From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net>
cc: Noah Misch <noah@leadboat.com>,
 Mahendra Singh Thalor <mahi6run@gmail.com>,
        =?UTF-8?Q?=C3=81lvaro_Herrera?= <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org>,
        jian he <jian.universality@gmail.com>,
        Srinath Reddy <srinath2133@gmail.com>,
        pgsql-hackers@lists.postgresql.org
Subject: Re: Non-text mode for pg_dumpall
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Comments: In-reply-to Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net>
	message dated "Fri, 25 Jul 2025 15:31:47 -0400"
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Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2025 16:59:29 -0400
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Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net> writes:
> Before we throw the baby out with the bathwater, how about this 
> suggestion? pg_dumpall would continue to produce globals.dat, but it 
> wouldn't be processed by pg_restore, which would only restore the 
> individual databases. Or else we just don't produce globals.dat at all. 
> Then we could introduce a structured object that pg_restore could safely 
> use for release 19, and I think we'd still have something useful for 
> release 18.

I dunno ... that seems like a pretty weird behavior.  People would
have to do a separate text-mode "pg_dumpall -g" and remember to
restore that too.  Admittedly, this could be more convenient than
"pg_dumpall -g" plus separately pg_dump'ing each database, which is
what people have to do today if they want anything smarter than a flat
text dumpfile.  But it still seems like a hack --- and it would not be
compatible with v19, where presumably "pg_dumpall | pg_restore"
*would* restore globals.  I think that the prospect of changing
dump/restore scripts and then having to change them again in v19
isn't too appetizing.

			regards, tom lane