Hi Robert, 2015-03-07 2:57 GMT+11:00 Robert Haas <robertmh...@gmail.com>:
> By the way, unless I'm missing something, this patch only seems to > include the code to construct an incremental backup, but no tools > whatsoever to do anything useful with it once you've got it. As stated previously, Marco is writing a tool called pg_restorebackup (the prototype in Python has been already posted) to be included in the core. I am in Australia now and not in the office so I cannot confirm it, but I am pretty sure he had already written it and was about to send it to the list. He's been trying to find more data - see the one that he's sent - in order to convince that even a file-based approach is useful. I think that's 100% unacceptable. I agree, that's why pg_restorebackup written in C is part of this patch. See: https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Incremental_backup > Users need to be able to manipulate > PostgreSQL backups using either standard operating system tools or > tools provided with PostgreSQL. Some people may prefer to use > something like repmgr or pitrtools or omniptr in addition, but that > shouldn't be a requirement for incremental backup to be usable. > Not at all. I believe those tools will have to use pg_basebackup and pg_restorebackup. If they want to use streaming replication protocol they will be responsible to make sure that - if the protocol changes - they adapt their technology. Agile development is good, but that does not mean you can divide a big > project into arbitrarily small chunks. At some point the chunks are > too small to be sure that the overall direction is right, and/or > individually useless. > The goal has always been to provide "file-based incremental backup". I can assure that this has always been our compass and the direction to follow. I repeat that, using pg_restorebackup, this patch will transparently let users benefit from incremental backup even when it will be moved to an internal block-level logic. Users will continue to execute pg_basebackup and pg_restorebackup, ignoring that with - for example 9.5 - it is file-based (saving between 50-70% of space and time) of block level - for example 9.6. My proposal is that Marco provides pg_restorebackup according to the initial plan - a matter of hours/days. Cheers, Gabriele
