oliverdain commented on a change in pull request #252: Suggested edit to make clear what a quorum actually represents. URL: https://github.com/apache/couchdb-documentation/pull/252#discussion_r171647462
########## File path: src/cluster/theory.rst ########## @@ -34,10 +34,17 @@ thereby override the defaults in ``default.ini``. The number of copies of a document with the same revision that have to be read before CouchDB returns with a ``200`` is equal to a half of total copies of -the document plus one. It is the same for the number of nodes that need to -save a document before a write is returned with ``201``. If there are less -nodes than that number, then ``202`` is returned. Both read and write numbers -can be specified with a request as ``r`` and ``w`` parameters accordingly. +the document plus one *in the current partition*. That is, if there is a network +partition and, for example, only 1 out of 3 nodes is available you can still +get a ``200`` response but the data will not have come from a true quorum and +might be stale. + +The number of nodes that need to save a document before a write is returned with +``201`` is also equal to half of the total copies of the document plus one. +However, unlike the read case, for writes this is computed for the database as a +whole, even if there is a network partition. If there are less nodes than that Review comment: Will fix. ---------------------------------------------------------------- This is an automated message from the Apache Git Service. To respond to the message, please log on GitHub and use the URL above to go to the specific comment. For queries about this service, please contact Infrastructure at: [email protected] With regards, Apache Git Services
