Re: pg_dump fundenental question

On Tue, Jul 5, 2016 at 4:54 PM, J. Cassidy <sean(at)jdcassidy(dot)eu> wrote:
> I have hopefully an "easy" question.
> If I issue the pg_dump command with no switches or options i.e.
> /usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_dump -v dbabcd > /data3TB/Backup/dbabcd
> Is their any "default" compression involved or not? Does pg_dump talk to
> zlib during the dump process given that I have not specified any compression
> on the > command line? (see above).

IIRC no options means you are requesting an SQL-script. Those are not
compressed, just pipe them through your favorite compressor. ( In a
later message you stated you were in Linux and had a 324Gb file, and
could head/tail it, have you done so? ).

> Your considered opinions would be much appreciated.

OTOH, with those big backup I would recommend using custom format (
-Fc ), it's much more flexible ( andyou can have the sql script but
asking pg_restore to generate it if you need it, but not the other way
round ).

Francisco Olarte.