Not clear sentence

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#1PG Bug reporting form
noreply@postgresql.org

The following documentation comment has been logged on the website:

Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/14/backup-dump.html
Description:

URL: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/backup-dump.html

Text: This is necessary to fully backup the cluster if running the pg_dump
command on individual databases.

Please provide an explanation or re-write the same, thanks.

#2Laurenz Albe
laurenz.albe@cybertec.at
In reply to: PG Bug reporting form (#1)
Re: Not clear sentence

On Thu, 2022-01-20 at 19:46 +0000, PG Doc comments form wrote:

Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/14/backup-dump.html
Description:

Text: This is necessary to fully backup the cluster if running the pg_dump
command on individual databases.

Please provide an explanation or re-write the same, thanks.

Hm, yes, that could be improved. Perhaps:

This is required for a full backup of the cluster that is performed
by pg_dump on the individual databases.

Yours,
Laurenz Albe

#3David G. Johnston
david.g.johnston@gmail.com
In reply to: Laurenz Albe (#2)
Re: Not clear sentence

On Fri, Jan 21, 2022 at 5:37 AM Laurenz Albe <laurenz.albe@cybertec.at>
wrote:

On Thu, 2022-01-20 at 19:46 +0000, PG Doc comments form wrote:

Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/14/backup-dump.html
Description:

Text: This is necessary to fully backup the cluster if running the

pg_dump

command on individual databases.

Please provide an explanation or re-write the same, thanks.

Hm, yes, that could be improved. Perhaps:

This is required for a full backup of the cluster that is performed
by pg_dump on the individual databases.

I don't see a problem with the existing wording. And as the OP hasn't
really described what is confusing them it is difficult to contemplate a
rewrite that would remove that confusion.

The sentence means that one must run pg_dumpall --globals-only (that is
what "this" is referring to without doubt) and add the result to their
backup (implied by the wording "necessary to fully backup"; this data is
missing...) if their backup routine consists of backing up individual
databases using the pg_dump command (exact wording).

If anything, whether one chooses to backup all databases in a cluster
individually using pg_dump is immaterial. Any single database backed up
using pg_dump is incomplete if it is restored into an empty cluster. One
must also restore the globals into that cluster first to produce a valid
restoration of that database. The existing wording implies as much (and we
rightly assume restoration into a freshly initialized cluster) so still no
word-smithing seems needed here.

But hopefully the OP is less confused now.

David J.

#4Srinivasa Meka (he/him/his)
smeka@purestorage.com
In reply to: David G. Johnston (#3)
Re: Not clear sentence

Thanks David for the explanation - balancing between TLDR and simplistic.
Those two sentences (from David) make easier to read and understand.

with regards,
Srinivasa Meka (he) | DevOps Solutions Architect
smeka@purestorage.com <mailto:smeka@purestorage.com>
==========

Show quoted text

On Jan 21, 2022, at 10:05 AM, David G. Johnston <david.g.johnston@gmail.com> wrote:

On Fri, Jan 21, 2022 at 5:37 AM Laurenz Albe <laurenz.albe@cybertec.at <mailto:laurenz.albe@cybertec.at>> wrote:
On Thu, 2022-01-20 at 19:46 +0000, PG Doc comments form wrote:

Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/14/backup-dump.html <https://www.postgresql.org/docs/14/backup-dump.html&gt;
Description:

Text: This is necessary to fully backup the cluster if running the pg_dump
command on individual databases.

Please provide an explanation or re-write the same, thanks.

Hm, yes, that could be improved. Perhaps:

This is required for a full backup of the cluster that is performed
by pg_dump on the individual databases.

I don't see a problem with the existing wording. And as the OP hasn't really described what is confusing them it is difficult to contemplate a rewrite that would remove that confusion.

The sentence means that one must run pg_dumpall --globals-only (that is what "this" is referring to without doubt) and add the result to their backup (implied by the wording "necessary to fully backup"; this data is missing...) if their backup routine consists of backing up individual databases using the pg_dump command (exact wording).

If anything, whether one chooses to backup all databases in a cluster individually using pg_dump is immaterial. Any single database backed up using pg_dump is incomplete if it is restored into an empty cluster. One must also restore the globals into that cluster first to produce a valid restoration of that database. The existing wording implies as much (and we rightly assume restoration into a freshly initialized cluster) so still no word-smithing seems needed here.

But hopefully the OP is less confused now.

David J.