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2 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>pg_verifybackup</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css" /><link rev="made" href="pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org" /><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets Vsnapshot" /><link rel="prev" href="app-pgrestore.html" title="pg_restore" /><link rel="next" href="app-psql.html" title="psql" /></head><body id="docContent" class="container-fluid col-10"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="5" align="center"><span class="application">pg_verifybackup</span></th></tr><tr><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="app-pgrestore.html" title="pg_restore">Prev</a> </td><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="u" href="reference-client.html" title="PostgreSQL Client Applications">Up</a></td><th width="60%" align="center">PostgreSQL Client Applications</th><td width="10%" align="right"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 18.0 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="10%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="app-psql.html" title="psql">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr /></div><div class="refentry" id="APP-PGVERIFYBACKUP"><div class="titlepage"></div><a id="id-1.9.4.20.1" class="indexterm"></a><div class="refnamediv"><h2><span class="refentrytitle"><span class="application">pg_verifybackup</span></span></h2><p>pg_verifybackup — verify the integrity of a base backup of a
3 <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> cluster</p></div><div class="refsynopsisdiv"><h2>Synopsis</h2><div class="cmdsynopsis"><p id="id-1.9.4.20.4.1"><code class="command">pg_verifybackup</code> [<em class="replaceable"><code>option</code></em>...]</p></div></div><div class="refsect1" id="id-1.9.4.20.5"><h2>Description</h2><p>
4 <span class="application">pg_verifybackup</span> is used to check the
5 integrity of a database cluster backup taken using
6 <code class="command">pg_basebackup</code> against a
7 <code class="literal">backup_manifest</code> generated by the server at the time
8 of the backup. The backup may be stored either in the "plain" or the "tar"
9 format; this includes tar-format backups compressed with any algorithm
10 supported by <span class="application">pg_basebackup</span>. However, at present,
11 <code class="literal">WAL</code> verification is supported only for plain-format
12 backups. Therefore, if the backup is stored in tar-format, the
13 <code class="literal">-n, --no-parse-wal</code> option should be used.
15 It is important to note that the validation which is performed by
16 <span class="application">pg_verifybackup</span> does not and cannot include
17 every check which will be performed by a running server when attempting
18 to make use of the backup. Even if you use this tool, you should still
19 perform test restores and verify that the resulting databases work as
20 expected and that they appear to contain the correct data. However,
21 <span class="application">pg_verifybackup</span> can detect many problems
22 that commonly occur due to storage problems or user error.
24 Backup verification proceeds in four stages. First,
25 <code class="literal">pg_verifybackup</code> reads the
26 <code class="literal">backup_manifest</code> file. If that file
27 does not exist, cannot be read, is malformed, fails to match the system
28 identifier with <code class="filename">pg_control</code> of the backup directory or
29 fails verification against its own internal checksum,
30 <code class="literal">pg_verifybackup</code> will terminate with a fatal error.
32 Second, <code class="literal">pg_verifybackup</code> will attempt to verify that
33 the data files currently stored on disk are exactly the same as the data
34 files which the server intended to send, with some exceptions that are
35 described below. Extra and missing files will be detected, with a few
36 exceptions. This step will ignore the presence or absence of, or any
37 modifications to, <code class="literal">postgresql.auto.conf</code>,
38 <code class="literal">standby.signal</code>, and <code class="literal">recovery.signal</code>,
39 because it is expected that these files may have been created or modified
40 as part of the process of taking the backup. It also won't complain about
41 a <code class="literal">backup_manifest</code> file in the target directory or
42 about anything inside <code class="literal">pg_wal</code>, even though these
43 files won't be listed in the backup manifest. Only files are checked;
44 the presence or absence of directories is not verified, except
45 indirectly: if a directory is missing, any files it should have contained
46 will necessarily also be missing.
