backup_label and server start

If the postmaster is stopped with 'pg_ctl stop' while an
online backup is in progress, the 'backup_label' file will remain
in the data directory.

There is no recovery.conf file present.

When the server is started again, it attempts to recover from
the checkpoint marked in the backup_label file even if the
shutdown was clean.

If the WAL file mentioned in backup_label is not in pg_xlog
(it has already been archived and removed because there was
enough database activity since pg_start_backup()), the startup
process will fail with a message like this:

LOG:  could not open file "pg_xlog/000000020000000000000084" (log file 0, segment 132): No such file or directory
LOG:  invalid checkpoint record
PANIC:  could not locate required checkpoint record
HINT:  If you are not restoring from a backup, try removing the file "/POSTGRES/data/PG820/backup_label".

My question:
Is it safe to just delete the file as the hint suggests?

I see the following comment in src/backend/access/transam/xlog.c:

/** read_backup_label: check to see if a backup_label file is present** If we see a backup_label during recovery, we
assumethat we are recovering* from a backup dump file, and we therefore roll forward from the checkpoint* identified by
thelabel file, NOT what pg_control says.      This avoids the* problem that pg_control might have been archived one or
morecheckpoints* later than the start of the dump, and so if we rely on it as the start* point, we will fail to restore
aconsistent database state.
 

"We will fail to restore a consistent database state"
sounds rather intimidating.

*If* - on the other hand - it is safe to follow the hint
and remove the backup_label, wouldn't it be a good thing
for the startup process to ignore (and rename) the backup_label
file if no recovery.conf is present?

Or, alternatively, the backup_label file could by removed by a
clean shutdown.

Thanks,
Laurenz Albe