Chapter 67. Generic WAL Records

Although all built-in WAL-logged modules have their own types of WAL records, there is also a generic WAL record type, which describes changes to pages in a generic way. This is useful for extensions that provide custom access methods.

In comparison with Custom WAL Resource Managers, Generic WAL is simpler for an extension to implement and does not require the extension library to be loaded in order to apply the records.

Note

Generic WAL records are ignored during Logical Decoding. If logical decoding is required for your extension, consider a Custom WAL Resource Manager.

The API for constructing generic WAL records is defined in access/generic_xlog.h and implemented in access/transam/generic_xlog.c.

To perform a WAL-logged data update using the generic WAL record facility, follow these steps:

  1. state = GenericXLogStart(relation) — start construction of a generic WAL record for the given relation.

  2. page = GenericXLogRegisterBuffer(state, buffer, flags) — register a buffer to be modified within the current generic WAL record. This function returns a pointer to a temporary copy of the buffer's page, where modifications should be made. (Do not modify the buffer's contents directly.) The third argument is a bit mask of flags applicable to the operation. Currently the only such flag is GENERIC_XLOG_FULL_IMAGE, which indicates that a full-page image rather than a delta update should be included in the WAL record. Typically this flag would be set if the page is new or has been rewritten completely. GenericXLogRegisterBuffer can be repeated if the WAL-logged action needs to modify multiple pages.

  3. Apply modifications to the page images obtained in the previous step.

  4. GenericXLogFinish(state) — apply the changes to the buffers and emit the generic WAL record.

WAL record construction can be canceled between any of the above steps by calling GenericXLogAbort(state). This will discard all changes to the page image copies.

Please note the following points when using the generic WAL record facility: