers

andrew