Re: BUG #19647: Difference in pg_basebackup behaviour between PostgreSQL <= 16 and >= 17 with pgactive extension

Hi Jacob,

Yes, the 18.6 and 17.11 global/ directory contains this file as well.

Doing a pg_checksums on the data directory gives exactly the same result
as for the PostgreSQL 16.15, 15.19 and 14.24:

pg_checksums -c /var/pgpure/postgres/18/cluster2/
pg_checksums: error: invalid segment number 0 in file name
"/var/pgpure/postgres/18/cluster2//global/pgactive.stat"

The file pgactive.stat is placed in the globals directory when the
database server is stopped / started after installation of the extension
and setup of the replication group. I think it is used for internal
bookkeeping for replication statussen with the other node(s) in the
replication group when the node is shutdown.

Because of the difference in behaviour of pg_basebackup what dazzled me,
it made me decide to create the issue in the pgql-bugs mailing list.
Please let me know if it is not PostgreSQL related and if it should be
created in github at AWS/pgactive

Kind regards,
Edwin

On 9/2/26 20:51, Jacob Champion wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 1, 2026 at 6:16 AM PG Bug reporting form
> <noreply(at)postgresql(dot)org> wrote:
>> For PostgreSQL 18.6 and 17.11 the backup completes without any problems.
> Do the global/ directories for the 17 and 18 clusters contain a
> pgactive.stat file?
>
> Without knowing anything about pgactive in particular (it's a
> third-party extension)... It sure looks like that extension, or else
> something related to it, has put a random file into the DB internals
> in a way that won't pass our checksum verification. It needs to go
> somewhere else.
>
> --Jacob
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