Re: Feature Request: bzip2 support in pg_dump, pg_restore

Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>

From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: Greg Smith <greg@2ndquadrant.com>
Cc: Daniel Migowski <dmigowski@ikoffice.de>, pgsql-general@postgresql.org
Date: 2010-08-13T14:47:30Z
Lists: pgsql-general
Greg Smith <greg@2ndquadrant.com> writes:
> Daniel Migowski wrote:
>> A small investigation showed to me that bzip2 compressed sql files 
>> take only 60% of the space of gz compressed files. Since bzip2 is 
>> fairly common today, could one add an option to pg_dump and pg_restore 
>> supporting this compression type in their custom format? Or do the 
>> PostgreSQL folks prefer no to do that regarding backwards compatibility?

> http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Developer_FAQ#Why_aren.27t_there_more_compression_options_when_dumping_tables.3F
> now has a first round answer to this topic, one that addresses the 
> things that pop up every time this discussion is raised.  There are 
> speed, code quality, code license, and patent issues all making this 
> much harder to change than is obvious at first.

Looks good.  I added the point that pg_dump output has to be readable
far into the future, so conservatism in what we support is a good thing.

			regards, tom lane