NAME

       pg_backupcluster - simple pg_basebackup and pg_dump front-end

SYNOPSIS

       pg_backupcluster [options] version cluster action

DESCRIPTION

       pg_backupcluster provides a simple interface to create PostgreSQL cluster backups using pg_basebackup(1)
       and pg_dump(1).

       To ease integration with systemd operation, the alternative syntax "pg_basebackup version-cluster action"
       is also supported.

ACTIONS

       createdirectory
           Create  /var/backups  and /var/backups/version-cluster.  This action can be run as root to create the
           directories required for backups.  All other actions will also attempt to create the directories when
           missing, but can of course only do that when running as root. They will switch to the  cluster  owner
           after this step.

       basebackup
           Backup  using  pg_basebackup(1).  The  resulting  basebackup  contains  the WAL files required to run
           recovery on startup.

       dump
           Backup  using  pg_dump(1).  Global  objects  (users,  tablespaces)  are  dumped  using  pg_dumpall(1)
           --globals-only. Individual databases are dumped into PostgreSQL's custom format.

       expirebasebackups N
           Remove all but last the N basebackups.

       expiredumps N
           Remove all but last the N dumps.

       receivewal
           Launch pg_receivewal. WAL files are gzip-compressed in PG 10+.

       compresswal
           Compress WAL files in archive.

       archivecleanup
           Remove obsolete WAL files from archive using pg_archivecleanup(1).

       list
           Show dumps, basebackups, and WAL, with size.

OPTIONS

       -c --checkpoint=spread|fast
           Passed to pg_basebackup. Default is spread.

       -k --keep-on-error
           Keep faulty backup directory on error. By default backups are delete on error.

       -v --verbose
           Verbose output, even when not running on a terminal.

FILES

       /var/backups
           Default root directory for cluster backup directories.

       /var/backups/version-cluster
           Default directory for cluster backups.

       /var/backups/version-cluster/timestamp.basebackup
           Backup from pg_backupcluster ... basebackup.

           config.tar.gz
               Tarball   of   cluster   configuration   directory   (postgresql.conf,   pg_hba.conf,   ...)   in
               /etc/postgresql.

           tablespace.tar.gz, pg_wal.tar.gz, backup_manifest
               Tablespace and WAL tarballs and backup info written by pg_basebackup.

           status
               Completion timestamp of backup run.

       /var/backups/version-cluster/timestamp.dump
           Backup from pg_backupcluster ... dump.

           config.tar.gz
               Tarball  of   cluster   configuration   directory   (postgresql.conf,   pg_hba.conf,   ...)    in
               /etc/postgresql.

           createcluster.opts
               Options  (encoding,  locale,  data checksums) to be passed to pg_createcluster for restoring this
               cluster.

           globals.sql
               Global objects (roles, tablespaces) from pg_dumpall --globals-only.

           databases.sql
               SQL commands to create databases and restore database-level options.

           database.dump
               Database dumps from pg_dump --format=custom.

           status
               Completion timestamp of backup run.

       /var/backups/version-cluster/wal
           WAL files from pg_receivewal.

CAVEATS

       For dump-style backups, not all properties of the original cluster are preserved:

       • In PostgreSQL 10 and earlier, ALTER ROLE ... IN DATABASE is not supported.

       • Not  all  initdb  options  are  carried  over.  Currently  supported  are   --encoding,   --lc-collate,
         --lc-collate, and -k --data-checksums.

       The  earliest  PostgreSQL  version  supported  for dumps is 9.3.  For basebackups, the earliest supported
       version is 9.1.  receivewal (and hence archive recovery) are supported in 9.5 and later.

SEE ALSO

       pg_restorecluster(1),      pg_dump(1),      pg_dumpall(1),      pg_basebackup(1),       pg_receivewal(1),
       pg_archivecleanup(1).

AUTHOR

       Christoph Berg <myon@debian.org>

Debian                                             2024-08-09                                PG_BACKUPCLUSTER(1)