Waiting for PostgreSQL 17 – Add support for incremental backup.

On 20th of December 2023, Robert Haas committed patch:

Add support for incremental backup.
 
To take an incremental backup, you use the new replication command
UPLOAD_MANIFEST to upload the manifest for the prior backup. This
prior backup could either be a full backup or another incremental
backup.  You then use BASE_BACKUP with the INCREMENTAL option to take
the backup.  pg_basebackup now has an --incremental=PATH_TO_MANIFEST
option to trigger this behavior.
 
An incremental backup is like a regular full backup except that
some relation files are replaced with files with names like
INCREMENTAL.${ORIGINAL_NAME}, and the backup_label file contains
additional lines identifying it as an incremental backup. The new
pg_combinebackup tool can be used to reconstruct a data directory
from a full backup and a series of incremental backups.
 
Patch by me.  Reviewed by Matthias van de Meent, Dilip Kumar, Jakub
Wartak, Peter Eisentraut, and Álvaro Herrera. Thanks especially to
Jakub for incredibly helpful and extensive testing.
 
Discussion: http://postgr.es/m/CA+TgmoYOYZfMCyOXFyC-P+-mdrZqm5pP2N7S-r0z3_402h9rsA@mail.gmail.com

Continue reading Waiting for PostgreSQL 17 – Add support for incremental backup.

Waiting for PostgreSQL 10 – Rename “pg_xlog” directory to “pg_wal”.

On 20th of October, Robert Haas committed patch:

Rename "pg_xlog" directory to "pg_wal".
 
"xlog" is not a particularly clear abbreviation for "write-ahead log",
and it sometimes confuses users into believe that the contents of the
"pg_xlog" directory are not critical data, leading to unpleasant
consequences.  So, rename the directory to "pg_wal".
 
This patch modifies pg_upgrade and pg_basebackup to understand both
the old and new directory layouts; the former is necessary given the
purpose of the tool, while the latter merely avoids an unnecessary
backward-compatibility break.
 
We may wish to consider renaming other programs, switches, and
functions which still use the old "xlog" naming to also refer to
"wal".  However, that's still under discussion, so let's do just this
much for now.
 
Discussion: CAB7nPqTeC-8+zux8_-4ZD46V7YPwooeFxgndfsq5Rg8ibLVm1A@mail.gmail.com
 
Michael Paquier

discussion link

Continue reading Waiting for PostgreSQL 10 – Rename “pg_xlog" directory to “pg_wal".

Waiting for 9.4 – Allow BASE_BACKUP to be throttled

On 27th of February, Alvaro Herrera committed patch:

Allow BASE_BACKUP to be throttled
 
A new MAX_RATE option allows imposing a limit to the network transfer
rate from the server side.  This is useful to limit the stress that
taking a base backup has on the server.
 
pg_basebackup is now able to specify a value to the server, too.
 
Author: Antonin Houska
 
Patch reviewed by Stefan Radomski, Andres Freund, Zoltán Böszörményi,
Fujii Masao, and Álvaro Herrera.

Continue reading Waiting for 9.4 – Allow BASE_BACKUP to be throttled

Waiting for 9.4 – pg_basebackup: Add support for relocating tablespaces

On 22nd of February, Peter Eisentraut committed patch:

pg_basebackup: Add support for relocating tablespaces
 
Tablespaces can be relocated in plain backup mode by specifying one or
more -T olddir=newdir options.
 
Author: Steeve Lennmark
Reviewed-by: Peter Eisentraut

Continue reading Waiting for 9.4 – pg_basebackup: Add support for relocating tablespaces

Waiting for 9.2 – pg_basebackup from slave

On 25th of January, Simon Riggs committed patch:

Allow pg_basebackup from standby node with safety checking.
Base backup follows recommended procedure, plus goes to great
lengths to ensure that partial page writes are avoided.
 
Jun Ishizuka and Fujii Masao, with minor modifications

Continue reading Waiting for 9.2 – pg_basebackup from slave

Waiting for 9.1 – pg_basebackup

On 23rd of January, Magnus Hagander committed patch which adds:

Add pg_basebackup tool for streaming base backups
 
This tool makes it possible to do the pg_start_backup/
copy files/pg_stop_backup step in a single command.
 
There are still some steps to be done before this is a
complete backup solution, such as the ability to stream
the required WAL logs, but it's still usable, and
could do with some buildfarm coverage.
 
In passing, make the checkpoint request optionally
fast instead of hardcoding it.
 
Magnus Hagander, reviewed by Fujii Masao and Dimitri Fontaine

Continue reading Waiting for 9.1 – pg_basebackup

Waiting for 9.1 – pg_stat_replication

On 7th of January (I know, it was quite some time ago, I apologize for delay) Itagaki Takahiro committed patch:

New system view pg_stat_replication displays activity of wal sender processes.
 
Itagaki Takahiro and Simon Riggs.

Continue reading Waiting for 9.1 – pg_stat_replication