pg_dump and schema namespace notes

Any comments on this? It seems like a valid confusion. What solutions
are there?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rory Campbell-Lange wrote:

I think this is a suggestion/comment!

pg_dump man page:

--schema-only
Dump only the schema (data definitions), no data

I think this use of the word schema is confusing, meaning data
definitions, whereas elsewhere in the man page schema are used as a
namespace definition.

--schema=schema
Dump the contents of schema only. If this option is not
speci- fied, all non-system schemas in the target
database will be dumped

It would be nice if this could be a comman separated list (like set
search_path; A,info,public etc).

Rory
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Bruce Momjian wrote:

Any comments on this? It seems like a valid confusion. What solutions
are there?

A common interchangeable title for schema is namespace and in actuality
we use \dn in psql (\dnamespace)
to list them.

Perhaps we should change the name? I believe Oracle uses the term
namespace as well.

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rory Campbell-Lange wrote:

I think this is a suggestion/comment!

pg_dump man page:

--schema-only
Dump only the schema (data definitions), no data

I think this use of the word schema is confusing, meaning data
definitions, whereas elsewhere in the man page schema are used as a
namespace definition.

--schema=schema
Dump the contents of schema only. If this option is not
speci- fied, all non-system schemas in the target
database will be dumped

It would be nice if this could be a comman separated list (like set
search_path; A,info,public etc).

Rory
--
Rory Campbell-Lange
<rory@campbell-lange.net>
<www.campbell-lange.net>

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Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us> writes:

Any comments on this? It seems like a valid confusion. What solutions
are there?

I think we're stuck. We can't avoid the fact that the SQL syntax uses
the keyword SCHEMA to mean a namespace. We also can't avoid the very
common usage of "database schema" to mean the logical structure of your
table collection. Trying to redefine or avoid either of these terms is
hopeless. Maybe we could add some text in the tutorial to point out
the double meaning?

regards, tom lane

Rory Campbell-Lange wrote:

I think this is a suggestion/comment!

pg_dump man page:

--schema-only
Dump only the schema (data definitions), no data

I think this use of the word schema is confusing, meaning data
definitions, whereas elsewhere in the man page schema are used as a
namespace definition.

--schema=schema
Dump the contents of schema only. If this option is not
speci- fied, all non-system schemas in the target
database will be dumped

It would be nice if this could be a comman separated list (like set
search_path; A,info,public etc).

I have updated the pg_dump manual page to more clearly distinguish the
two meanings of "schema". I referred to "object definitions" more
frequently.

Applied patch attached.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 359-1001
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  13 Roberts Road
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073