On Wed, Oct 7, 2020 at 5:47 PM David G. Johnston <david.g.johns...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 7, 2020 at 2:35 PM Jeff Janes <jeff.ja...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Quoting the docs: >> >> https://www.postgresql.org/docs/13/continuous-archiving.html >> >> "As with base backups, the easiest way to produce a standalone hot backup >> is to use the pg_basebackup tool. If you include the -X parameter when >> calling it, all the write-ahead log required to use the backup will be >> included in the backup automatically, and no special action is required to >> restore the backup." >> >> This makes it sound like -X is a switch option, when in fact it demands >> an argument. The statement made is incorrect if the supplied argument is >> "none", but is correct for the other two options. Should this be changed >> to spell out which options it applies to (or maybe which option it does not >> apply to). >> > > Just reading the doc page for pg_basebackup: "stream" is the default > method value for this option. So if you just include "-X" you get "stream" > which is indeed a mode that just works and the continuous archiving section > you quote is correct. > > I'm not really sure I like the idea that we don't indicate which > pg_basebackup key-value argument values are optional and which are > mandatory. > > David J. > > Stream is the default if you don't specify -X at all. If you specify -X but with no argument for it, you get an error. pg_basebackup: option requires an argument -- 'X' Try "pg_basebackup --help" for more information. (Which is also a bit confusing, I would expect a default to apply when the option is specified without an argument, as opposed to when the option itself it is not specified ) Cheers, Jeff
