small pg_dump RFE: new --no-prompt (password) option

>
I'm forwarding this on behalf of Marc Hebert
>
> Hi there,
>
>  As discussed recently on the jdbc mailing-list in this "Backup in  
> Java" thread
>
> <http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.db.postgresql.jdbc/12441/ 
> focus=12441>
>
> there is a significant interest in doing backups in an
> non-interactive, programmatic way. Reminder: AFAIK pg_dump is
> currently the very unique reliable way to perform a backup. There  
> is no
> documented API or protocol to do this. Any program in any language is
> stuck with "scripting" pg_dump.
>
> When we implemented this scripting in Java we faced one major issue:
> pg_dump may prompt for a password in a unpredictable way (depending on
> the user misconfiguration). Taking care of this is surprisingly
> complex.  The suggested --no-prompt would make scripting pg_dump
> infinitely easier.  In case a password is needed, this option would
> simply fail and return immediatly with an appropriate error message.
> Or even better, with a well-defined return status.
>
> Thanks in advance for considering this new feature!
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Marc.
>
>