Thank you for your response Chris. It is helping us a great deal to understand the issues around backups. Would any of the pg_xlog, pg_clog, etc change for a table that has a stable structure and data? That is, the table undergoes several inserts and then it is never updated. "Chris Browne" <cbbro...@acm.org> wrote in message news:87prdlgurv....@dba2.int.libertyrms.com... > "Carlos Oliva" <oli...@earthlink.net> writes: >> Would the backup be unrecoverable if I shutdown the databse first? > > If the backup includes pg_xlog and pg_clog, as well as all of the > database metadata files, then whatever portions *are* included are > likely to be somewhat usable. > > The portions not included in the backup will obviously not be usable. > > But supposing your backup does not include *all* metadata (e.g. - > pg_catalog), pg_xlog and pg_clog, then it is unlikely that you'll be > able to recover *anything at all* from it. > > The intent is that filesystem backups only work for complete backup > and restoration of an entire database cluster. > > Backing up *part* of your filesystem is Not Recommended in the > documentation. If you set a policy of doing so, you have to accept > that you are doing this contrary to documented recommendations, and at > considerable peril to your data. > -- > (reverse (concatenate 'string "ofni.secnanifxunil" "@" "enworbbc")) > http://cbbrowne.com/info/multiplexor.html > Rules of the Evil Overlord #25. "No matter how well it would perform, > I will never construct any sort of machinery which is completely > indestructible except for one small and virtually inaccessible > vulnerable spot." <http://www.eviloverlord.com/>
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