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2 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>19.14. Error Handling</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css" /><link rev="made" href="pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org" /><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets Vsnapshot" /><link rel="prev" href="runtime-config-compatible.html" title="19.13. Version and Platform Compatibility" /><link rel="next" href="runtime-config-preset.html" title="19.15. Preset Options" /></head><body id="docContent" class="container-fluid col-10"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="5" align="center">19.14. Error Handling</th></tr><tr><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="runtime-config-compatible.html" title="19.13. Version and Platform Compatibility">Prev</a> </td><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="u" href="runtime-config.html" title="Chapter 19. Server Configuration">Up</a></td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 19. Server Configuration</th><td width="10%" align="right"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 18.0 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="10%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="runtime-config-preset.html" title="19.15. Preset Options">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr /></div><div class="sect1" id="RUNTIME-CONFIG-ERROR-HANDLING"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">19.14. Error Handling <a href="#RUNTIME-CONFIG-ERROR-HANDLING" class="id_link">#</a></h2></div></div></div><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt id="GUC-EXIT-ON-ERROR"><span class="term"><code class="varname">exit_on_error</code> (<code class="type">boolean</code>)
3 <a id="id-1.6.6.17.2.1.1.3" class="indexterm"></a>
4 </span> <a href="#GUC-EXIT-ON-ERROR" class="id_link">#</a></dt><dd><p>
5 If on, any error will terminate the current session. By default,
6 this is set to off, so that only FATAL errors will terminate the
8 </p></dd><dt id="GUC-RESTART-AFTER-CRASH"><span class="term"><code class="varname">restart_after_crash</code> (<code class="type">boolean</code>)
9 <a id="id-1.6.6.17.2.2.1.3" class="indexterm"></a>
10 </span> <a href="#GUC-RESTART-AFTER-CRASH" class="id_link">#</a></dt><dd><p>
11 When set to on, which is the default, <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span>
12 will automatically reinitialize after a backend crash. Leaving this
13 value set to on is normally the best way to maximize the availability
14 of the database. However, in some circumstances, such as when
15 <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> is being invoked by clusterware, it may be
16 useful to disable the restart so that the clusterware can gain
17 control and take any actions it deems appropriate.
19 This parameter can only be set in the <code class="filename">postgresql.conf</code>
20 file or on the server command line.
21 </p></dd><dt id="GUC-DATA-SYNC-RETRY"><span class="term"><code class="varname">data_sync_retry</code> (<code class="type">boolean</code>)
22 <a id="id-1.6.6.17.2.3.1.3" class="indexterm"></a>
23 </span> <a href="#GUC-DATA-SYNC-RETRY" class="id_link">#</a></dt><dd><p>
24 When set to off, which is the default, <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span>
25 will raise a PANIC-level error on failure to flush modified data files
26 to the file system. This causes the database server to crash. This
27 parameter can only be set at server start.
29 On some operating systems, the status of data in the kernel's page
30 cache is unknown after a write-back failure. In some cases it might
31 have been entirely forgotten, making it unsafe to retry; the second
32 attempt may be reported as successful, when in fact the data has been
33 lost. In these circumstances, the only way to avoid data loss is to
34 recover from the WAL after any failure is reported, preferably
35 after investigating the root cause of the failure and replacing any
38 If set to on, <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> will instead
39 report an error but continue to run so that the data flushing
40 operation can be retried in a later checkpoint. Only set it to on
41 after investigating the operating system's treatment of buffered data
42 in case of write-back failure.
43 </p></dd><dt id="GUC-RECOVERY-INIT-SYNC-METHOD"><span class="term"><code class="varname">recovery_init_sync_method</code> (<code class="type">enum</code>)
44 <a id="id-1.6.6.17.2.4.1.3" class="indexterm"></a>
45 </span> <a href="#GUC-RECOVERY-INIT-SYNC-METHOD" class="id_link">#</a></dt><dd><p>
46 When set to <code class="literal">fsync</code>, which is the default,
47 <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> will recursively open and
48 synchronize all files in the data directory before crash recovery
49 begins. The search for files will follow symbolic links for the WAL
50 directory and each configured tablespace (but not any other symbolic
51 links). This is intended to make sure that all WAL and data files are
52 durably stored on disk before replaying changes. This applies whenever
53 starting a database cluster that did not shut down cleanly, including
54 copies created with <span class="application">pg_basebackup</span>.
56 On Linux, <code class="literal">syncfs</code> may be used instead, to ask the
57 operating system to synchronize the file systems that contain the
58 data directory, the WAL files and each tablespace (but not any other
59 file systems that may be reachable through symbolic links). This may
60 be a lot faster than the <code class="literal">fsync</code> setting, because it
61 doesn't need to open each file one by one. On the other hand, it may
62 be slower if a file system is shared by other applications that
63 modify a lot of files, since those files will also be written to disk.
64 Furthermore, on versions of Linux before 5.8, I/O errors encountered
65 while writing data to disk may not be reported to
66 <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span>, and relevant error messages may
67 appear only in kernel logs.
69 This parameter can only be set in the
70 <code class="filename">postgresql.conf</code> file or on the server command line.
71 </p></dd></dl></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="runtime-config-compatible.html" title="19.13. Version and Platform Compatibility">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="runtime-config.html" title="Chapter 19. Server Configuration">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="runtime-config-preset.html" title="19.15. Preset Options">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">19.13. Version and Platform Compatibility </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 18.0 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> 19.15. Preset Options</td></tr></table></div></body></html>