Non-text mode for pg_dumpall

Tom and Nathan opined recently that providing for non-text mode for 
pg_dumpall would be a Good Thing (TM). Not having it has been a 
long-standing complaint, so I've decided to give it a go.

I think we would need to restrict it to directory mode, at least to 
begin with. I would have a toc.dat with a different magic block (say 
"PGGLO" instead of "PGDMP") containing the global entries (roles, 
tablespaces, databases). Then for each database there would be a 
subdirectory (named for its toc entry) with a standard directory mode 
dump for that database. These could be generated in parallel (possibly 
by pg_dumpall calling pg_dump for each database). pg_restore on 
detecting a global type toc.data would restore the globals and then each 
of the databases (again possibly in parallel).

I'm sure there are many wrinkles I haven't thought of, but I don't see 
any insurmountable obstacles, just a significant amount of code.

Barring the unforeseen my main is to have a preliminary patch by the 
September CF.

Following that I would turn my attention to using it in pg_upgrade.


cheers


andrew

--
Andrew Dunstan
EDB: https://www.enterprisedb.com