postgres.git / summary / log / commit / refs

commit    d94d0a8c83715cb403267f0c89068781b706ddff
Author:   Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>
Date:     Tue Oct 19 15:49:53 2010 +0000
First released in: 9.1.0, 8.3.13, 8.4.6, 9.0.2

    Add mention of using tools/fsync to test fsync methods. Restructure
    recent wal_sync_method doc paragraph to be clearer.


doc/src/sgml/config.sgml | 14 ++++++++------ doc/src/sgml/wal.sgml | 12 +++++++----- 2 files changed, 15 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-) diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/config.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/config.sgml index 76af829d2d7..3aa74870f88 100644 --- a/doc/src/sgml/config.sgml +++ b/doc/src/sgml/config.sgml @@ -1458,13 +1458,15 @@ SET ENABLE_SEQSCAN TO OFF; </itemizedlist> <para> Not all of these choices are available on all platforms. - The default is the first method in the above list that is supported - by the platform. The default is not necessarily best; it may be - necessary to change this setting, or other aspects of your system - configuration, in order to create a crash-safe configuration, as - discussed in <xref linkend="wal-reliability">, or to achieve best - performance. The <literal>open_</>* options also use <literal>O_DIRECT</> if available. + The default is the first method in the above list that is supported + by the platform. + The default is the first method in the above list that is supported + by the platform. The default is not necessarily ideal; it might be + necessary to change this setting or other aspects of your system + configuration in order to create a crash-safe configuration or + achieve optimal performance. + These aspects are discussed in <xref linkend="wal-reliability">. This parameter can only be set in the <filename>postgresql.conf</> file or on the server command line. </para> diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/wal.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/wal.sgml index 36545e4e1a5..f3ee6bb7a7b 100644 --- a/doc/src/sgml/wal.sgml +++ b/doc/src/sgml/wal.sgml @@ -482,11 +482,13 @@ <para> The <xref linkend="guc-wal-sync-method"> parameter determines how <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> will ask the kernel to force - <acronym>WAL</acronym> updates out to disk. - With the exception of <literal>fsync_writethrough</>, which can sometimes - force a flush of the disk cache even when other options do not do so, - all the options should be the same in terms of reliability. - However, it's quite platform-specific which one will be the fastest. + <acronym>WAL</acronym> updates out to disk. + All the options should be the same in terms of reliability, with + the exception of <literal>fsync_writethrough</>, which can sometimes + force a flush of the disk cache even when other options do not do so. + However, it's quite platform-specific which one will be the fastest; + you can test option speeds using the utility <filename>src/tools/fsync</> + in the PostgreSQL source tree. Note that this parameter is irrelevant if <varname>fsync</varname> has been turned off. </para> [parent: e6e906aee30b]