Re: Non-text mode for pg_dumpall - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

On Mon, Nov 3, 2025 at 5:25 PM Mahendra Singh Thalor <mahi6run@gmail.com> wrote:

On Mon, 3 Nov 2025 at 12:06, Vaibhav Dalvi <vaibhav.dalvi@enterprisedb.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Mahendra,
>
> Thank you for your work on this feature.
> I have just begun reviewing the latest patch and
> encountered the following errors during the initial setup:
>
> ```
> $ ./db/bin/pg_restore testdump_dir -C -d postgres -F d -p 5556
> pg_restore: error: could not execute query: ERROR: syntax error at or near "\\"
> LINE 1: \restrict aO9K1gzVZTlafidF5fWx8ADGzUnIiAcguFz5qskGaFDygTCjCj...
> ^
> Command was: \restrict aO9K1gzVZTlafidF5fWx8ADGzUnIiAcguFz5qskGaFDygTCjCj9vg3Xxys1b3hb
>
> pg_restore: error: could not execute query: ERROR: syntax error at or near "\\"
> LINE 1: \unrestrict aO9K1gzVZTlafidF5fWx8ADGzUnIiAcguFz5qskGaFDygTCj...
> ^
> Command was: \unrestrict aO9K1gzVZTlafidF5fWx8ADGzUnIiAcguFz5qskGaFDygTCjCj9vg3Xxys1b3hb
>
> pg_restore: error: could not execute query: ERROR: syntax error at or near "\\"
> LINE 1: \connect template1
> ^
> Command was: \connect template1
>
> pg_restore: error: could not execute query: ERROR: syntax error at or near "\\"
> LINE 1: \connect postgres
> ^
> Command was: \connect postgres
> ```
> To cross-check tried with plain dump(with pg_dumpall) and
>  restored(SQL file restore) without patch and didn't get above
> connection errors.
>
> It appears there might be an issue with the dump file itself.
> Please note that this is my first observation as I have just
> started the review. I will continue with my assessment.
>
> Regards,
> Vaibhav Dalvi
> EnterpriseDB

Thanks Vaibhav for the review.
This change was added by me in v04. Only in the case of a file, we should restore these commands. Attached patch is fixing the same.

Thanks Mahendra, I am getting a segmentation fault against v05 patch.

[edb@1a1c15437e7c bin]$ ./pg_dumpall -Ft   --file  a.3 -v
pg_dumpall: executing SELECT pg_catalog.set_config('search_path', '', false);
Segmentation fault

Issue is coming with all output file formats -F[t/c/d] except plain 

Yeah, I don't think we need to dump the timestamp in non-text modes. This fix worked for me:

diff --git a/src/bin/pg_dump/pg_dumpall.c b/src/bin/pg_dump/pg_dumpall.c
index 601b9f9738e..f66cc26d9a2 100644
--- a/src/bin/pg_dump/pg_dumpall.c
+++ b/src/bin/pg_dump/pg_dumpall.c
@@ -638,7 +638,7 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
    if (quote_all_identifiers)
        executeCommand(conn, "SET quote_all_identifiers = true");
 
-   if (verbose)
+   if (verbose && archDumpFormat == archNull)
        dumpTimestamp("Started on");
 
    /* create a archive file for global commands. */
@@ -2258,6 +2258,7 @@ createDumpId(void)
 static void
 createOneArchiveEntry(const char *query, const char *tag)
 {
+   Assert(fout != NULL);
    ArchiveEntry(fout,
            nilCatalogId, /* catalog ID */
            createDumpId(), /* dump ID */

cheers

andrew

--
Andrew Dunstan
EDB: https://www.enterprisedb.com