Fix data loss when restarting the bulk_write facility
authorHeikki Linnakangas <heikki.linnakangas@iki.fi>
Fri, 22 Nov 2024 14:28:24 +0000 (16:28 +0200)
committerHeikki Linnakangas <heikki.linnakangas@iki.fi>
Fri, 22 Nov 2024 14:28:24 +0000 (16:28 +0200)
commitee937f0409d5c75855861bf31f88eeb77623b411
treeaf4046227495427a8e29d9b3f094a20d05b87039
parentaac831cafa6f3106dfcbd3298757801c299351fc
Fix data loss when restarting the bulk_write facility

If a user started a bulk write operation on a fork with existing data
to append data in bulk, the bulk_write machinery would zero out all
previously written pages up to the last page written by the new
bulk_write operation.

This is not an issue for PostgreSQL itself, because we never use the
bulk_write facility on a non-empty fork. But there are use cases where
it makes sense. TimescaleDB extension is known to do that to merge
partitions, for example.

Backpatch to v17, where the bulk_write machinery was introduced.

Author: Matthias van de Meent <boekewurm+postgres@gmail.com>
Reported-By: Erik Nordström <erik@timescale.com>
Reviewed-by: Erik Nordström <erik@timescale.com>
Discussion: https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/CACAa4VJ%2BQY4pY7M0ECq29uGkrOygikYtao1UG9yCDFosxaps9g@mail.gmail.com
src/backend/storage/smgr/bulk_write.c