Re: Non-text mode for pg_dumpall

On 2025-07-21 Mo 8:53 PM, Noah Misch wrote:
>
> I suspect this is going to end with a structured dump like we use on the
> pg_dump (per-database) side. It's not an accident that v17 pg_restore doesn't
> lex text files to do its job. pg_dumpall deals with a more-limited set of
> statements than pg_dump deals with, but they're not _that much_ more limited.
> I won't veto a lexing-based approach if it gets the behaviors right, but I
> don't have high hopes for it getting the behaviors right and staying that way.

I have been talking offline with Mahendra about this. I agree that we
would be better off with a structured object for globals. But the thing
that's been striking me all afternoon as I have pondered it is that we
should not be designing such an animal at this stage of the cycle.
Whatever we do we're going to be stuck supporting, so I have very
reluctantly come to the conclusion that it would probably be better to
back the feature out and have another go for PG 19.

cheers

andrew

--
Andrew Dunstan
EDB:https://www.enterprisedb.com