Re: pg_dump --with-* options

On 2025/07/11 2:57, Jeff Davis wrote:
> On Wed, 2025-06-25 at 08:18 +0900, Fujii Masao wrote:
>> For pg_dump and pg_dumpall, I agree with Jeff's idea in [1],
>> but if the statistics is skipped by default, I don't think
>> we need a --no-statistics option. So, here's how I think
>> the options should work:
>>
>>       * Keep: --schema-only, --data-only, --statistics-only, --no-
>> schema, --no-data, -and -statistics
>>       * Remove: --no-statistics, --with-schema, and --with-data
> 
> ...
> 
>> For pg_restore, I believe there's agreement to restore statistics
>> by default if they exist in the archive. So:
>>
>>       * Keep: --schema-only, --data-only, --statistics-only, --no-
>> schema, --no-data, and --no-statistics
>>       * Remove: --with-schema, --with-data, and --statistics
> 
> That means pg_dump will accept --statistics and reject --no-statistics;
> and pg_restore will accept --no-statistics and reject --statistics.
> Other options are mostly the same between them, so I'm not sure it's a
> good idea for them to diverge.

I agree it would be better to have the same options in both pg_dump
and pg_restore, if possible.

But to do that, we'd either need to make pg_dump dump statistics
by default, or allow redundant options like --statistics in pg_restore,
even though it already restores statistics by default.

As I understand it, the rough consensus so far is that we'd prefer to
avoid both of these approaches. I know some want to change the default
behavior about statistics in pg_dump, though.

But, are you suggesting we go with one of them?

Regards,

-- 
Fujii Masao
NTT DATA Japan Corporation