If a user started a bulk write operation on a fork with existing data
to append data in bulk, the bulk_write machinery would zero out all
previously written pages up to the last page written by the new
bulk_write operation.
This is not an issue for PostgreSQL itself, because we never use the
bulk_write facility on a non-empty fork. But there are use cases where
it makes sense. TimescaleDB extension is known to do that to merge
partitions, for example.
Backpatch to v17, where the bulk_write machinery was introduced.
Author: Matthias van de Meent <boekewurm+postgres@gmail.com>
Reported-By: Erik Nordström <erik@timescale.com>
Reviewed-by: Erik Nordström <erik@timescale.com>
Discussion: https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/CACAa4VJ%2BQY4pY7M0ECq29uGkrOygikYtao1UG9yCDFosxaps9g@mail.gmail.com
ee937f0409