Message-ID: <4D40B81C.2030600@postnewspapers.com.au>
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 08:11:08 +0800
From: Craig Ringer <craig@postnewspapers.com.au>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US;
	rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101209 Fedora/3.1.7-0.35.b3pre.fc14
	Thunderbird/3.1.7
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: manuel antonio ochoa <manuel8aalfaro@gmail.com>,
	postgres list <pgsql-sql@postgresql.org>
Subject: Re: check files .backup
References: <AANLkTikd3Z_kyXDDX1AZ6J-J179o5+DN5o9g79tXEzFQ@mail.gmail.com>
	<4D3E635D.9060309@postnewspapers.com.au>
	<AANLkTin14r=Hsht1BDASHpJRZ6BrMj9Qk16Nco_b2M_R@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTin14r=Hsht1BDASHpJRZ6BrMj9Qk16Nco_b2M_R@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

On 01/25/2011 11:14 PM, manuel antonio ochoa wrote:
> I would like it complete and not truncated? That it hasn't been modified
> since being
> originally written?

OK. First, check the exit code from pg_backup so you detect any 
failures. The exit code is reported by the shell on UNIX systems in the 
$? variable, but you can usually just do something like the following 
(untested):

if ! pg_backup .... ; then
   logger -p crit "pg_backup failed"
   mail -s "Pg backup failed" someone@yourcompany <<__END__
   The latest backup failed. Check the logs for why, and
   fix it!
__END__
fi


Second: after writing the backup, calculate an md5sum or (preferably) 
digitally sign the backup using gpg. An md5sum is only really protection 
against corruption unless you store it somewhere separate and secure. I 
prefer to digitally sign my backups with detached gpg signatures.

--
Craig Ringer