Re: .history': No such file or directory - a symptom of ?

On 10/08/2023 17:41, Stephen Frost wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> * lejeczek (peljasz@yahoo.co.uk) wrote:
>> What is that - as per subject - a symptom of exactly?
> Arguably, a poor restore command being used ...
>
> PostgreSQL will request .history files when doing recovery and will keep
> requesting them, by default, until it finds that one isn't there- it
> will then target the last timeline that it found to perform replay to
> (target timeline = latest).  We do also look for .history files when
> going through the promotion process and similarily will keep checking
> for timeline files until we don't find one and then that's the timeline
> we will move to for the promotion and we'll then immediately push a new
> .history file into the archive to 'claim' that timeline.
>
> Basically, it's not an error and it's entirely intentional that it works
> that way and your restore command probably shouldn't be complaining
> about it really (and that's where the actual 'No such file or directory'
> bit is coming from- not from PG itself).
>
>> I get that there was an issue, but with more details explained. Perhaps
>> there are docs which explain that?
> Much more likely that there wasn't actually any issue...
>
>> When it happens I take slave down and do _pg_basebackup_ off the master -
>> but is there a more "civilized" way to "push" the slave back in sync, maybe
>> without taking slave off-line?
> Not following this bit at all.  There being a message about PG not
> finding a .history file during restore or promotion isn't actually an
> indication of anything having gone wrong or that the replica is out of
> sync.  In other words, I don't know that you needed to actually do
> anything.  Is there some reason you think you did need to do something
> beside that message being in the log..?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Stephen
Perhaps there is not an actual, real issue with 
synchronization, however the logs make me - I'd imagine 
anybody who is a novice like me - uncomfortable.
These logs, the errors never quiet down - I've been waiting 
a few days.

from master:
....
2023-08-11 10:12:18.908 CEST [776006] STATEMENT:  
START_REPLICATION 0/4E000000 TIMELINE 1
2023-08-11 10:12:23.909 CEST [777443] ERROR:  requested WAL 
segment 00000001000000000000004E has already been removed
2023-08-11 10:12:23.909 CEST [777443] STATEMENT:  
START_REPLICATION 0/4E000000 TIMELINE 1
2023-08-11 10:12:28.911 CEST [778491] ERROR:  requested WAL 
segment 00000001000000000000004E has already been removed
2023-08-11 10:12:28.911 CEST [778491] STATEMENT:  
START_REPLICATION 0/4E000000 TIMELINE 1
...

from slave:
...
cp: cannot stat 
'/var/lib/pgsql/pg_archive/00000002.history': No such file 
or directory
2023-08-11 10:12:38.919 CEST [773947] LOG:  waiting for WAL 
to become available at 0/4E002000
cp: cannot stat 
'/var/lib/pgsql/pg_archive/00000001000000000000004E': No 
such file or directory
2023-08-11 10:12:43.916 CEST [1050527] LOG:  started 
streaming WAL from primary at 0/4E000000 on timeline 1
2023-08-11 10:12:43.916 CEST [1050527] FATAL:  could not 
receive data from WAL stream: ERROR:  requested WAL segment 
00000001000000000000004E has already been removed
cp: cannot stat 
'/var/lib/pgsql/pg_archive/00000002.history': No such file 
or directory
2023-08-11 10:12:43.918 CEST [773947] LOG:  waiting for WAL 
to become available at 0/4E002000
cp: cannot stat 
'/var/lib/pgsql/pg_archive/00000001000000000000004E': No 
such file or directory
2023-08-11 10:12:48.920 CEST [1051003] LOG:  started 
streaming WAL from primary at 0/4E000000 on timeline 1
2023-08-11 10:12:48.920 CEST [1051003] FATAL:  could not 
receive data from WAL stream: ERROR:  requested WAL segment 
00000001000000000000004E has already been removed
cp: cannot stat 
'/var/lib/pgsql/pg_archive/00000002.history': No such file 
or directory
2023-08-11 10:12:48.923 CEST [773947] LOG:  waiting for WAL 
to become available at 0/4E002000
...

So, seeing logs flooded that way.... I don't like it (even 
if I could be sure everything is in sync) particularly for 
master shows:

-> $ sudo -u postgres psql --port=5432 -x -c 'select 
client_addr,sync_state from pg_stat_replication;'
could not change directory to "/root": Permission denied
(0 rows)

so I do 'pg_basebackup' then.

many thanks, L.