[ADMIN] What does a .1 suffix on a PG data file signify?

[David Schnur]

I'm investigating a 'could not stat file' error that points to a file
"base/16384/52212305.1". All the data files I've ever seen have names that
are whole numbers; I've never seen a decimal suffix. It occurs to me that
perhaps this is some kind of temp-file, or a system for avoiding duplicate
file names, both of which might be relevant in the context of this error.

Can anyone confirm what the presence of the .1 suffix means?

I'm using Postgres 8.3.15 on Windows.

Thanks,

David

[k***@rice.edu]

Post by David Schnur
I'm investigating a 'could not stat file' error that points to a file
"base/16384/52212305.1". All the data files I've ever seen have names that
are whole numbers; I've never seen a decimal suffix. It occurs to me that
perhaps this is some kind of temp-file, or a system for avoiding duplicate
file names, both of which might be relevant in the context of this error.
Can anyone confirm what the presence of the .1 suffix means?
I'm using Postgres 8.3.15 on Windows.
Thanks,
David

Hi David,

Once you exceed the first 1GB of data for a file, a new file is
created with a .1 appended for the 2nd GB, and so on. For small
databases, you may never see a .1,.2,...

Regards,
Ken