Re: Add a hint to the "WAL summaries are required" errors

On Thu, Nov 5, 2026 at 11:17 AM Manu <manuelreyesbravo(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
> Done. v2 only changes the two hint strings, so the hint fires on the
> same paths I tried with v1, and Chao's wording fits all of them,
> wal_level=minimal included. It still applies to master (31f89191ff).

I took a look at the patch since it's marked Ready for Committer.

+ errhint("Consider taking a new full backup to use as the basis for
future incremental backups.")));

This hint seems to leave users thinking that taking a new full backup is
their only option. No? But, the backup could fail for other reasons,
such as WAL summarization being disabled or the selected prior backup
being too old to have the required summaries available.

So, how about mentioning these alternatives as well?

HINT: Make sure WAL summarization is enabled. Consider using a more
recent backup as the basis for this incremental backup,
or taking a new full backup.

Regards,

--
Fujii Masao