Re: Documentation clarification request: pg_dumpall and Large Objects

On Thu, 2025-12-04 at 19:11 +0100, Laurenz Albe wrote:
> On Thu, 2025-12-04 at 18:12 +0100, Radoulov, Dimitre wrote:
> > Il Gio 4 Dic 2025, 16:50 Laurenz Albe <laurenz(dot)albe(at)cybertec(dot)at> ha scritto:
> > > On Thu, 2025-12-04 at 13:12 +0100, Radoulov, Dimitre wrote:
> > > > I would like to request a clarification in the pg_dumpall
> > > > documentation regarding Large Objects (LOBs). The current
> > > > documentation does not explicitly state whether pg_dumpall includes
> > > > Large Objects in its output.
> > >
> > > I admit that you have to go by circumstantial evidence here.  But rather
> > > than explicitly naming large objects, perhaps it would be useful to add something
> > > like
> > >
> > >   pg_dumpall is primarily intended as a tool to upgrade database clusters.
> > >   As such, it by default exports all data of the entire cluster.
> > >   The only part of the state of a database cluster that is *not* included
> > >   in the output of pg_dumpall are the configuration files and database parameters
> > >   changed with ALTER SYSTEM.
>
> Attached is a patch for such a change.

Commit 763aaa06f0 has changed the situation: with the addition of other formats
than the plain format, it no longer makes sense to say that pg_dumpall
is not useful for backup. Still, we should clarify what is *not* included.

The attached patch does that and in passing improves the readability.

Yours,
Laurenz Albe