Re: data_checksums enabled by default (was: Move --data-checksums to common options in initdb --help)

Peter Geoghegan <pg@bowt.ie>

From: Peter Geoghegan <pg@bowt.ie>
To: Stephen Frost <sfrost@snowman.net>
Cc: Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>, Michael Banck <michael.banck@credativ.de>, Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>, PostgreSQL Development <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>
Date: 2021-01-06T20:16:21Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
On Wed, Jan 6, 2021 at 12:03 PM Stephen Frost <sfrost@snowman.net> wrote:
> Do you really believe it to be wrong?  Do we stop performing the correct
> write calls in the correct order to the kernel with fsync being off?  If
> the kernel actually handles all of our write calls correctly and we
> cleanly shut down and the kernel cleanly shuts down and sync's the disks
> before a reboot, will there be corruption from running with fsync off?

This is a total straw man. Everyone understands the technical issues
with fsync perfectly well, and everyone understands that everyone
understands the issue, so spare me the "I'm just a humble country
lawyer" style explanation.

What you seem to be arguing is that the differences between disabling
checksums and disabling fsync is basically quantitative, and so making
a qualitative distinction between those two things is meaningless, and
that it logically follows that disagreeing with you is essentially
irresponsible. This is a tactic that would be an embarrassment to a
high school debate team. It's below you.

Your argument may be logically consistent, but it's still nonsense.

-- 
Peter Geoghegan



Commits

  1. Promote --data-checksums to the common set of options in initdb --help