Re: Non-text mode for pg_dumpall

On Thu, Jul 24, 2025 at 04:33:15PM -0400, Andrew Dunstan wrote:
> On 2025-07-21 Mo 8:53 PM, Noah Misch wrote:
> > I suspect this is going to end with a structured dump like we use on the
> > pg_dump (per-database) side. It's not an accident that v17 pg_restore doesn't
> > lex text files to do its job. pg_dumpall deals with a more-limited set of
> > statements than pg_dump deals with, but they're not _that much_ more limited.
> > I won't veto a lexing-based approach if it gets the behaviors right, but I
> > don't have high hopes for it getting the behaviors right and staying that way.
>
> I have been talking offline with Mahendra about this. I agree that we would
> be better off with a structured object for globals. But the thing that's
> been striking me all afternoon as I have pondered it is that we should not
> be designing such an animal at this stage of the cycle. Whatever we do we're
> going to be stuck supporting, so I have very reluctantly come to the
> conclusion that it would probably be better to back the feature out and have
> another go for PG 19.

That makes sense to me. It would be quite a sprint to get this done in time,
and that wouldn't leave much room for additional testing and feedback before
the final release. I agree with the reluctance and with the conclusion.