Re: pgsql: pg_verifybackup: Enable WAL parsing for tar-format backups

On Mon, May 4, 2026 at 3:00 PM Peter Eisentraut <peter(at)eisentraut(dot)org> wrote:
>
> On 20.03.26 20:32, Andrew Dunstan wrote:
> > pg_verifybackup: Enable WAL parsing for tar-format backups
> >
> > Now that pg_waldump supports reading WAL from tar archives, remove the
> > restriction that forced --no-parse-wal for tar-format backups.
> >
> > pg_verifybackup now automatically locates the WAL archive: it looks for
> > a separate pg_wal.tar first, then falls back to the main base.tar. A
> > new --wal-path option (replacing the old --wal-directory, which is kept
> > as a silent alias) accepts either a directory or a tar archive path.
>
> In the past, we have opted against silent aliases when changing a
> command-line option. All options should be documented, even if they are
> deprecated. Otherwise, it's confusing for users moving between major
> versions or those who find that undocumented options happen to work.
> See commit 35ce24c333c for an example how this was done in the past.
>
> I suggest the option --wal-directory should be added back to the
> documentation and help output.

Agreed. Attached is a quick fix.

Regards,
Amul