The scenario: 1. There is a postgresql 17 server running 2. Restore dump with `--single-transaction` flag 3. For whatever reason the server goes away (eg: we kill the process) 4. Now `base` directory is filled with abandoned table files which postgresql know nothing about
Playground: Terminal 1: Start server: `docker run --rm -it -e POSTGRES_HOST_AUTH_METHOD=trust -v $PWD/postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data postgres:17.2` Terminal 2: 1. Start container with recent pg_restore: `docker run --rm -it -v $PWD:/app -w /app postgres:17.2 bash` 2. Start dump recovery: `pg_restore -h 172.17.0.2 -U postgres -d postgres --single-transaction -v -Fc --no-owner dump.sql` Terminal 3: 1. Find what container is the server: `docker ps` 2. Kill it: `docker kill d7ecf6e66c1d` Terminal 1: Start the server again, with the same command Terminal 3: Check there are abandoned large files: ``` # ls -la /home/ivan/postgres/base/5 <truncated> -rw------- 1 systemd-coredump systemd-coredump 342884352 Dec 17 18:58 16399 -rw------- 1 systemd-coredump systemd-coredump 11149312 Dec 17 18:58 16404 -rw------- 1 systemd-coredump systemd-coredump 188416 Dec 17 18:58 16403_fsm -rw------- 1 systemd-coredump systemd-coredump 686145536 Dec 17 18:58 16403 ``` Terminal 2: 1. Confirm those OIDs are not accounted: ``` psql -h 172.17.0.2 -U postgres -c 'select * from pg_class'|grep 16404 psql -h 172.17.0.2 -U postgres -c 'select * from pg_class'|grep 16403 psql -h 172.17.0.2 -U postgres -c 'select * from pg_class'|grep 16399 ``` Hence a question: am I doing something wrong? Is it expected behaviour? If so - how would one recover from this scenario now WITHOUT dropping entire database? -- With best regards, Ivan Kurnosov
