From: David Steele <david@pgmasters.net>
To: Don Seiler <don@seiler.us>
To: Pgsql-admin <pgsql-admin@lists.postgresql.org>
Subject: Re: OK to delete old .history files from archive?
Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2020 16:05:24 -0400
Message-ID: <8d7ed172-a84f-613d-9a1c-3c98b22993dd@pgmasters.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAHJZqBDLLeHk7=R9kdH0w+p16ujQ+EUf7TcX-2c82ks_n=9+YQ@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAHJZqBDLLeHk7=R9kdH0w+p16ujQ+EUf7TcX-2c82ks_n=9+YQ@mail.gmail.com>
Hi Don,
On 7/3/20 2:02 PM, Don Seiler wrote:
> TL;DR: Is it OK to delete .history files from WAL archive (wal-g/S3)
> that are older than the oldest full backup?
>
> Today we had restores fail complaining that they can't find timeline 21
> when they should only be on timeline 1. The logs show them recovering
> 12+ .history files from the WAL archives. Looking at the archives, these
> history files are all timestamped between last July and October. The
> restore is from a full backup taken last night.
>
> This happens to be the first restore after adding
> "recovery_target_timeline='latest'" to our recovery.conf template. So
> I'm guessing that PG just didn't bother with those old .history files
> before.
>
> I believe these old .history files were just not properly cleaned up
> from some exercises done last year on previous/other incarnations and
> are now just polluting the WAL archive. I don't see why I would need
> .history files that are nearly a year older than the backup I'm
> restoring from, but just want to confirm it is safe to blow them all away.
It should be fine to remove the history files as they do not refer to
any valid history in the WAL.
Of course, it would be best to keep a copy of them until you test your
restore again. Just in case.
Regards,
--
-David
david@pgmasters.net
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Reply to all the recipients using the --to and --cc options:
reply via email
To: pgsql-admin@postgresql.org
Cc: david@pgmasters.net, don@seiler.us, pgsql-admin@lists.postgresql.org
Subject: Re: OK to delete old .history files from archive?
In-Reply-To: <8d7ed172-a84f-613d-9a1c-3c98b22993dd@pgmasters.net>
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
This inbox is served by DDX for PostgreSQL; see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox