Re: Changing pg_dump default file format

On 11/07/2013 08:26 AM, Tom Lane wrote:
> Magnus Hagander <magnus(at)hagander(dot)net> writes:
>> On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 5:02 PM, Joshua D. Drake <jd(at)commandprompt(dot)com> wrote:
>>> I humbly request on behalf of those who manage production postgresql
>>> instances that we change the default backup file format from -Fp to -Fc.
>
>> I'm a bit worried about it breaking peoples scripts as well, if they
>> pipe the output.
>
> Whether they pipe the output or not, this will break people's scripts.
> I agree it's a legacy behavior that we wouldn't choose again, but you
> could say that about an awful lot of things including much of the SQL
> standard. I think it's too late to consider this now.

I don't agree that it's too late, personally. However, I do agree that
it would be problematic to change the default format since the default
is to send to STDOUT. If we wanted to change the default format, we
would need to make "filename" a required parameter.

If we wanted to change the defaults, I think it would be easier to
create a separate bin name (e.g. pg_backup) than to change the existing
parameters for pg_dump.

--
Josh Berkus
PostgreSQL Experts Inc.
http://pgexperts.com