Contents

ignore_invalid_pages

A configuration parameter determining whether to ignore WAL records referencing invalid pages during recovery

ignore_invalid_pages is a configuration parameter determining whether to ignore WAL records referencing invalid pages during recovery or standby mode.

ignore_invalid_pages was added in PostgreSQL 13 (commit 41c184bc)

Purpose

Normally, detection of WAL records with references to invalid pages during recovery will cause PostgreSQL to abort recovery with a PANIC error.

Setting ignore_invalid_pages to on will cause PostgreSQL to ignore these invalid pages and continue with recovery. While this will still most likely leave the database in a bad state (with attendant risk of crashes. data loss and/or further data corruption), it will enable PostgreSQL to start up so that further actions such as data recovery can be carried out.

Default

Default value for ignore_invalid_pages is: off.

Applying changes

Changes to ignore_invalid_pages can only be applied by restarting PostgreSQL.

Details

PostgreSQL 13

postgres=# SELECT * FROM pg_settings WHERE name='ignore_invalid_pages';
-[ RECORD 1 ]---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
name            | ignore_invalid_pages
setting         | off
unit            |
category        | Developer Options
short_desc      | Continues recovery after an invalid pages failure.
extra_desc      | Detection of WAL records having references to invalid pages during
                | recovery causes PostgreSQL to raise a PANIC-level error, aborting the
                | recovery. Setting ignore_invalid_pages to true causes the system to
                | ignore invalid page references in WAL records (but still report a
                | warning), and continue recovery. This behavior may cause crashes, data
                | loss, propagate or hide corruption, or other serious problems. Only
                | has an effect during recovery or in standby mode.
context         | postmaster
vartype         | bool
source          | default
min_val         |
max_val         |
enumvals        |
boot_val        | off
reset_val       | off
sourcefile      |
sourceline      |
pending_restart | f

Categories

Dangerous thing, Data consistency and forensics, GUC configuration item, WAL

See also

ignore_checksum_failure, ignore_system_indexes