ignore_checksum_failure — PostgreSQL configuration parameter

Only has effect if app_initdb_data_checksums are enabled.

At a glance

What it does

Only has effect if app_initdb_data_checksums are enabled.

Detection of a checksum failure during a read normally causes PostgreSQL to report an error, aborting the current transaction. Setting ignore_checksum_failure to on causes the system to ignore the failure (but still report a warning), and continue processing. This behavior may cause crashes, propagate or hide corruption, or other serious problems. However, it may allow you to get past the error and retrieve undamaged tuples that might still be present in the table if the block header is still sane. If the header is corrupt an error will be reported even if this option is enabled. The default setting is off. Only superusers and users with the appropriate SET privilege can change this setting.

(Description quoted from the official PostgreSQL documentation.)

How to apply a change

Can be set per session with SET, per role/database with ALTER ROLE/DATABASE ... SET, or globally in postgresql.conf.

Inspect the current value and source with SHOW ignore_checksum_failure; or SELECT name, setting, unit, context, source FROM pg_settings WHERE name = 'ignore_checksum_failure';.

Tuning guidance

This is a developer and debugging aid, not a performance knob. Leave it at the default in production; enable it only temporarily, on a non-production or carefully controlled system, while diagnosing a specific problem. Several options in this group add overhead, generate large volumes of log output, or can damage data if misused — turn them off again as soon as the investigation is done.

Reference

PostgreSQL documentation — ignore_checksum_failure.