Re: Non-text mode for pg_dumpall

On Mon, Jun 10, 2024 at 5:03 PM Nathan Bossart <nathandbossart(at)gmail(dot)com>
wrote:

> On Mon, Jun 10, 2024 at 04:52:06PM +0200, Magnus Hagander wrote:
> > On Mon, Jun 10, 2024 at 4:14 PM Nathan Bossart <nathandbossart(at)gmail(dot)com
> >
> > wrote:
> >> I'm curious why we couldn't also support the "custom" format.
> >
> > Or maybe even a combo - a directory of custom format files? Plus that one
> > special file being globals? I'd say that's what most use cases I've seen
> > would prefer.
>
> Is there a particular advantage to that approach as opposed to just using
> "directory" mode for everything? I know pg_upgrade uses "custom" mode for
> each of the databases, so a combo approach would be a closer match to the
> existing behavior, but that doesn't strike me as an especially strong
> reason to keep doing it that way.
>

A gazillion files to deal with? Much easier to work with individual custom
files if you're moving databases around and things like that.
Much easier to monitor eg sizes/dates if you're using it for backups.

It's not things that are make-it-or-break-it or anything, but there are
some smaller things that definitely can be useful.

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