Re: Confusing error message in 15.6

Oops. This means major rewrite of my backup procedure. Thanks for pointing this out. I will likely just switch to pg_basebackup. What I have is something old and gnarly from the days of psql version 8.

________________________________________
From: David G. Johnston <david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2024 6:42 PM
To: Dmitry O Litvintsev
Cc: pgsql-generallists.postgresql.org
Subject: Re: Confusing error message in 15.6

[EXTERNAL] – This message is from an external sender

On Tue, May 21, 2024, 17:29 Dmitry O Litvintsev <litvinse(at)fnal(dot)gov<mailto:litvinse(at)fnal(dot)gov>> wrote:
Hi,

I am observing the following error which confuses me:

# psql -U postgres template1 -c "checkpoint; select pg_backup_start('${dest}.tar.Z', true)"
CHECKPOINT
pg_backup_start
-----------------
17BF7/3009498
(1 row)

# psql -U postgres template1 -c "select pg_backup_stop(true)"
ERROR: backup is not in progress
HINT: Did you call pg_backup_start()?

This is postgresql 15.6 running on RH 7.

This is not just amusing, it is breaking my backup script after update from 11 to 15 (and change from pg_{start,stop}_backup to pg_backup_{start_stop})

Yep, nowadays you must keep the transaction where you issued backup start open until you issue backup end. Using -c isn't going to cut it.

David J.