Glen Parker <glenebob@xxxxxxxxxx> writes: >> Tarring hot database files still gives me the willies. But then, I >> wear belt and suspenders. > I understand. A list of "file changed while we read it" errors is just > a little unnerving at first! > I did quite a few end to end backup/PITR tests, and no matter what I did > to the DB during backup, no matter how many errors tar or cpio produced, > I have been unable to find any problems with the end result. In theory, at least, this is exactly as reliable as Postgres' crash recovery: it's essentially the same mechanism that gets us back to a consistent state on-disk after a crash. So don't worry too much about all those gripes from tar. (The only real problem with 'em is they might distract you from a more serious problem, like out-of-space.) regards, tom lane
