Re: Beta1 announcement: alpha1 draft

On Fri, Apr 29, 2016 at 1:32 PM, Stephen Frost <sfrost(at)snowman(dot)net> wrote:

> * Bruce Momjian (bruce(at)momjian(dot)us) wrote:
> > On Fri, Apr 29, 2016 at 07:14:22AM -0400, Stephen Frost wrote:
> > > > Damn, which means I need to test mine too. Where are these changes
> > > > documented?
> > >
> > > The changes are to pg_start/stop_backup and their updated definitions
> > > can be reviewed here:
> > >
> > > http://www.postgresql.org/docs/devel/static/functions-admin.html
> > >
> > > Note that it's technically backwards compatible, however, the existing
> > > exclusive backup approach is bad and may mean that the database doesn't
> > > automatically recover from a crash which happens while the backup is
> > > running. All backup tools should be updated to the new APIs to avoid
> > > that risk.
> >
> > Is this risk new? Is it documented?
>
> No, it's not new. I'm not sure off-hand if it's documented.
>

It is not new.

And no it is at least not well documented. But there are other parts which
aren't as well - such as the requirement to actually run pg_stop_backup()
even in the case you want to abort a backup, or your next one will fail.
Basically the old method is quite fragile and no, we haven't documented
that properly previously.

--
Magnus Hagander
Me: http://www.hagander.net/
Work: http://www.redpill-linpro.com/