Re: pg_restore

Tom Lane wrote:
> Bob Pawley <rjpawley(at)shaw(dot)ca> writes:
>> The latest in the saga -
>> By using - pg_restore -h localhost -d PDW -U postgres aurel.sql
>
>> I get the message - pg_restore: input file does not appear to be a valid
>> archive.
>
> Oh, I just twigged that you are using a plain-SQL dump file (that is,
> you didn't specify -Fc or -Ft to pg_dump). For plain-SQL dumps you
> should not use pg_restore at all; you feed those to psql.
>
> This bites enough newbies that I'm thinking the above message ought to
> inclue a HINT to use psql directly. We haven't previously used hints
> in client-side messages but this seems to need one. Anyone have
> thoughts about how to phrase and format it?

Honestly, I would prefer we just fix pg_restore to be able to use plain
text format. The fact that it doesn't is a serious lack of consistency
within our client side apps. E.g; it is completely counter-intuitive to
require our "client user interface" to be used for restoration when
there is a "pg_restore" sitting in the bin directory.

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake

>
> (BTW, I just fixed pg_restore to always mention the file name it
> attempted to open after getting an fopen failure.)
>
> regards, tom lane
>
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