Although all built-in WAL-logged modules have their own types of WAL records, there is also a generic WAL record type, which describes changes to pages in a generic way. This is useful for extensions that provide custom access methods, because they cannot register their own WAL redo routines.
The API for constructing generic WAL records is defined in access/generic_xlog.h and implemented in access/transam/generic_xlog.c.
To perform a WAL-logged data update using the generic WAL record facility, follow these steps:
      state = GenericXLogStart(relation) — start
      construction of a generic WAL record for the given relation.
     
      page = GenericXLogRegisterBuffer(state, buffer, flags)
      — register a buffer to be modified within the current generic WAL
      record.  This function returns a pointer to a temporary copy of the
      buffer's page, where modifications should be made.  (Do not modify the
      buffer's contents directly.)  The third argument is a bitmask of flags
      applicable to the operation.  Currently the only such flag is
      GENERIC_XLOG_FULL_IMAGE, which indicates that a full-page
      image rather than a delta update should be included in the WAL record.
      Typically this flag would be set if the page is new or has been
      rewritten completely.
      GenericXLogRegisterBuffer can be repeated if the
      WAL-logged action needs to modify multiple pages.
     
Apply modifications to the page images obtained in the previous step.
      GenericXLogFinish(state) — apply the changes to
      the buffers and emit the generic WAL record.
     
   WAL record construction can be canceled between any of the above steps by
   calling GenericXLogAbort(state).  This will discard all
   changes to the page image copies.
  
Please note the following points when using the generic WAL record facility:
      No direct modifications of buffers are allowed!  All modifications must
      be done in copies acquired from GenericXLogRegisterBuffer().
      In other words, code that makes generic WAL records should never call
      BufferGetPage() for itself.  However, it remains the
      caller's responsibility to pin/unpin and lock/unlock the buffers at
      appropriate times.  Exclusive lock must be held on each target buffer
      from before GenericXLogRegisterBuffer() until after
      GenericXLogFinish().
     
Registrations of buffers (step 2) and modifications of page images (step 3) can be mixed freely, i.e., both steps may be repeated in any sequence. Keep in mind that buffers should be registered in the same order in which locks are to be obtained on them during replay.
The maximum number of buffers that can be registered for a generic WAL record is MAX_GENERIC_XLOG_PAGES. An error will be thrown if this limit is exceeded.
Generic WAL assumes that the pages to be modified have standard layout, and in particular that there is no useful data between pd_lower and pd_upper.
      Since you are modifying copies of buffer
      pages, GenericXLogStart() does not start a critical
      section.  Thus, you can safely do memory allocation, error throwing,
      etc. between GenericXLogStart() and
      GenericXLogFinish().  The only actual critical section is
      present inside GenericXLogFinish().  There is no need to
      worry about calling  GenericXLogAbort() during an error
      exit, either.
     
      GenericXLogFinish() takes care of marking buffers dirty
      and setting their LSNs.  You do not need to do this explicitly.
     
For unlogged relations, everything works the same except that no actual WAL record is emitted. Thus, you typically do not need to do any explicit checks for unlogged relations.
The generic WAL redo function will acquire exclusive locks to buffers in the same order as they were registered. After redoing all changes, the locks will be released in the same order.
If GENERIC_XLOG_FULL_IMAGE is not specified for a registered buffer, the generic WAL record contains a delta between the old and the new page images. This delta is based on byte-by-byte comparison. This is not very compact for the case of moving data within a page, and might be improved in the future.