Re: Remove fsync ON/OFF as a visible option?

From: "David G(dot) Johnston" <david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com>
To: Florian Weimer <fw(at)deneb(dot)enyo(dot)de>
Cc: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>, Stephen Frost <sfrost(at)snowman(dot)net>, "Joshua D(dot) Drake" <jd(at)commandprompt(dot)com>, pgsql-hackers <pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: Remove fsync ON/OFF as a visible option?
Date: 2015-03-22 19:11:08
Message-ID: CAKFQuwZiEU6htXczO83DyxJqtagbekdZdW04VUM_6KfyO_g+wA@mail.gmail.com
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On Sunday, March 22, 2015, Florian Weimer <fw(at)deneb(dot)enyo(dot)de> wrote:

> * David G. Johnston:
>
> > "​enables or disables data durability ​promise of ACID." ?
>
> “fsync = on” only works if the storage stack doesn't do funny things.
> Depending on the system, it might not be sufficient.
>

Allows for (underlying storage not withstanding) or disables, then.

But that distinction is present no matter what so from the standpoint the
alternative is no worse and at least tells the user that a key promise of
RDBMS is being voluntarily waived if they disable this setting.

Given the existence of developer settings I would add this to that list.
People wanting specialized configurations where this would be disabled will
learn about it elsewhere, confirm its existence in the docs, and then add
it to their custom configuration. Those who do not learn elsewhere
probably shouldn't be changing it in the first place.

David J.

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