Re: [HACKERS] Undetected corruption of table files

From: Alban Hertroys <alban(at)magproductions(dot)nl>
To: "Jonah H(dot) Harris" <jonah(dot)harris(at)gmail(dot)com>
Cc: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>, Albe Laurenz <all(at)adv(dot)magwien(dot)gv(dot)at>, pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org, pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: [HACKERS] Undetected corruption of table files
Date: 2007-08-27 15:58:24
Message-ID: 46D2F4A0.3050708@magproductions.nl
Views: Raw Message | Whole Thread | Download mbox | Resend email
Thread:
Lists: pgsql-general pgsql-hackers

Jonah H. Harris wrote:
> On 8/27/07, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
>> that and the lack of evidence that they'd actually gain anything
>
> I find it somewhat ironic that PostgreSQL strives to be fairly
> non-corruptable, yet has no way to detect a corrupted page. The only
> reason for not having CRCs is because it will slow down performance...
> which is exactly opposite of conventional PostgreSQL wisdom (no
> performance trade-off for durability).

Why? I can't say I speak for the developers, but I think the reason is
that data corruption can (with the very rare exception of undetected
programming errors) only be caused by hardware problems.

If you have a "proper" production database server, your memory has error
checking, and your RAID controller has something of the kind as well. If
not you would probably be running the database on a filesystem that has
reliable integrity verification mechanisms.

In the worst case (all the above mechanisms fail), you have backups.

IMHO the problem is covered quite adequately. The operating system and
the hardware cover for the database, as they should; it's _their_ job.

--
Alban Hertroys
alban(at)magproductions(dot)nl

magproductions b.v.

T: ++31(0)534346874
F: ++31(0)534346876
M:
I: www.magproductions.nl
A: Postbus 416
7500 AK Enschede

// Integrate Your World //

In response to

Responses

Browse pgsql-general by date

  From Date Subject
Next Message Tom Lane 2007-08-27 16:00:34 Re: [HACKERS] Undetected corruption of table files
Previous Message Gregory Stark 2007-08-27 15:50:06 Re: Undetected corruption of table files

Browse pgsql-hackers by date

  From Date Subject
Next Message Tom Lane 2007-08-27 16:00:34 Re: [HACKERS] Undetected corruption of table files
Previous Message Gregory Stark 2007-08-27 15:50:06 Re: Undetected corruption of table files