Re: Custom format for pg_dumpall

Added to TODO:

* Allow pg_dumpall to use non-text output formats

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Philip Warner wrote:
> At 11:12 AM 16/03/2004, Tom Lane wrote:
> >That seems like it would complicate both pg_dump and pg_restore unduly.
> >I'd rather keep both of them as simple one-database programs.
>
> Sounds fine, if that's a design objective. But it is a different problem to
> definining the archive format of pg_dumpall.
>
> >To take
> >just one objection, people are accustomed to be able to load a pg_dump
> >from database foo into a database with a different name; that would be
> >either impossible or very klugy if we do what you're thinking of.
>
> Again, ISTM this is confusing user-interface with storage format.
>
>
> While it is certainly possible to define a meta-archive format, ISTM that
> the existing archive format can handle multiple DBs with little or no
> work. Whether we choose to let pg_restore understand those files is
> another matter (personally I'd vote yes).
>
> The current format has a (small) TOC, followed by the (large) data. I
> suggest that the TOC would become larger, and include entries for multiple
> DBs, each with some tag to indicate the DB it belonged to (db name?). In
> the case where the TOC has only one DB, it is almost identical to the
> current dump format except it has installation-wide settings as well. The
> latter case (at least) should be readable by pg_restore, but that is not
> necessary if you prefer to create a pg_restoreall which almost completely
> mimics pg_restore. In any case there needs to be the ability to select just
> one DB, just the user definitions etc similar to the existing pg_restore.
>
> I don't see a lot of kludges here.
>
>
>
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