Re: pg_dump, pg_restore, insert vs copy

On Thu, Mar 24, 2005 at 10:52:06AM -0500, Tom Lane wrote:
> "Lee Wu" <Lwu@mxlogic.com> writes:
> > When I use pg_dump to back up the whole database and then pg_restore an
> > individual table,
> > pg_restore uses COPY. Great.
> > When I use pg_dump to back up an individual table and pg_restore it,
> > pg_restore uses INSERT.
>
> Not for me...
>
> That decision is fixed at pg_dump time; it's not possible for pg_restore
> to change it, because the data is already that way (or not) in the dump
> file.  Maybe you misinterpreted what you saw?

Is there any reason why we don't use a binary storage in custom format
dumps?  I mean, we could open a binary cursor and write the results to
the file, and read it back at restore time.  This is just handwaving of
course.

I guess the reason is cross-version portability?

--
Alvaro Herrera (<alvherre[@]dcc.uchile.cl>)
"World domination is proceeding according to plan"        (Andrew Morton)