On Mon, Jun 8, 2015 at 12:09 AM, Michael Paquier <michael.paquier@gmail.com> wrote: >> Recently, one of our customers has had a basebackup fail because pg_log >> contained files that were >8GB: >> FATAL: archive member "pg_log/postgresql-20150119.log" too large for tar format >> >> I think pg_basebackup should also skip pg_log entries, as it does for >> pg_stats_temp and pg_replslot, etc. I've attached a patch along those >> lines for discussion. > > And a recent discussion about that is this one: > http://www.postgresql.org/message-id/82897A1301080E4B8E461DDAA0FFCF142A1B2660@SYD1216 > Bringing the point: some users may want to keep log files in a base > backup, and some users may want to skip some of them, and not only > pg_log. Hence we may want more flexibility than what is proposed here.
That seems pretty thin. If you're taking a base backup, your goal is to create a standby.
Mine goal isn't that. My goal is to have a consistent backup without having to shut down the server to take a cold one, or having to manually juggle the pg_start_backup, etc. commands. I do occasionally use it start up a standby for training/testing purposes, but mostly it is for D-R (in which I would rather have the logs) and for cloning test/dev/QA environments (in which case I go delete the logs if I don't want them)
Copying logs is in no way an integral part of that, and we would not copy them if they were stored outside the data directory. If we accept the proposal that this needs to be more complicated, will we also accept a proposal to make pg_basebackup include relevant files from /var/log when the PostgreSQL logs are stored there?
I think it is pretty intuitive that if you have your logs go to pg_log, they get backed up with the other pg_ stuff, and if you change it go elsewhere, then you need to handle it yourself.
