Re: pg_dump new feature: exporting functions only. Bad or good idea ?

On 3/17/21 6:00 PM, Lætitia Avrot wrote:
> Hey hackers,
>
> I had this idea, that I raised and cherished like my baby to add a switch
> in `pg_dump` to allow exporting stored functions (and procedures) only.
>
> However, when I finally got the time to look at it in detail, I found out
> there was no way to solve the dependencies in the functions and procedures,
> so that the exported file, when re-played could lead to invalid objects.
>
> So, I decided this would not make Postgres better and decide to walk off
> this patch.
>
> Anyhow, when sharing my thoughts, several people told me to ask the
> community about adding this feature because this could be useful in some
> use cases. Another argument is that should you have all your functions in
> one schema and your tables in another, exporting only the function schema
> will lead to the same kind of file that could lead to invalid objects
> created when the file is re-played against a database that does not have
> the tables.
>
> Of course, the documentation would add a warning against object invalidity
> should only the stored functions/procedures be exported.
>
> So, my question is: what do you think about such a feature? is it worth it?

Yes, it is absolutely worth it to be able to extract just the functions
from a database. I have wanted this several times.
--
Vik Fearing