pgsql: Force default wal_sync_method to be fdatasync on Linux.

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: pgsql-committers(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: pgsql: Force default wal_sync_method to be fdatasync on Linux.
Date: 2010-12-09 01:02:29
Message-ID: E1PQUtx-0006yG-HL@gemulon.postgresql.org
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Force default wal_sync_method to be fdatasync on Linux.

Recent versions of the Linux system header files cause xlogdefs.h to
believe that open_datasync should be the default sync method, whereas
formerly fdatasync was the default on Linux. open_datasync is a bad
choice, first because it doesn't actually outperform fdatasync (in fact
the reverse), and second because we try to use O_DIRECT with it, causing
failures on certain filesystems (e.g., ext4 with data=journal option).
This part of the patch is largely per a proposal from Marti Raudsepp.
More extensive changes are likely to follow in HEAD, but this is as much
change as we want to back-patch.

Also clean up confusing code and incorrect documentation surrounding the
fsync_writethrough option. Those changes shouldn't result in any actual
behavioral change, but I chose to back-patch them anyway to keep the
branches looking similar in this area.

In 9.0 and HEAD, also do some copy-editing on the WAL Reliability
documentation section.

Back-patch to all supported branches, since any of them might get used
on modern Linux versions.

Branch
------
REL8_4_STABLE

Details
-------
http://git.postgresql.org/gitweb?p=postgresql.git;a=commitdiff;h=f3224e010dbd372a5411c5ddf0aae27f35007b65

Modified Files
--------------
doc/src/sgml/config.sgml | 11 +++++------
src/backend/storage/file/fd.c | 9 +++++----
src/backend/utils/misc/postgresql.conf.sample | 2 +-
src/include/access/xlogdefs.h | 6 +++---
src/include/port/linux.h | 8 ++++++++
src/include/port/win32.h | 14 +++++++++-----
6 files changed, 31 insertions(+), 19 deletions(-)

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