48 Next, <code class="literal">pg_verifybackup</code> will checksum all the files,
49 compare the checksums against the values in the manifest, and emit errors
50 for any files for which the computed checksum does not match the
51 checksum stored in the manifest. This step is not performed for any files
52 which produced errors in the previous step, since they are already known
53 to have problems. Files which were ignored in the previous step are also
56 Finally, <code class="literal">pg_verifybackup</code> will use the manifest to
57 verify that the write-ahead log records which will be needed to recover
58 the backup are present and that they can be read and parsed. The
59 <code class="literal">backup_manifest</code> contains information about which
60 write-ahead log records will be needed, and
61 <code class="literal">pg_verifybackup</code> will use that information to
62 invoke <code class="literal">pg_waldump</code> to parse those write-ahead log
63 records. The <code class="literal">--quiet</code> flag will be used, so that
64 <code class="literal">pg_waldump</code> will only report errors, without producing
65 any other output. While this level of verification is sufficient to
66 detect obvious problems such as a missing file or one whose internal
67 checksums do not match, they aren't extensive enough to detect every
68 possible problem that might occur when attempting to recover. For
69 instance, a server bug that produces write-ahead log records that have
70 the correct checksums but specify nonsensical actions can't be detected
73 Note that if extra WAL files which are not required to recover the backup
74 are present, they will not be checked by this tool, although
75 a separate invocation of <code class="literal">pg_waldump</code> could be used for
76 that purpose. Also note that WAL verification is version-specific: you
77 must use the version of <code class="literal">pg_verifybackup</code>, and thus of
78 <code class="literal">pg_waldump</code>, which pertains to the backup being checked.
79 In contrast, the data file integrity checks should work with any version
80 of the server that generates a <code class="literal">backup_manifest</code> file.
81 </p></div><div class="refsect1" id="id-1.9.4.20.6"><h2>Options</h2><p>
82 <span class="application">pg_verifybackup</span> accepts the following
83 command-line arguments:
85 </p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-e</code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--exit-on-error</code></span></dt><dd><p>
86 Exit as soon as a problem with the backup is detected. If this option
87 is not specified, <code class="literal">pg_verifybackup</code> will continue
88 checking the backup even after a problem has been detected, and will
89 report all problems detected as errors.
90 </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-F <em class="replaceable"><code>format</code></em></code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--format=<em class="replaceable"><code>format</code></em></code></span></dt><dd><p>
91 Specifies the format of the backup. <em class="replaceable"><code>format</code></em>
92 can be one of the following:
94 </p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term"><code class="literal">p</code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="literal">plain</code></span></dt><dd><p>
95 Backup consists of plain files with the same layout as the
96 source server's data directory and tablespaces.
97 </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="literal">t</code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="literal">tar</code></span></dt><dd><p>
98 Backup consists of tar files, which may be compressed. A valid
99 backup includes the main data directory in a file named
100 <code class="filename">base.tar</code>, the WAL files in
101 <code class="filename">pg_wal.tar</code>, and separate tar files for
102 each tablespace, named after the tablespace's OID. If the backup
103 is compressed, the relevant compression extension is added to the
104 end of each file name.
105 </p></dd></dl></div></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-i <em class="replaceable"><code>path</code></em></code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--ignore=<em class="replaceable"><code>path</code></em></code></span></dt><dd><p>
106 Ignore the specified file or directory, which should be expressed
107 as a relative path name, when comparing the list of data files
108 actually present in the backup to those listed in the
109 <code class="literal">backup_manifest</code> file. If a directory is
110 specified, this option affects the entire subtree rooted at that
111 location. Complaints about extra files, missing files, file size
112 differences, or checksum mismatches will be suppressed if the
113 relative path name matches the specified path name. This option
114 can be specified multiple times.
115 </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-m <em class="replaceable"><code>path</code></em></code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--manifest-path=<em class="replaceable"><code>path</code></em></code></span></dt><dd><p>
116 Use the manifest file at the specified path, rather than one located
117 in the root of the backup directory.
