On 4/11/24 20:26, Tomas Vondra wrote:
On 4/11/24 03:52, David Steele wrote:
On 4/11/24 10:23, Tom Kincaid wrote:
The extensive Beta process we have can be used to build confidence we
need in a feature that has extensive review and currently has no known
issues or outstanding objections.
I did have objections, here [1] and here [2]. I think the complexity,
space requirements, and likely performance issues involved in restores
are going to be a real problem for users. Some of these can be addressed
in future releases, but I can't escape the feeling that what we are
releasing here is half-baked.
I haven't been part of those discussions, and that part of the thread is
a couple months old already, so I'll share my view here instead.
I do not think it's half-baked. I certainly agree there are limitations,
and there's all kinds of bells and whistles we could add, but I think
the fundamental infrastructure is corrent and a meaningful step forward.
Would I wish it to handle .tar for example? Sure I would. But I think
it's something we can add in the future - if we require all of this to
happen in a single release, it'll never happen.
Fair enough, but the current release is extremely limited and it would
be best if that was well understood by users.
FWIW that discussion also mentions stuff that I think the feature should
not do. In particular, I don't think the ambition was (or should be) to
make pg_basebackup into a stand-alone tool. I always saw pg_basebackup
more as an interface to "backup steps" correctly rather than a complete
backup solution that'd manage backup registry, retention, etc.
Right -- this is exactly my issue. pg_basebackup was never easy to use
as a backup solution and this feature makes it significantly more
complicated. Complicated enough that it would be extremely difficult for
most users to utilize in a meaningful way.
But they'll try because it is a new pg_basebackup feature and they'll
assume it is there to be used. Maybe it would be a good idea to make it
clear in the documentation that significant tooling will be required to
make it work.
Regards,
-David
