Re: pg_dump restore time and Foreign Keys

Simon Riggs wrote:
>> But we don't know it for dead sure, we only think we do. What if the 
>> data for one or other of the tables is corrupted? We'll end up with data 
>> we believe is consistent but in fact is not, ISTM. If you can somehow 
>> guarantee the integrity of data in both tables then we might be 
>> justified in assuming that the FK constraint will be consistent - that's 
>> why I suggested some sort of checksum mechanism might serve the purpose.
>>     
>
> Agreed.
>
> Can we get COPY to output the checksum of its output as part of the
> command tag? How else can we return the checksum? In $file.cksum for any
> given output file?
>   

It seems a reasonable idea to use the command tag, unless that's going 
to break lots of stuff. I think the only thing we can usefully checksum 
is the output lines in the client encoding.

> We can then use an explicit checksum option in the COPY when we reload,
> with CHECKSUM option.
>
>   

We need rather more than this to make sure your facility isn't abused. 
That's the part that I haven't been able to think of a good answer for 
(yet).

cheers

andrew