Re: BUG #8450: pg_basebackup blocks until WAL archiving successful

On 13.09.2013 15:13, stuart(at)stuartbishop(dot)net wrote:
> pg_basebackup blocks until all necessary WAL files have been archived by
> archive_command. This can take a few minutes under normal circumstances, and
> indefinitely if archive_command is failing.
>
> I would like to be able to disable this check, as I am streaming backups to
> a system that can time out my connection if it does not receive new data for
> a short while. This makes unattended backups problematic.

I can see why you'd want that, but it seems equally problematic to let
pg_basebackup return, when the WAL files haven't been archived yet and
you therefore don't in fact have valid, restorable backup yet. Have you
considered using the --xlog-method=stream option, to include the WAL
files in the backup? That will make your backups somewhat larger, as the
WAL files are included, but in that mode pg_basebackup won't wait for
the archival and the backup will be restorable even if archive_command
is failing.

- Heikki