Re: A couple of pg_dump questions

On Thu, Apr 19, 2018 at 3:39 PM, Ron <ronljohnsonjr(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:

>
> $ pg_dump --host=farawaysrvr -Fc $REMOTEDB > /local/disk/backups/$REMOTEDB.
> dump
>
> Is the data compressed on the remote server (thus minimizing traffic on
> the wire), or locally? (I'd test this myself, but the company has really
> strict firewall rules in place.)
>

The ​pg_dump client doesn't get any special treatment in terms of the
amount of data being sent over the wire from the server. It issues "COPY
TO STDOUT" commands on the server and captures the results and, while
packaging them up, performs any requested compression.​ To what extent the
server compresses all its sent content I am unsure though it does some.
​

>
> $ pg_dump --host=farawaysrvr -Fc -j4 $REMOTEDB >
> /local/disk/backups/$REMOTEDB.dump
>
> Will parallel backups work if pg_dump is v9.6 and the remote system is
> v8.4?
> ​
>

​The last paragraph of the 9.6 pg_dump --jobs documentation covers pre-9.2
server dumps.

David J.
​