Re: pg_restore -1 vs -C and -c

Magnus Hagander <magnus(at)hagander(dot)net> writes:
> On 12 jan 2009, at 17.46, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
>> However, one of the properties -1 is supposed to have is that any
>> failure aborts the whole restore; it's not immediately clear how to
>> preserve that with CREATE DATABASE issued separately.

> Good point. Declare as incompatible it is, then :) it's not like it's
> hard do create the database before restoring.

Works for me.

>>> As for -c, the solution would be to issue DROP IF EXISTS
>>> statements. Is there any particular reason why we don't?
>>
>> I think we did that to avoid damaging portability and backwards
>> compatibility of the dump files. The backwards compatibility argument
>> is pretty weak by now, but the "it's not standard SQL" argument still
>> has force.

> IIRC the drop statements are generated by pg_restore and not stored in
> the archive. So we could do the if exists by default and have a switch
> to turn it off for a compatible dump, perhaps?

No, the text of the statements is in the archive; though it might not be
too painful to have pg_restore edit them to insert "IF EXISTS". You
don't need an extra switch, just do this if -1 is in use (and document
that that switch reduces the standard-ness of the output...)

regards, tom lane