Re: PATCH: Exclude additional directories in pg_basebackup

On 8/15/16 3:39 PM, David Steele wrote:
> That patch got me thinking about what else could be excluded and after
> some investigation I found the following: pg_notify, pg_serial,
> pg_snapshots, pg_subtrans.  These directories are all cleaned, zeroed,
> or rebuilt on server start.
> 
> The attached patch adds these directories to the pg_basebackup
> exclusions and takes an array-based approach to excluding directories
> and files during backup.

We do support other backup methods besides using pg_basebackup.  So I
think we need to document the required or recommended handling of each
of these directories.  And then pg_basebackup should become a consumer
of that documentation.

The current documentation on this is at
<https://www.postgresql.org/docs/devel/static/continuous-archiving.html#BACKUP-LOWLEVEL-BASE-BACKUP-DATA>,
which covers pg_xlog and pg_replslot.  I think that documentation should
be expanded, maybe with a simple list that is easy to copy into an
exclude file, following by more detail on each directory.

-- 
Peter Eisentraut              http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Remote DBA, Training & Services