When is it safe to remove backup files from a wal archiving directory

From: John Scalia <jayknowsunix(at)gmail(dot)com>
To: "pgsql-admin(at)postgresql(dot)org" <pgsql-admin(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: When is it safe to remove backup files from a wal archiving directory
Date: 2014-09-22 14:44:55
Message-ID: 542035E7.5080207@gmail.com
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Hi all,

I've noticed that my standby servers never bother to delete a wal backup file from the archiving directory. In fact, they never even try to copy it out of the directory, and after
a while, I may see over a dozen files like:

000000040000000A000000F9.backup
000000040000000C00000003.backup
etc.

The youngest of these files is from last Friday afternoon, and these rest go back over 6 weeks. Being this is a streaming replication standby, I probably don't need them at all,
but I've been keeping them as insurance policies. Question is how many, if any, do I need to keep?
--
Jay

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