PG_BACKUPCLUSTER(1) Debian PostgreSQL infrastructure PG_BACKUPCLUSTER(1)
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 2025-05-07 PG_BACKUPCLUSTER(1)
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