Re: pg_retainxlog for inclusion in 9.3?

On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 6:25 PM, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
> Magnus Hagander <magnus@hagander.net> writes:
>> On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 6:04 PM, Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net> wrote:
>>> I think it might be better to just document this as an example.  I don't
>>> quite see the overhead of maintaining another tool justified.
>
>> Well, obviously I don't entirely agree ;)
>
>> Yes, it's a convenience command. Like pg_standby was. And like many
>> other commands that we maintain as part of *core*, such as createuser,
>> vacuumdb, etc. Those can all be done with an even *simpler* command
>> than the one you suggest above. So I don't see that as an argument why
>> it wouldn't be useful.
>
> We've discussed removing a lot of those tools, too.  Not breaking
> backwards compatibility is probably the only reason they're still there.
>
> In the case at hand, I seem to recall from upthread that we expect
> this'd be obsolete in a release or two.  If that's true then I think
> a para or two of documentation is a better idea than a tool we'll be
> essentially condemned to keep maintaining forever.

Not really sure there is such an expectation - any more than there was
such an expectation when we initially put pg_standby in there. It
would be *possible* to do it, certainly. But it's not like we have an
actual plan. And AFAIK the stuff that was discussed upthread was a
simplified version of it - not the full flexibility.

That said, it's certainly a point that we'd have to maintain it. But I
don't see why we'd have to maintain it beyond the point where we
included the same functionality in core, if we did.


>> Also, the command you suggest above does not work on Windows. You can
>> probably write a .BAT file to do it for you, but I'm pretty sure it's
>> impossible to do it as an archive_command there.
>
> Perhaps we could whip up such a .BAT file and put it in the docs?

That would probably work, yes.


--Magnus HaganderMe: http://www.hagander.net/Work: http://www.redpill-linpro.com/