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Date: Mon, 4 May 2026 11:30:48 +0200
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Subject: Re: pgsql: pg_verifybackup: Enable WAL parsing for tar-format backups
To: Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net>,
 pgsql-committers@lists.postgresql.org
References: <E1w3fZp-000gje-31@gemulon.postgresql.org>
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From: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
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On 20.03.26 20:32, Andrew Dunstan wrote:
> pg_verifybackup: Enable WAL parsing for tar-format backups
> 
> Now that pg_waldump supports reading WAL from tar archives, remove the
> restriction that forced --no-parse-wal for tar-format backups.
> 
> pg_verifybackup now automatically locates the WAL archive: it looks for
> a separate pg_wal.tar first, then falls back to the main base.tar.  A
> new --wal-path option (replacing the old --wal-directory, which is kept
> as a silent alias) accepts either a directory or a tar archive path.

In the past, we have opted against silent aliases when changing a 
command-line option.  All options should be documented, even if they are 
deprecated.  Otherwise, it's confusing for users moving between major 
versions or those who find that undocumented options happen to work. 
See commit 35ce24c333c for an example how this was done in the past.

I suggest the option --wal-directory should be added back to the 
documentation and help output.