Refactor handling of "-only" options in pg_dump, pg_restore

From: jian he <jian.universality@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, March 02, 2026 12:57
To: PostgreSQL-development <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>
Subject: Refactor handling of "-only" options in pg_dump, pg_restore

Hi.

-------------------------------<<<<<<<
    /* reject conflicting "-only" options */
    if (data_only && schema_only)
        pg_fatal("options %s and %s cannot be used together",
                 "-s/--schema-only", "-a/--data-only");
    if (schema_only && statistics_only)
        pg_fatal("options %s and %s cannot be used together",
                 "-s/--schema-only", "--statistics-only");
    if (data_only && statistics_only)
        pg_fatal("options %s and %s cannot be used together",
                 "-a/--data-only", "--statistics-only");

    /* reject conflicting "-only" options */
    if (data_only && with_statistics)
        pg_fatal("options %s and %s cannot be used together",
                 "-a/--data-only", "--statistics");
    if (schema_only && with_statistics)
        pg_fatal("options %s and %s cannot be used together",
                 "-s/--schema-only", "--statistics");
-------------------------------<<<<<<<
The above is from src/bin/pg_dump/pg_dump.c, this is too much.

We can just use two IF statements:
    if (data_only && (schema_only || with_statistics || statistics_only))
        pg_fatal("options %s and %s cannot be used together",
                 "-a/--data-only",
                 schema_only ? "-s/--schema-only" :
                 with_statistics ? "--statistics" :
                 "--statistics-only");

    if (schema_only && (with_statistics || statistics_only))
        pg_fatal("options %s and %s cannot be used together",
                 "-s/--schema-only",
                 with_statistics ? "--statistics" :
                 "--statistics-only");

First "if (data_only && (schema_only" implies that the second IF check
won't have a combination
of `` if (schema_only && (data_only``.
Maybe we can use ELSE IF here.

We can do the same thing for pg_restore.c

--
jian
https://www.enterprisedb.com/

Hi, jian,

Your change makes the code cleaner and easier to read. I like the idea.
Also I applied your patch locally and the make passed, "make check" in the src/bin/pg_dump also passed.

Regards,
Steven

Hello

Simple patch and looks good, just one very minor about this comment:

/* reject conflicting "-only" options */

I would either remove the comment or the "-only" part, as that's no longer true.
(I see that it was there earlier in the later if, and it was similarly
incorrect. So this is not new with the patch, but still seems wrong)

Hi.

Most of the code changes are very similar to
https://git.postgresql.org/cgit/postgresql.git/commit/?id=b2898baaf7e40a187de5b0134d53d944b38209cd
The change in pg_restore.c is more invasive, so I separated it from pg_dump.

--
jian
https://www.enterprisedb.com/

On Mon, Mar 09, 2026 at 04:15:42PM +0800, jian he wrote:

Most of the code changes are very similar to
https://git.postgresql.org/cgit/postgresql.git/commit/?id=b2898baaf7e40a187de5b0134d53d944b38209cd
The change in pg_restore.c is more invasive, so I separated it from pg_dump.

Committed, thanks.

--
nathan