Re: WAL archiving disaster

Mike Atkin <mike.atkin@gmail.com> writes:
> So... normally this would be curtains for the database but the missing
> segment is from a 4 hour period of practically zero activity.  It was
> only archived because it hit the archive_timeout.  Is there any way I
> can force postgres to ignore this segment and attempt to redo the rest
> of the logs.  I realise this may leave the database terminally
> inconsistent but my focus is on retrieving as much of the data as
> possible for re-entry rather than getting a functional system out the
> other end.

If you're willing to assume there were no updates in that interval,
you could try generating a dummy WAL segment having the correct page
headers and no contents except an XLOG_SWITCH record.  I don't know
of any handy tools for that unfortunately.

            regards, tom lane