Re: Switch pg_basebackup to use -X stream instead of -X fetch by default?

On Fri, Aug 29, 2014 at 10:34 PM, Peter Eisentraut <peter_e(at)gmx(dot)net> wrote:
> On 8/27/14 2:55 AM, Magnus Hagander wrote:
>> I think the easy way of doing that is to just create an xlog.tar file.
>> Since we already create "base.tar" and possibly n*<tablespace.tar>,
>> adding one more file shouldn't be a big problem, and would make such
>> an implementation much easier. Would be trivial to do .tar.gz for it
>> as well, just like for the others.
>
> That might be a way forward, but for someone who doesn't use tablespaces
> and just wants and all-on-one backup, this change would make that more
> cumbersome, because now you'd always have more than one file to deal with.

It would in stream mode, which doesn't work at all.

I do agree with Roberts suggestion that we shouldn't remove file mode
right away - but we should change the default.

> It might be worth considering a mode that combines all those tar files
> into a super-tar. I'm personally not a user of the tar mode, so I don't
> know what a typical use would be, though.

That would probably be useful, though a lot more difficult when you
consider two separate processes writing into the same tarfile. But I
agree that the format for "single tablespace just gimme a bloody
tarfile" is quite incovenient today, in that you need a directory and
we drop a "base.tar" in there. We should perhaps try to find a more
convenient way for that specific usecase, since it probably represents
the majority of users.

--
Magnus Hagander
Me: http://www.hagander.net/
Work: http://www.redpill-linpro.com/