Re: PATCH: Exclude additional directories in pg_basebackup

On Mon, Aug 15, 2016 at 3:39 PM, David Steele <david(at)pgmasters(dot)net> wrote:
> Recently a hacker proposed a patch to add pg_dynshmem to the list of
> directories whose contents are excluded in pg_basebackup. I wasn't able
> to find the original email despite several attempts.
>
> That patch got me thinking about what else could be excluded and after
> some investigation I found the following: pg_notify, pg_serial,
> pg_snapshots, pg_subtrans. These directories are all cleaned, zeroed,
> or rebuilt on server start.

Eh ... I doubt very much that it's safe to blow away the entire
contents of an SLRU between shutdown and startup, even if the data is
technically transient data that won't be needed again after the system
is reset.

--
Robert Haas
EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company