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/postgresql  and /var/backups/postgresql/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.

       deletebroken
           Remove all broken backups.

       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 broken backup directory on error. By default backups are deleted on error.  Broken  backups  can
           be cleaned up using the deletebroken action.

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

       -Z level --compress=level
           Passed  to  pg_dump, pg_basebackup and pg_receivewal.  Default is pg_dump's default compression, gzip
           for pg_basebackup, and 5 for pg_receivewal.

FILES

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

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

       /var/backups/postgresql/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/postgresql/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/postgresql/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                                             2025-02-20                                PG_BACKUPCLUSTER(1)