Re: last_archived_wal is not necessary the latest WAL file (was Re: pgsql: Add test case for an archive recovery corner case.)

Heikki Linnakangas <hlinnaka@iki.fi> writes:
> That was interesting: the order that WAL segments are archived when a 
> standby is promoted is not fully deterministic.

Oh, of course.

> I find it a bit surprising that pg_stat_archiver.last_archived_wal is 
> not necessarily the highest-numbered segment that was archived. I 
> propose that we mention that in the docs, as in the attached patch.

+1, but I think the description of that field in the pg-stat-archiver-view
table is also pretty misleading.  Maybe like

-      Name of the last WAL file successfully archived
+      Name of the WAL file most recently successfully archived

and similarly s/last/most recent/ for the other fields claiming
to be "last" something.

            regards, tom lane