Re: BUG: Infinite syslog() loop

From: Erik Walthinsen <omega(at)temple-baptist(dot)com>
To: Oliver Elphick <olly(at)lfix(dot)co(dot)uk>
Cc: pgsql-bugs(at)postgresql(dot)org, mikeg(at)pdxcolo(dot)net
Subject: Re: BUG: Infinite syslog() loop
Date: 2003-04-25 22:27:23
Message-ID: Pine.LNX.4.53L0.0304251521070.13905@alpha.temple-baptist.com
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On Fri, 25 Apr 2003, Oliver Elphick wrote:

> > I woke up this morning to a filled root partition on one of my servers.
> > I found that both debug and syslog were filled with over 50MB each of
> > postgres errors:
> Change your syslog configuration to throw away debug messages from
> postgres (user0)

Um, NO.

I will not configure my system to throw away logging data that's required
to keep track of normal system operations, because there's a bug causing
infinite looping.

This 'solution' in no way solves the problem, which in actuality has very
little to do with syslog and everything to do with the fact that
postgresql managed to get into an infinite loop. Infinite loops typically
cause the process to eat up all available processing time, hence the
ability to write nearly half a million log messages in just over 16
minutes. My server has better things to do.

Throwing away the log messages is equivalent to sticking your fingers in
your ears to hide from a nuclear air-burst.

I still welcome any advice that will help me track down the cause of this
bug and get it fixed.

Erik Walthinsen <omega(at)temple-baptist(dot)com> - System Administrator
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