"Joshua D. Drake" <jd@commandprompt.com> wrote:
> The answer to this is:
>
> PostgreSQL.org recommends that this setting be left on at all
> times. Turning it off, may lead to data corruption.
>
> Anything else is circumstantial and based on knowledge and facts
> we don't have about environmental factors.
Perhaps Josh's language for fsync could be modified to work here
(we're now talking about full_page_writes, for anyone who's lost
track):
| it is only advisable to turn off fsync if you can easily recreate
| your entire database from external data.
That covers bulk loads to an empty or just-backed-up database and
entirely redundant databases. Saying it should never be turned off
would tend to make one wonder why we have the setting at all.
-Kevin