vacuum and backup

Hi,

I have some questions regarding vacuum and backup...
1) Do we need to stop the postmaster process before we do a nightly vacuum
analyze or pg_dump in version 7.0.3 of PostgreSQL?
(I read somewhere that we will end up with a totally corrupted backup if we
try to dump a live database and it made sense but I have had no problems
using pg_dump and then using the dump files to create new databases)
2) Is it better to pg_dumpall than pg_dump to backup the database and why?
3) Has anyone written some shell scripts to do vacuum and backup?
I will have to write some but am not conversant with shell scripts and
would greatly appreciate any help.

Thanks in advance. I did try searching the archives but didn't have a great
deal of success finding answers.

Regards,
Colleen.

Colleen Williams
colleen@digital-arts.co.uk

0207 484 8825

Digital Arts | British Columbia House | 1 Regent Street | London | SW1Y 4NR
http://www.digital-arts.co.uk