Subject: Re: pg_basebackup with a twist?
To: Ray Stell <stellr@vt.edu>, pgsql-admin@lists.postgresql.org
References: <f40ed60f-89b8-0b39-5c03-3ddbaca40b3c@vt.edu>
From: Peter Eisentraut <peter.eisentraut@2ndquadrant.com>
Organization: 2ndQuadrant
Message-ID: <dbb38452-4325-ce25-fd8b-a93aef75f0d2@2ndquadrant.com>
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2018 16:11:12 -0500
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On 2/2/18 14:40, Ray Stell wrote:
> I have a fairly busy primary that I put a symlink in to move pg_xlog 
> over to another I/O subsystem.   I was going to build a standby with 
> pg_basebackup running the command from the standby host.  I thought 
> maybe I could put the symlink in on the new standby, but no go:  
> "pg_basebackup: directory "/database/test.basebackup/" exists but is not 
> empty" as documented.  Is the only way to do this to "fix" it up after 
> the restore?   I want to use the "-x" option in order to get the WAL 
> during the backup.  Just curious, my guess is I'll have to build the 
> stby from a intermediate file.  TIA.

pg_basebackup has a --waldir or --xlogdir (depending on version) option
for this, analogous to initdb.

-- 
Peter Eisentraut              http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Remote DBA, Training & Services