118 </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-n</code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--no-parse-wal</code></span></dt><dd><p>
119 Don't attempt to parse write-ahead log data that will be needed
120 to recover from this backup.
121 </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-P</code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--progress</code></span></dt><dd><p>
122 Enable progress reporting. Turning this on will deliver a progress
123 report while verifying checksums.
125 This option cannot be used together with the option
126 <code class="option">--quiet</code>.
127 </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-q</code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--quiet</code></span></dt><dd><p>
128 Don't print anything when a backup is successfully verified.
129 </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-s</code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--skip-checksums</code></span></dt><dd><p>
130 Do not verify data file checksums. The presence or absence of
131 files and the sizes of those files will still be checked. This is
132 much faster, because the files themselves do not need to be read.
133 </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-w <em class="replaceable"><code>path</code></em></code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--wal-directory=<em class="replaceable"><code>path</code></em></code></span></dt><dd><p>
134 Try to parse WAL files stored in the specified directory, rather than
135 in <code class="literal">pg_wal</code>. This may be useful if the backup is
136 stored in a separate location from the WAL archive.
137 </p></dd></dl></div><p>
139 Other options are also available:
141 </p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-V</code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--version</code></span></dt><dd><p>
142 Print the <span class="application">pg_verifybackup</span> version and exit.
143 </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">-?</code><br /></span><span class="term"><code class="option">--help</code></span></dt><dd><p>
144 Show help about <span class="application">pg_verifybackup</span> command
145 line arguments, and exit.
146 </p></dd></dl></div><p>
147 </p></div><div class="refsect1" id="id-1.9.4.20.7"><h2>Examples</h2><p>
148 To create a base backup of the server at <code class="literal">mydbserver</code> and
149 verify the integrity of the backup:
150 </p><pre class="screen">
151 <code class="prompt">$</code> <strong class="userinput"><code>pg_basebackup -h mydbserver -D /usr/local/pgsql/data</code></strong>
152 <code class="prompt">$</code> <strong class="userinput"><code>pg_verifybackup /usr/local/pgsql/data</code></strong>
155 To create a base backup of the server at <code class="literal">mydbserver</code>, move
156 the manifest somewhere outside the backup directory, and verify the
158 </p><pre class="screen">
159 <code class="prompt">$</code> <strong class="userinput"><code>pg_basebackup -h mydbserver -D /usr/local/pgsql/backup1234</code></strong>
160 <code class="prompt">$</code> <strong class="userinput"><code>mv /usr/local/pgsql/backup1234/backup_manifest /my/secure/location/backup_manifest.1234</code></strong>
161 <code class="prompt">$</code> <strong class="userinput"><code>pg_verifybackup -m /my/secure/location/backup_manifest.1234 /usr/local/pgsql/backup1234</code></strong>
164 To verify a backup while ignoring a file that was added manually to the
165 backup directory, and also skipping checksum verification:
166 </p><pre class="screen">
167 <code class="prompt">$</code> <strong class="userinput"><code>pg_basebackup -h mydbserver -D /usr/local/pgsql/data</code></strong>
168 <code class="prompt">$</code> <strong class="userinput"><code>edit /usr/local/pgsql/data/note.to.self</code></strong>
169 <code class="prompt">$</code> <strong class="userinput"><code>pg_verifybackup --ignore=note.to.self --skip-checksums /usr/local/pgsql/data</code></strong>
170 </pre></div><div class="refsect1" id="id-1.9.4.20.8"><h2>See Also</h2><span class="simplelist"><a class="xref" href="app-pgbasebackup.html" title="pg_basebackup"><span class="refentrytitle"><span class="application">pg_basebackup</span></span></a></span></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="app-pgrestore.html" title="pg_restore">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="reference-client.html" title="PostgreSQL Client Applications">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="app-psql.html" title="psql">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top"><span class="application">pg_restore</span> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 18.0 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> <span class="application">psql</span></td></tr></table></div></body></html>