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From: Ron Johnson <ronljohnsonjr@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2024 19:36:34 -0400
Message-ID: <CANzqJaDonyXAvPpNi5ZX3WUrCCxXfPHAzOKqab29Zq-WZ5UEaQ@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Purpose of pg_dump tar archive format?
To: pgsql-general <pgsql-general@postgresql.org>
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On Tue, Jun 4, 2024 at 3:47=E2=80=AFPM Gavin Roy <gavinr@aweber.com> wrote:

>
> On Tue, Jun 4, 2024 at 3:15=E2=80=AFPM Ron Johnson <ronljohnsonjr@gmail.c=
om>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> But why tar instead of custom? That was part of my original question.
>>
>
> I've found it pretty useful for programmatically accessing data in a dump
> for large databases outside of the normal pg_dump/pg_restore workflow. Yo=
u
> don't have to seek through one large binary file to get to the data secti=
on
> to get at the data.
>

Interesting.  Please explain, though, since a big tarball _is_ "one large
binary file" that you have to sequentially scan.  (I don't know the
internal structure of custom format files, and whether they have file
pointers to each table.)

Is it because you need individual .dat "COPY" files for something other
than loading into PG tables (since pg_restore --table=3Dxxxx does that, too=
),
and directory format archives can be inconvenient?

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<div dir=3D"ltr"><div dir=3D"ltr">On Tue, Jun 4, 2024 at 3:47=E2=80=AFPM Ga=
vin Roy &lt;<a href=3D"mailto:gavinr@aweber.com">gavinr@aweber.com</a>&gt; =
wrote:<br></div><div class=3D"gmail_quote"><blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote=
" style=3D"margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);=
padding-left:1ex"><div dir=3D"ltr"><div dir=3D"ltr"></div><br><div class=3D=
"gmail_quote"><div dir=3D"ltr" class=3D"gmail_attr">On Tue, Jun 4, 2024 at =
3:15=E2=80=AFPM Ron Johnson &lt;<a href=3D"mailto:ronljohnsonjr@gmail.com" =
target=3D"_blank">ronljohnsonjr@gmail.com</a>&gt; wrote:<br></div><blockquo=
te class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px =
solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir=3D"ltr"><div dir=3D"ltr">=
<br></div><div class=3D"gmail_quote"><div>But why tar instead of custom? Th=
at was part of my original question.</div></div></div></blockquote></div><d=
iv><br></div>I&#39;ve found it pretty useful for programmatically accessing=
 data in a dump for large databases outside of the normal pg_dump/pg_restor=
e workflow. You don&#39;t have to seek through one large binary file to get=
 to the data section to get at the data.<br></div></blockquote><div><br></d=
iv><div>Interesting.=C2=A0 Please explain, though, since a big tarball _is_=
 &quot;one large binary file&quot; that you have to sequentially scan.=C2=
=A0 (I don&#39;t know the internal structure of custom format files, and wh=
ether they have file pointers to each=C2=A0table.)</div><div><br></div><div=
>Is it because you need individual .dat=C2=A0&quot;COPY&quot; files for som=
ething other than loading into PG tables (since pg_restore --table=3Dxxxx d=
oes that, too), and directory format archives can be inconvenient?</div><di=
v><br></div></div></div>

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