Re: pg_backup symlink? - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

At 02:23 12/07/00 +0200, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
>
>IMHO, it's a bad strategy to add symlinks as shortcuts to certain
>options. Where would that ever lead? 

I suppose the glib answer is "to a more convenient and easy to use tool" 8-}.

>There are tons of options settings I
>use "most often" in various programs, but for that you can use shells
>aliases or scripts, or the program provides an environment variable for
>default options.

In this case I view pg_dump's default behaviour as an anachronism caused by
compatibility issues, not a feature. Dumping to text without blobs is like
asking ls to only list files whose names are in lower case.


>The default behaviour of pg_dump (or pg_backup or whatever) should be to
>write plain text to stdout. If you want to write format "foo", use the
>-Ffoo option. If you want to dump blobs, use the --blob option. That makes
>sense.

With a symlink, that's what you get. You will still be able to add '-Ffoo'
to pg_dump (or -Fp to pg_backup)


>You're really trying to force certain usage patterns by labeling one
>invocation "backup" and another "dump". I can foresee the user problems:
>"No, you have to use pg_dump for that, not pg_backup!"

The actualy answer to the question is: "either use 'pg_dump -Fc --blob', or
just use pg_backup, whichever you find easiest to remember".

This works both ways: "I used pg_dump to backup my db, but it doesn't
contain the blobs" - I've certainly seen that message a few times. Both
issues are solved by documentation. 

Until a scipt file can import blob data directly from stdin, a text file
can not be used to backup blobs, so the default behaviour of pg_dump is
unsuitable for backups.


>We're still
>battling that sympton in the createdb vs CREATE DATABASE case.

My guess is these issues were also created by legacy code.


>What's wrong with just having pg_dump, period? After all pg_dump isn't
>something you use like `ls' or `cat' where every extra keystroke is a
>pain.

No, but for less commonly used utilities, it's probably more important to
have a simple way invoke a basic, important, function.



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