Assuming that this might require a patch, i am posting this in pgsql-hackers. Apologies, if this is not the appropriate mailing list to start this discussion.
I performed a PITR and saw the below message in the log file is a bit confusing.
2015-03-23 13:49:09.816 GMT-10 DB= PID=4707 LOG: database system was interrupted; last known up at 2015-03-23 10:30:26 GMT-10 2015-03-23 13:49:09.817 GMT-10 DB= PID=4707 LOG: starting point-in-time recovery to 2015-03-23 10:00:26+10 2015-03-23 13:49:09.827 GMT-10 DB= PID=4707 LOG: restored log file "000000010000000B00000020" from archive 2015-03-23 13:49:09.888 GMT-10 DB= PID=4707 LOG: redo starts at B/20000090 2015-03-23 13:49:09.937 GMT-10 DB= PID=4707 LOG: consistent recovery state reached at B/200000B8 2015-03-23 13:49:09.947 GMT-10 DB= PID=4707 LOG: restored log file "000000010000000B00000021" from archive 2015-03-23 13:49:09.950 GMT-10 DB= PID=4707 LOG: recovery stopping before commit of transaction 16267, time 2015-03-23 13:22:37.53007+10
By mistake i gave "recovery_target_time" as 10:00 GMT which is 25/30 minutes behind the backup start/end time registered in the backup_label.
The parameter recovery_target_time is ignored and recovery proceeds further applying all the available WAL Archive files finally ends up bringing up the database.
I think it would make sense if the recovery does not proceed any further and error out with a message like "recovery_target_time is behind the backup time.. please consider using the backup taken prior to the recovery_target_time"
