BUG #4548: Documentation Contradiction for 8.3

The following bug has been logged online:

Bug reference: 4548
Logged by: Barry Reddy
Email address: barryreddy(at)gmail(dot)com
PostgreSQL version: 8.3.3
Operating system: Linux 2.6.24-19-server i686 RHEL5
Description: Documentation Contradiction for 8.3
Details:

I’ve been going over the PostgreSQL documentation for pg_archiving,
And have been struck by an apparent contradiction, which I’m hoping
To clarify…not sure if you have any thoughts, or can refer this to any
Contacts for a clarification, if so, feel free to forward.

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/interactive/backup-file.html

1. The database server must be shut down in order to get a usable backup.
Half-way measures such as disallowing all connections will not work (in part
because tar and similar tools do not take an atomic snapshot of the state of
the file system, but also because of internal buffering within the server).
Information about stopping the server can be found in Section 17.5. Needless
to say that you also need to shut down the server before restoring the
data.

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/interactive/continuous-archiving.html#BAC
KUP-BASE-BACKUP

3. Perform the backup, using any convenient file-system-backup tool such as
tar or cpio. It is neither necessary nor desirable to stop normal operation
of the database while you do this.

Can anyone clarify if this apparent contradiction is an oversight ? Old
documentation with new archiving documentation patched on, with no attention
paid to the seeming contradiction on guidelines for filesystem backups of a
running PG database ?