From: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
To: pgsql-committers@lists.postgresql.org
Subject: pgsql: Remove state.tmp when failing to save a replication slot
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2025 00:25:29 +0000
Message-ID: <E1v70wr-000v3F-10@gemulon.postgresql.org> (raw)
Remove state.tmp when failing to save a replication slot
An error happening while a slot data is saved on disk in
SaveSlotToPath() could cause a state.tmp file (temporary file holding
the slot state data, renamed to its permanent name at the end of the
function) to remain around after it has been created. This temporary
file is created with O_EXCL, meaning that if an existing state.tmp is
found, its creation would fail. This would prevent the slot data to be
saved, requiring a manual intervention to remove state.tmp before being
able to save again a slot. Possible scenarios where this temporary file
could remain on disk is for example a ENOSPC case (no disk space) while
writing, syncing or renaming it. The bug reports point to a write
failure as the principal cause of the problems.
Using O_TRUNC has been argued back in 2019 as a potential solution to
discard any temporary file that could exist. This solution was rejected
as O_EXCL can also act as a safety measure when saving the slot state,
crash recovery offering cleanup guarantees post-crash. This commit uses
the alternative approach that has been suggested by Andres Freund back
in 2019. When the temporary state file cannot be written, synced,
closed or renamed (note: not when created!), an unlink() is used to
remove the temporary state file while holding the in-progress I/O
LWLock, so as any follow-up attempts to save a slot's data would not
choke on an existing file that remained around because of a previous
failure.
This problem has been reported a few times across the years, going back
to 2019, but for some reason I have never come back to do something
about it and it has been forgotten. A recent report has reminded me
that this was still a problem.
Reported-by: Kevin K Biju <kevinkbiju@gmail.com>
Reported-by: Sergei Kornilov <sk@zsrv.org>
Reported-by: Grigory Smolkin <g.smolkin@postgrespro.ru>
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/CAM45KeHa32soKL_G8Vk38CWvTBeOOXcsxAPAs7Jt7yPRf2mbVA@mail.gmail.com
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/3559061693910326@qy4q4a6esb2lebnz.sas.yp-c.yandex.net
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/08bbfab1-a61d-3750-fc18-4ab2c1aa7f09@postgrespro.ru
Backpatch-through: 13
Branch
------
REL_18_STABLE
Details
-------
https://git.postgresql.org/pg/commitdiff/9a6ea00ac8c09fc73a8f725517ad7aea7664b1bc
Modified Files
--------------
src/backend/replication/slot.c | 7 +++++++
1 file changed, 7 insertions(+)
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To: pgsql-committers@postgresql.org
Cc: michael@paquier.xyz, pgsql-committers@lists.postgresql.org
Subject: Re: pgsql: Remove state.tmp when failing to save a replication slot
In-Reply-To: <E1v70wr-000v3F-10@gemulon.postgresql.org>
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