Re: doc bug for continuous archiving

On Wed, Oct 7, 2020 at 2:35 PM Jeff Janes <jeff(dot)janes(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:

> Quoting the docs:
>
> https://www.postgresql.org/docs/13/continuous-archiving.html
>
> "As with base backups, the easiest way to produce a standalone hot backup
> is to use the pg_basebackup tool. If you include the -X parameter when
> calling it, all the write-ahead log required to use the backup will be
> included in the backup automatically, and no special action is required to
> restore the backup."
>
> This makes it sound like -X is a switch option, when in fact it demands an
> argument. The statement made is incorrect if the supplied argument is
> "none", but is correct for the other two options. Should this be changed
> to spell out which options it applies to (or maybe which option it does not
> apply to).
>

Just reading the doc page for pg_basebackup: "stream" is the default method
value for this option. So if you just include "-X" you get "stream" which
is indeed a mode that just works and the continuous archiving section you
quote is correct.

I'm not really sure I like the idea that we don't indicate which
pg_basebackup key-value argument values are optional and which are
mandatory.

David J.