Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2021 13:19:23 -0400
From: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>
To: Jeremy Schneider <schneider@ardentperf.com>
Cc: Bharath Rupireddy <bharath.rupireddyforpostgres@gmail.com>,
	PostgreSQL Hackers <pgsql-hackers@lists.postgresql.org>,
	satyanarlapuram@gmail.com, marvin_liang@qq.com,
	actyzhang@outlook.com, Ashutosh Sharma <ashu.coek88@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: pg_walinspect - a new extension to get raw WAL data and WAL stats
Message-ID: <20211006171923.GD20296@momjian.us>
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On Wed, Oct  6, 2021 at 09:56:34AM -0700, Jeremy Schneider wrote:
> On 10/5/21 17:43, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> > On Tue, Oct  5, 2021 at 03:30:07PM -0700, Jeremy Schneider wrote:
> >> Specifically exposing pg_waldump functionality in SQL could speed up
> >> finding bugs in the PG logical replication code. We found and fixed a
> >> few over this past year, but there are more lurking out there.
> > 
> > Uh, why is pg_waldump more important than other command line tool
> > information?
> 
> Going down the list of all other utilities in src/bin:
> 
> * pg_amcheck, pg_config, pg_controldata: already available in SQL
> * psql, pgbench, pg_dump: already available as client-side apps
> * initdb, pg_archivecleanup, pg_basebackup, pg_checksums, pg_ctl,
> pg_resetwal, pg_rewind, pg_upgrade, pg_verifybackup: can't think of any
> possible use case outside server OS access, most of these are too low
> level and don't even make sense in SQL
> * pg_test_fsync, pg_test_timing: marginally interesting ideas in SQL,
> don't feel any deep interest myself
> 
> Speaking selfishly, there are a few reasons I would be specifically
> interested in pg_waldump (the only remaining one on the list).

This is the analysis I was looking for to understand if copying the
features of command-line tools in extensions was a wise direction.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        https://momjian.us
  EDB                                      https://enterprisedb.com

  If only the physical world exists, free will is an illusion.