Re: Misc topics

From: "Dave Page" <dpage(at)vale-housing(dot)co(dot)uk>
To: "Andreas Pflug" <pgadmin(at)pse-consulting(dot)de>
Cc: <pgadmin-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: Misc topics
Date: 2004-06-22 20:32:42
Message-ID: E7F85A1B5FF8D44C8A1AF6885BC9A0E40C36A4@ratbert.vale-housing.co.uk
Views: Raw Message | Whole Thread | Download mbox | Resend email
Thread:
Lists: pgadmin-hackers

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andreas Pflug [mailto:pgadmin(at)pse-consulting(dot)de]
> Sent: 22 June 2004 20:39
> To: Dave Page
> Cc: pgadmin-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org
> Subject: Re: [pgadmin-hackers] Misc topics
>
>
> So why don't you use tar or compressed format? The Restore
> Tool is a frontend for pg_restore, which can't handle plain.
> Anyway, with file signature checking there will be just a
> message "incompatible format" or so.

Been doing it that way since 6.3 (before pg_restore existed iirc). I
keep doing it that way because there are no real space issues for me,
and if I ever need to restore a system from backup, I can upgrade at the
same time and still be able to massage the dump file into the new
version of PostgreSQL if required. I think the easy answer is to just
assume the file is a text dump if a signature cannot be found, and just
pipe it to psql (so we don't have to worry about handling \connect or
\copy ourselves).

>
> I understand, I'd simply not recommend to use plain for
> backup purposes.
> It has many disadvantages.

And some advantages.

> I'd recommend plain dump only if you'd need to edit the dump,
> i.e. if it's *not* meant for backup/restore purposes.

I always assume the worst (as one should with backups IMO) - that
something will go wrong and I may need to massage the data for some
reason.

The bottom line is, whatever view you take, plain text backups can be
done and are done - thus we should try to support them.

Regards, Dave

Responses

Browse pgadmin-hackers by date

  From Date Subject
Next Message Andreas Pflug 2004-06-22 21:01:54 Re: Misc topics
Previous Message cvs 2004-06-22 20:14:37 CVS Commit by andreas: gcc fix