Erik Jones <erik(at)myemma(dot)com> writes:
> Basically I need a way for my script to know if it needs to
> abort because there were issues with the dump before it follows
> through with the drop db...
Well, just checking the exit status from pg_dump ought to give you at
least a go/no-go indicator. If you want to be significantly more
paranoid, you could try the theory that *any* output to stderr is
indicative of a problem.
regards, tom lane