Re: pg_verifybackup fails

On Mon, Feb 16, 2026 at 4:40 PM Subramanian,Ramachandran
<ramachandran(dot)subramanian(at)alte-leipziger(dot)de> wrote:
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> Hello,
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> we are running postgres V16 on Linux and when I try to run pg_verifybackup I get the following error.
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> Does it mean that we have an incomplete installation ?
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> I would be grateful for any pointers on how to resolve this issue.
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> LG
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> Ram
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> [postgres]$ pg_verifybackup /var/lib/pgsql/base_backup_dir/XXX/2026-02-16T11-52-27
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> pg_verifybackup: error: program "pg_waldump" is needed by pg_verifybackup but was not found in the same directory as "/usr/bin/pg_verifybackup"
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> [postgres]$ type pg_verifybackup
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> pg_verifybackup is hashed (/bin/pg_verifybackup)
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> [postgres]$ type pg_waldump
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> -bash: type: pg_waldump: not found
>

Yes, pg_waldump is missing, which suggests an incomplete installation.
For the time being, you can bypass this error by using the
--no-parse-wal option in pg_verifybackup to skip WAL verification, but
it’s better to install pg_waldump for the complete verification.

Regards,
Amul