* Bruce Momjian (br...@momjian.us) wrote: > On Sun, Jan 17, 2016 at 09:10:23PM -0500, Stephen Frost wrote: > > > While the group owner of the directory is a distributions question, the > > > permissions are usually a backup-method-specific requirement. I can see > > > us creating an SQL function that opens up group permissions on the data > > > directory for specific backup tools that need it, then granting > > > permissions on that function to the backup role. This is another > > > example where different backup tools need different permissions. > > > > I don't believe we can really consider group ownership and group > > permissions independently. They really go hand-in-hand. On > > RedHat-based system, where the group is set as 'staff', you probably > > don't want group permissions to be allowed. On Debian-based systems, > > where there is a dedicated 'postgres' group, group permissions are fine > > to allow. > > Yes, I can see that as problematic. Seems it would have to be something > done by the administrator from the command-line.
initdb on both RedHat and Debian-based systems is run, generally speaking, from the packaging scripts. They would be able to pass the correct options to initdb (or PG itself, if we decide that's necessary..). > > Group ownership and permissions aren't a backup-method-specific > > requirement either, in my view. I'm happy to chat with Marco (who has > > said he would be weighing in on this thread when he is able to) > > regarding barman, and whomever would be appropriate for BART (perhaps > > you could let me know..?), but if it's possible to do a backup without > > being a superuser and with only read access to the data directory, I > > would expect every backup soltuion to view that as a feature which they > > want to support, as there are environments which will find it desirable, > > at a minimum, and even some which will require it. > > pg_dump doesn't need to read the PGDATA directory, and I thought this > permission was to be used by pg_dump users as well. No. That has been a source of confusion, though I'm not quite sure how or why, beyond the general assumption that anything 'backup' must include 'pg_dump' (I don't generally consider that to be the case, myself, but it seems others do...). This is only for file-based backups. Thanks! Stephen
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