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IPC: WalReceiverUpstreamCatchup

Waiting for upstream server WAL flush position to catch up to requested start point
PostgreSQL wait event dossier
ClassIPC EventWalReceiverUpstreamCatchup VersionsPG 17-18 Evidence2 source location(s)

Official description

Waiting for upstream server WAL flush position to catch up to requested start point

PG 13 PG 14 PG 15 PG 16 PG 17 PG 18
Important

Patch-level availability: Observed in 17.11+ and 18.6+; it is absent from 17.10 and 18.4, so the major-only range is insufficient.

Trigger mechanism

WAIT_EVENT_WAL_RECEIVER_UPSTREAM_CATCHUP at src/backend/replication/walreceiver.c:398 is the grep-verified reporting path. The public identity/resource is mapped at src/backend/utils/activity/wait_event_names.txt:165. The instrumented operation is: Waiting for upstream server WAL flush position to catch up to requested start point. The WalReceiverUpstreamCatchup path has reached a process-coordination point and sleeps until a peer, worker, barrier, queue, or replication phase signals progress.

Normal or trouble?

  • Normal: Brief rendezvous is normal when every participant continues to advance.
  • Investigate: Investigate when the same phase persists across three samples, the expected peer is absent or blocked, or a queue and its dependants stop moving.

Diagnostic SQL

Sessions waiting on IPC/WalReceiverUpstreamCatchup
SELECT pid, backend_type, usename, datname, application_name,
       state, now() - query_start AS query_age,
       now() - xact_start AS xact_age,
       wait_event_type, wait_event,
       pg_blocking_pids(pid) AS blocking_pids,
       left(query, 160) AS query
FROM pg_stat_activity
WHERE wait_event_type = 'IPC'
  AND wait_event = 'WalReceiverUpstreamCatchup'
ORDER BY query_age DESC NULLS LAST;
Current IPC cohort
SELECT wait_event, count(*) AS waiting_sessions,
       count(*) FILTER (WHERE state = 'active') AS active_waiters,
       max(now() - query_start) AS oldest_query
FROM pg_stat_activity
WHERE wait_event_type = 'IPC'
GROUP BY wait_event
ORDER BY waiting_sessions DESC, wait_event;
Lock and relation context for these sessions
SELECT a.pid, l.locktype, l.mode, l.granted, l.fastpath,
       d.datname, n.nspname, c.relname,
       l.page, l.tuple, l.virtualxid, l.transactionid,
       l.classid, l.objid, l.objsubid
FROM pg_stat_activity AS a
LEFT JOIN pg_locks AS l ON l.pid = a.pid
LEFT JOIN pg_database AS d ON d.oid = l.database
LEFT JOIN pg_class AS c
  ON c.oid = l.relation
 AND l.database = (
       SELECT oid FROM pg_database WHERE datname = current_database()
     )
LEFT JOIN pg_namespace AS n ON n.oid = c.relnamespace
WHERE a.wait_event_type = 'IPC'
  AND a.wait_event = 'WalReceiverUpstreamCatchup'
ORDER BY a.pid, l.granted, l.locktype, l.mode;

Response

  1. Identify the peer or phase named by the event.
  2. Inspect that participant’s wait, error, and progress state.
  3. Repair the stalled participant or upstream dependency instead of treating the waiter as the root cause.

Source evidence