Message-ID: <399f53cd1274345d0301dd7ecf016ae749e87abe.camel@cybertec.at>
Subject: Re: Archive logging not cleaning up pg_wal directory
From: Laurenz Albe <laurenz.albe@cybertec.at>
To: Justin Swanhart <greenlion@gmail.com>, pgsql-general@lists.postgresql.org
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2025 14:48:00 +0200
In-Reply-To: <CAJM9iN3w3UdA3q4_Xnw+Pg+Nnxe4OAUjLQ7EgLtPe36y4A0HDA@mail.gmail.com>
References: 
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On Thu, 2025-04-10 at 08:28 -0400, Justin Swanhart wrote:
> I have the following in my postgresql.conf for archive logging:
> archive_command=3D'test ! -f /var/lib/postgresql/prod_archive_logs/%f && =
cp %p /var/lib/postgresql/prod_archive_logs/%f'
>=20
> This command is properly copying the log files to my archive directory bu=
t they remain in the `pg_wal`
> directory after they are copied, consuming hundreds of gigs of space.=C2=
=A0 Am I supposed to create a cron
> job to clean out the `pg_wal` directory periodically (keep only 1 day of =
logs I guess?)
>=20
> I tried to use mv:
> archive_command=3D'test ! -f /var/lib/postgresql/prod_archive_logs/%f && =
mv %p /var/lib/postgresql/prod_archive_logs/%f'
>=20
> When I did this the archives were moved away to the archive directory but=
 when I tried to set up
> replication the server could not find the=C2=A0archived log to replicate =
from so I changed it to "cp" and now have this problem.
>=20
> What am I missing?

Something else is blocking WAL removal:
https://www.cybertec-postgresql.com/en/why-does-my-pg_wal-keep-growing/

Since you mention replication, my money is on a stale replication slot.

Yours,
Laurenz Albe