26.2. Recovery Target Settings

This parameter specifies the named restore point, created with pg_create_restore_point() to which recovery will proceed. At most one of recovery_target_name, recovery_target_time or recovery_target_xid can be specified. The default is to recover to the end of the WAL log.

This parameter specifies the time stamp up to which recovery will proceed. At most one of recovery_target_time, recovery_target_name or recovery_target_xid can be specified. The default is to recover to the end of the WAL log. The precise stopping point is also influenced by recovery_target_inclusive.

This parameter specifies the transaction ID up to which recovery will proceed. Keep in mind that while transaction IDs are assigned sequentially at transaction start, transactions can complete in a different numeric order. The transactions that will be recovered are those that committed before (and optionally including) the specified one. At most one of recovery_target_xid, recovery_target_name or recovery_target_time can be specified. The default is to recover to the end of the WAL log. The precise stopping point is also influenced by recovery_target_inclusive.

Specifies whether we stop just after the specified recovery target (true), or just before the recovery target (false). Applies to both recovery_target_time and recovery_target_xid, whichever one is specified for this recovery. This indicates whether transactions having exactly the target commit time or ID, respectively, will be included in the recovery. Default is true.

Specifies recovering into a particular timeline. The default is to recover along the same timeline that was current when the base backup was taken. Setting this to latest recovers to the latest timeline found in the archive, which is useful in a standby server. Other than that you only need to set this parameter in complex re-recovery situations, where you need to return to a state that itself was reached after a point-in-time recovery. See Section 24.3.5 for discussion.

Specifies whether recovery should pause when the recovery target is reached. The default is true. This is intended to allow queries to be executed against the database to check if this recovery target is the most desirable point for recovery. The paused state can be resumed by using pg_xlog_replay_resume() (See Table 9-62), which then causes recovery to end. If this recovery target is not the desired stopping point, then shutdown the server, change the recovery target settings to a later target and restart to continue recovery.

This setting has no effect if hot_standby is not enabled, or if no recovery target is set.