Thread

1. pg_restore ignores PGDATABASE

   Erik Rijkers <er@xs4all.nl> — 2012-02-18T16:58:19Z

   pg_restore ignores environment variable PGDATABASE.
   
   Is this intentional?  (perhaps because of the risk of restoring into the wrong db?)
   
   I would prefer if it would honor the PGDATABASE variable, but if it does ignore it intentionally,
   the following (from 9.2devel docs) is obviously incorrect:
   
   "This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment variables supported
   by libpq (see Section 31.13)."
   
   I could look into fixing one (binary) or the other (docs), but what /is/ the preferred behavior?
   
   
   thanks,
   
   
   Erik Rijkers
   
   
   
   
   

2. Re: pg_restore ignores PGDATABASE

   Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> — 2012-02-19T05:27:59Z

   On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 11:58 AM, Erik Rijkers <er@xs4all.nl> wrote:
   > pg_restore ignores environment variable PGDATABASE.
   
   What exactly do you mean by "ignores"?  pg_restore prints results to
   standard output unless a database name is specified.  AFAIK, there's
   no syntax to say "I want a direct-to-database restore to whatever you
   think the default database is".
   
   -- 
   Robert Haas
   EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
   The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company
   
   

3. Re: pg_restore ignores PGDATABASE

   Erik Rijkers <er@xs4all.nl> — 2012-02-19T06:18:56Z

   On Sun, February 19, 2012 06:27, Robert Haas wrote:
   > On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 11:58 AM, Erik Rijkers <er@xs4all.nl> wrote:
   >> pg_restore ignores environment variable PGDATABASE.
   >
   > What exactly do you mean by "ignores"?  pg_restore prints results to
   > standard output unless a database name is specified.  AFAIK, there's
   > no syntax to say "I want a direct-to-database restore to whatever you
   > think the default database is".
   
   That's right, and that seems contradictory with:
   
   "This utility [pg_restore], like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment
   variables supported by libpq (see Section 31.13)."
   
   as pg_restore does 'ignore' (for want of a better word) PGDATABASE.
   
   But I think I can conclude from your reply that that behaviour is indeed intentional.
   
   
   thanks,
   
   Erik Rijkers
   
   
   
   

4. Re: pg_restore ignores PGDATABASE

   Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> — 2012-02-19T13:02:15Z

   On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 1:18 AM, Erik Rijkers <er@xs4all.nl> wrote:
   > On Sun, February 19, 2012 06:27, Robert Haas wrote:
   >> On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 11:58 AM, Erik Rijkers <er@xs4all.nl> wrote:
   >>> pg_restore ignores environment variable PGDATABASE.
   >>
   >> What exactly do you mean by "ignores"?  pg_restore prints results to
   >> standard output unless a database name is specified.  AFAIK, there's
   >> no syntax to say "I want a direct-to-database restore to whatever you
   >> think the default database is".
   >
   > That's right, and that seems contradictory with:
   >
   > "This utility [pg_restore], like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment
   > variables supported by libpq (see Section 31.13)."
   >
   > as pg_restore does 'ignore' (for want of a better word) PGDATABASE.
   >
   > But I think I can conclude from your reply that that behaviour is indeed intentional.
   
   It is, because we want there to be a way of converting a custom or tar
   format archive back to text.  I think that probably works out for the
   best anyway, since pg_restore is a sufficiently dangerous operation
   that you want to be darn sure you're not doing it on the wrong
   database.  dropdb also requires a database name, while createdb does
   not, for similar reasons...
   
   -- 
   Robert Haas
   EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
   The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company
   
   

5. Re: pg_restore ignores PGDATABASE

   Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net> — 2012-02-19T15:25:55Z

   
   On 02/19/2012 08:02 AM, Robert Haas wrote:
   > On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 1:18 AM, Erik Rijkers<er@xs4all.nl>  wrote:
   >> On Sun, February 19, 2012 06:27, Robert Haas wrote:
   >>> On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 11:58 AM, Erik Rijkers<er@xs4all.nl>  wrote:
   >>>> pg_restore ignores environment variable PGDATABASE.
   >>> What exactly do you mean by "ignores"?  pg_restore prints results to
   >>> standard output unless a database name is specified.  AFAIK, there's
   >>> no syntax to say "I want a direct-to-database restore to whatever you
   >>> think the default database is".
   >> That's right, and that seems contradictory with:
   >>
   >> "This utility [pg_restore], like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment
   >> variables supported by libpq (see Section 31.13)."
   >>
   >> as pg_restore does 'ignore' (for want of a better word) PGDATABASE.
   >>
   >> But I think I can conclude from your reply that that behaviour is indeed intentional.
   > It is, because we want there to be a way of converting a custom or tar
   > format archive back to text.  I think that probably works out for the
   > best anyway, since pg_restore is a sufficiently dangerous operation
   > that you want to be darn sure you're not doing it on the wrong
   > database.  dropdb also requires a database name, while createdb does
   > not, for similar reasons...
   
   Right, I think we probably need to adjust the docs slightly to match 
   this reality.
   
   cheers
   
   andrew
   
   
   

6. Re: pg_restore ignores PGDATABASE

   Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> — 2012-08-27T19:27:19Z

   On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 10:25:55AM -0500, Andrew Dunstan wrote:
   > 
   > 
   > On 02/19/2012 08:02 AM, Robert Haas wrote:
   > >On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 1:18 AM, Erik Rijkers<er@xs4all.nl>  wrote:
   > >>On Sun, February 19, 2012 06:27, Robert Haas wrote:
   > >>>On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 11:58 AM, Erik Rijkers<er@xs4all.nl>  wrote:
   > >>>>pg_restore ignores environment variable PGDATABASE.
   > >>>What exactly do you mean by "ignores"?  pg_restore prints results to
   > >>>standard output unless a database name is specified.  AFAIK, there's
   > >>>no syntax to say "I want a direct-to-database restore to whatever you
   > >>>think the default database is".
   > >>That's right, and that seems contradictory with:
   > >>
   > >>"This utility [pg_restore], like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment
   > >>variables supported by libpq (see Section 31.13)."
   > >>
   > >>as pg_restore does 'ignore' (for want of a better word) PGDATABASE.
   > >>
   > >>But I think I can conclude from your reply that that behaviour is indeed intentional.
   > >It is, because we want there to be a way of converting a custom or tar
   > >format archive back to text.  I think that probably works out for the
   > >best anyway, since pg_restore is a sufficiently dangerous operation
   > >that you want to be darn sure you're not doing it on the wrong
   > >database.  dropdb also requires a database name, while createdb does
   > >not, for similar reasons...
   > 
   > Right, I think we probably need to adjust the docs slightly to match
   > this reality.
   
   Done, with the attached patch.
   
   -- 
     Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us
     EnterpriseDB                             http://enterprisedb.com
   
     + It's impossible for everything to be true. +