On Wed, Dec 06, 2017 at 12:52:53PM +0000, Martin Mueller wrote: >> Are there rules for thumb for deciding when you can dump a >> whole database and when you’d be better off dumping groups of >> tables? >> It seems to me we'd have to define the objective of "dumping" first ? > The objective is to create a backup from which I can > restore any or all tables in the event of a crash. I see. "Any or all" speaks in recommendation of non-plain output formats _if_ using pg_dump. > In my case, I use Postgres for my own scholarly purposes. > Publications of whatever kind are not directly made public > via the database. I am my only customer, and a service > interruption, while a nuisance to me, does not create a > crisis for others. I don’t want to lose my work, but a > service interruption of a day or a week is no big deal. In that case I would stick to pg_dump, perhaps with directory format and then tarred and compressed, until you notice actual problems (unbearable slowdown of the machine during backup, running out of disk space). My 2 cents, Karsten -- GPG key ID E4071346 @ eu.pool.sks-keyservers.net E167 67FD A291 2BEA 73BD 4537 78B9 A9F9 E407 1346
