Re: Remove Deprecated Exclusive Backup Mode

On 12/11/18 9:05 PM, Robert Haas wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 12, 2018 at 7:24 AM David Steele <david(at)pgmasters(dot)net> wrote:
>> Attached is the patch.
>
> As for my vote, I do not buy the idea that because we're changing some
> stuff about recovery.conf we should go ahead and do this too. Yes,
> they are related, but just because you adjust your backup/restore
> script/tool to cope with one change doesn't mean that you don't have
> to adjust it some more to cope with the other change.

I think the patch stands on its own. Exclusive backup mode is broken
and is know to cause problems in the field.

We deprecated it three years ago and we have a very capable core backup
tool that people can use instead.

> I also think that the idea that supporting the exclusive backup
> interface is hurting anything is greatly exaggerated. Whether we keep
> it or not, we're not forcing anyone to use it.

There are maintenance advantages to getting rid of it. The code has
become simpler and the documentation has become much simpler. Trying to
explain the subtle differences between backup methods is difficult and
only makes the documentation more confusing.

Removing the extra complexity from shutdown also seems like a win. The
gyrations we went through to try and ensure that backup_label was
renamed before shutdown were truly agonizing. None of that is necessary
with the non-exclusive mode.

--
-David
david(at)pgmasters(dot)net