Thread: PG_RESTORE and database size

Marcus Couto wrote:
> Here's a basic question. On working with backing up and restoring it
> seems like if I keep on doing it in a row, the backup file size keeps
> on increasing in size. It almost doubles in size for every
> backup/restore. I want the restore the backup to overwrite the
> database and not add to it. Is there another procedure I'm missing or
> a parameter I'm not using right with pg_restore and pg_dump?

If I were to ask you about vacuum-ing would you know what I was talking
about? If not, check the manuals and read up on the topic.

--
   Richard Huxton
   Archonet Ltd

"Marcus Couto" <marcus_couto@hotmail.com> writes:
> Here's a basic question. On working with backing up and restoring it =
> seems like if I keep on doing it in a row, the backup file size keeps on =
> increasing in size. It almost doubles in size for every backup/restore. =
> I want the restore the backup to overwrite the database and not add to =
> it. Is there another procedure I'm missing or a parameter I'm not using =
> right with pg_restore and pg_dump?

Why are you restoring into a live database?  It sounds to me like you
are probably ignoring a lot of object-already-exists errors from
pg_restore and then having it add on duplicate data to the tables.

Usually people drop the database and recreate it empty before running
pg_restore.  There is a switch named --clean or something like that
to make pg_restore emit DROP commands before recreating objects, but
hardly anyone uses it because it's usually slower than dropping the
whole database at once.

            regards, tom lane