Proposal: Add backup start time to pg_stat_progress_basebackup

Hi all,

We're currently working on upgrading our application from using pg14 to
pg18. We've managing the database ourselves, and that includes backups. We
were previously using exclusive backups, but are changing that to use
pg_basebackup instead. We had a health check that reported on in-progress
backups using pg_backup_start_time(), but of course since that's gone, I
wanted a replacement for base backups. Reading around, the natural home for
that information would appear to be pg_stat_progress_basebackup, but it
isn't one of the columns of that view.

Was backup start time intentionally omitted
from pg_stat_progress_basebackup, or would it be okay for me or someone
else to add it as a column? Or, am I being daft and there is another
obvious way to get the start time for an in-progress base backup?

(I would have no idea where to start, but I'm enthusiastic about having a
go, and on the face of it this seems like it might be a fairly accessible
task for a first-time contributor)

Thanks,
Rob