Thread: pg_restore ignores PGDATABASE
pg_restore ignores environment variable PGDATABASE. Is this intentional? (perhaps because of the risk of restoring into the wrong db?) I would prefer if it would honor the PGDATABASE variable, but if it does ignore it intentionally, the following (from 9.2devel docs) is obviously incorrect: "This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment variables supported by libpq (see Section 31.13)." I could look into fixing one (binary) or the other (docs), but what /is/ the preferred behavior? thanks, Erik Rijkers
On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 11:58 AM, Erik Rijkers <er@xs4all.nl> wrote: > pg_restore ignores environment variable PGDATABASE. What exactly do you mean by "ignores"? pg_restore prints results to standard output unless a database name is specified. AFAIK, there's no syntax to say "I want a direct-to-database restore to whatever you think the default database is". -- Robert Haas EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company
On Sun, February 19, 2012 06:27, Robert Haas wrote: > On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 11:58 AM, Erik Rijkers <er@xs4all.nl> wrote: >> pg_restore ignores environment variable PGDATABASE. > > What exactly do you mean by "ignores"? pg_restore prints results to > standard output unless a database name is specified. AFAIK, there's > no syntax to say "I want a direct-to-database restore to whatever you > think the default database is". That's right, and that seems contradictory with: "This utility [pg_restore], like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment variables supported by libpq (see Section 31.13)." as pg_restore does 'ignore' (for want of a better word) PGDATABASE. But I think I can conclude from your reply that that behaviour is indeed intentional. thanks, Erik Rijkers
On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 1:18 AM, Erik Rijkers <er@xs4all.nl> wrote: > On Sun, February 19, 2012 06:27, Robert Haas wrote: >> On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 11:58 AM, Erik Rijkers <er@xs4all.nl> wrote: >>> pg_restore ignores environment variable PGDATABASE. >> >> What exactly do you mean by "ignores"? pg_restore prints results to >> standard output unless a database name is specified. AFAIK, there's >> no syntax to say "I want a direct-to-database restore to whatever you >> think the default database is". > > That's right, and that seems contradictory with: > > "This utility [pg_restore], like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment > variables supported by libpq (see Section 31.13)." > > as pg_restore does 'ignore' (for want of a better word) PGDATABASE. > > But I think I can conclude from your reply that that behaviour is indeed intentional. It is, because we want there to be a way of converting a custom or tar format archive back to text. I think that probably works out for the best anyway, since pg_restore is a sufficiently dangerous operation that you want to be darn sure you're not doing it on the wrong database. dropdb also requires a database name, while createdb does not, for similar reasons... -- Robert Haas EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company
On 02/19/2012 08:02 AM, Robert Haas wrote: > On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 1:18 AM, Erik Rijkers<er@xs4all.nl> wrote: >> On Sun, February 19, 2012 06:27, Robert Haas wrote: >>> On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 11:58 AM, Erik Rijkers<er@xs4all.nl> wrote: >>>> pg_restore ignores environment variable PGDATABASE. >>> What exactly do you mean by "ignores"? pg_restore prints results to >>> standard output unless a database name is specified. AFAIK, there's >>> no syntax to say "I want a direct-to-database restore to whatever you >>> think the default database is". >> That's right, and that seems contradictory with: >> >> "This utility [pg_restore], like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment >> variables supported by libpq (see Section 31.13)." >> >> as pg_restore does 'ignore' (for want of a better word) PGDATABASE. >> >> But I think I can conclude from your reply that that behaviour is indeed intentional. > It is, because we want there to be a way of converting a custom or tar > format archive back to text. I think that probably works out for the > best anyway, since pg_restore is a sufficiently dangerous operation > that you want to be darn sure you're not doing it on the wrong > database. dropdb also requires a database name, while createdb does > not, for similar reasons... Right, I think we probably need to adjust the docs slightly to match this reality. cheers andrew
On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 10:25:55AM -0500, Andrew Dunstan wrote: > > > On 02/19/2012 08:02 AM, Robert Haas wrote: > >On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 1:18 AM, Erik Rijkers<er@xs4all.nl> wrote: > >>On Sun, February 19, 2012 06:27, Robert Haas wrote: > >>>On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 11:58 AM, Erik Rijkers<er@xs4all.nl> wrote: > >>>>pg_restore ignores environment variable PGDATABASE. > >>>What exactly do you mean by "ignores"? pg_restore prints results to > >>>standard output unless a database name is specified. AFAIK, there's > >>>no syntax to say "I want a direct-to-database restore to whatever you > >>>think the default database is". > >>That's right, and that seems contradictory with: > >> > >>"This utility [pg_restore], like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment > >>variables supported by libpq (see Section 31.13)." > >> > >>as pg_restore does 'ignore' (for want of a better word) PGDATABASE. > >> > >>But I think I can conclude from your reply that that behaviour is indeed intentional. > >It is, because we want there to be a way of converting a custom or tar > >format archive back to text. I think that probably works out for the > >best anyway, since pg_restore is a sufficiently dangerous operation > >that you want to be darn sure you're not doing it on the wrong > >database. dropdb also requires a database name, while createdb does > >not, for similar reasons... > > Right, I think we probably need to adjust the docs slightly to match > this reality. Done, with the attached patch. -- Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> http://momjian.us EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com + It's impossible for everything to be true. +