diff --git a/src/backend/access/heap/rewriteheap.c b/src/backend/access/heap/rewriteheap.c
index 617f81157ac..732e30c5709 100644
--- a/src/backend/access/heap/rewriteheap.c
+++ b/src/backend/access/heap/rewriteheap.c
@@ -1270,7 +1270,8 @@ CheckPointLogicalRewriteHeap(void)
 		}
 		else
 		{
-			int			fd = OpenTransientFile(path, O_RDONLY | PG_BINARY, 0);
+			/* on some operating systems fsyncing a file requires O_RDWR */
+			int			fd = OpenTransientFile(path, O_RDWR | PG_BINARY, 0);
 
 			/*
 			 * The file cannot vanish due to concurrency since this function