Re: Should *.backup files ever be removed from pg_xlog?

Tom Lane wrote:
> Bruce Momjian <pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us> writes:
> > When you do a pg_start_backup()/pg_stop_backup(), the *.backup files
> > created in pg_xlog are never deleted. Is that intended?
>
> Yes. See the documentation. DBAs can delete 'em if they feel like,
> but I don't see a strong argument for automatically removing 'em.
> They aren't actually large ...

I don't see anywhere in the documentation where we say you can get rid
of them. I see this:

For example, if the starting WAL file is 0000000100001234000055CD the
backup history file will be named something like
0000000100001234000055CD.007C9330.backup. (The second number in the file
name stands for an exact position within the WAL file, and can
ordinarily be ignored.) Once you have safely archived the file system
backup and the WAL segment files used during the backup (as specified in
the backup history file), all archived WAL segments with names
numerically less are no longer needed to recover the file system backup
and may be deleted. However, you should consider keeping several backup
sets to be absolutely certain that you are can recover your data. Keep
in mind that only completed WAL segment files are archived, so there
will be delay between running pg_stop_backup and the archiving of all
WAL segment files needed to make the file system backup consistent.

The "all archived WAL segments with names numerically less are no longer
needed" I assume is talking about files in the archive location, not
pg_xlog. Does this need clarifying?

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