Re: [PATCH] vacuumdb: Add --exclude-database option

On Wed, Jun 17, 2026 at 7:24 PM Ben Mejia
<benjamin(dot)arthur(dot)mejia(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
>
> I think that the behavior of this patch that silently ignores --exlcude-database "non-existent-db" is broken. What if someone has a large database "my-db-name", and they misspell it:
>
> $ vacuumdb --all --exclude-database "my-dbname"
>
> This will kick off a vacuum including the "my-db-name" they were trying to exclude.
>
> I think it would be better to generate an error and not do anything in this case.
+1

Since exclude-schema validates and stops on error, I think it would
make sense to do the same for exclude-database. Current users are
used to this behavior so it's best to keep it consistent.

>
> This also tracks with vacuumdb's existing behavior on --table/--schema which will tell you about a typo.