dubious improvement in new psql

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: pgsql-hackers(at)postgreSQL(dot)org
Subject: dubious improvement in new psql
Date: 1999-12-26 01:35:31
Message-ID: 14820.946172131@sss.pgh.pa.us
Views: Raw Message | Whole Thread | Download mbox | Resend email
Thread:
Lists: pgsql-hackers

The new psql automatically tries to reconnect if the backend disconnects
unexpectedly. This feature strikes me as ill-conceived; furthermore
it appears to be buggy.

It's ill-conceived because:
(1) under WAL, following a backend crash the postmaster is going to be
spending a few seconds reinitializing; an immediate reconnect attempt
is almost guaranteed to fail.
(2) if I'm running an SQL script, I think it's extremely foolhardy
to press on with executing the script as though nothing had happened.
A backend crash is not an event to be lightly ignored.

It's buggy because: it doesn't work reliably. While poking at the
backend's problems with oversize btree index entries, I saw psql claim
it had successfully reconnected, and then go into a catatonic state.
It wouldn't give me a new command prompt (not even with ^C), wouldn't
exit with ^D, and had to be killed from another shell window.

This behavior doesn't seem to happen for every crash, but I'm not
really interested in trying to debug it. I think the "feature"
ought to be ripped out.

regards, tom lane

Responses

Browse pgsql-hackers by date

  From Date Subject
Next Message Damond Walker 1999-12-26 15:10:41 Re: [HACKERS] database replication
Previous Message Kevin Lam 1999-12-26 01:22:28 question about MS Access connect to Postgresql 6.5.2-1