Re: WAL and pg_dump

On 12/22/05, Simon Riggs <simon(at)2ndquadrant(dot)com> wrote:
>
> On Tue, 2005-12-13 at 11:18 +1300, Mike C wrote:
> > All the documentation I've seen for PITR points to having to do a file
> > system copy of sorts.
>
> Yes. There's no other way, but why would you want another way?

Mainly because a pg_dump backup takes up a lot less disk space than a
filesystem copy (in my case, approx 3.5GB backup from a 25GB db).

> Is it possible to have a weekly pg_dump and restore the database up to
> > the last archived WAL file if the db server fails?
>
> No.
>
> pg_dump only copies the data, not the current state of the database.

I guess if pg_dump was modified to record the last complete transaction id
(in archive format maybe) then the WAL files could be used?

Thanks for the response,

Mike C.