-<!-- $PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/config.sgml,v 1.94 2006/11/05 22:42:07 tgl Exp $ -->
+<!-- $PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/config.sgml,v 1.95 2006/11/12 05:12:42 neilc Exp $ -->
<chapter Id="runtime-config">
<title>Server Configuration</title>
</indexterm>
<listitem>
<para>
- The <xref linkend="guc-archive-command"> is only invoked on completed
- WAL segments. Hence,
- if your server generates only little WAL traffic (or has slack periods
- where it does so), there could be a long delay between the completion
- of a transaction and its safe recording in archive storage. To put
- a limit on how old unarchived data can be, you can set
- <varname>archive_timeout</> to force the server to switch
- to a new WAL segment file periodically. When this parameter is
- greater than zero, the server will switch to a new segment file
- whenever this many seconds elapse since the last segment file switch.
- Note that archived
- files that are closed early due to a forced switch are still the same
- length as completely full files. It is therefore unwise to set a very
- short <varname>archive_timeout</> — it will bloat your archive
+ The <xref linkend="guc-archive-command"> is only invoked on
+ completed WAL segments. Hence, if your server generates little WAL
+ traffic (or has slack periods where it does so), there could be a
+ long delay between the completion of a transaction and its safe
+ recording in archive storage. To put a limit on how old unarchived
+ data can be, you can set <varname>archive_timeout</> to force the
+ server to switch to a new WAL segment file periodically. When this
+ parameter is greater than zero, the server will switch to a new
+ segment file whenever this many seconds have elapsed since the last
+ segment file switch. Note that archived files that are closed early
+ due to a forced switch are still the same length as completely full
+ files. Therefore, it is unwise to use a very short
+ <varname>archive_timeout</> — it will bloat your archive
storage. <varname>archive_timeout</> settings of a minute or so are
- usually reasonable.
- This parameter can only be set in the <filename>postgresql.conf</>
- file or on the server command line.
+ usually reasonable. This parameter can only be set in the
+ <filename>postgresql.conf</> file or on the server command line.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>