Re: archive_command / pg_stat_archiver & documentation

[Michael Paquier]

On Fri, Feb 26, 2021 at 10:03:05AM +0100, Benoit Lobréau wrote:
> Done here : https://commitfest.postgresql.org/32/3012/

Documenting that properly for the archive command, as already done for
restore_command, sounds good to me.  I am not sure that there is much
point in doing a cross-reference to the archiving section for one
specific field of pg_stat_archiver.

For the second paragraph, I would recommend to move that to a
different <para> to outline this special case, leading to the
attached.

What do you think?
--
Michael

diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/backup.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/backup.sgml
index 21094c6a9d..c5557d5444 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/backup.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/backup.sgml
@@ -639,6 +639,15 @@ test ! -f /mnt/server/archivedir/00000001000000A900000065 &amp;&amp; cp pg_wal/0
     it will try again periodically until it succeeds.
    </para>
 
+   <para>
+    When the archive command is terminated by a signal (other than
+    <systemitem>SIGTERM</systemitem> that is used as part of a server
+    shutdown) or an error by the shell with an exit status greater than
+    125 (such as command not found), the archiver process aborts and gets
+    restarted by the postmaster. In such cases, the failure is
+    not reported in <xref linkend="pg-stat-archiver-view"/>.
+   </para>
+
    <para>
     The archive command should generally be designed to refuse to overwrite
     any pre-existing archive file.  This is an important safety feature to

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