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10.3.5.2 archive_command scripts

Many people choose to use scripts to define their archive_command, so that their ‘postgresql.conf’ entry looks very simple:

archive_command = 'local_backup_script.sh'

Using a separate script file is advisable any time you want to use more than a single command in the archiving process. This allows all complexity to be managed within the script, which can be written in a popular scripting language such as bash or perl. Any messages written to stderr from the script will appear in the database server log, allowing complex configurations to be diagnosed easily if they fail.

Examples of requirements that might be solved within a script include:

• Copying data to secure off-site data storage
• Batching WAL files so that they are transferred every three hours, rather than one at a time
• Interfacing with other backup and recovery software
• Interfacing with monitoring software to report errors