Joseph Shraibman <jks@selectacast.net> writes:
> Could a command be added that locks all the files, quickly tars them
> up, then releases the lock?
pg_ctl stop
tar cfz - $PGDATA >someplace
pg_ctl start
There is no possibility of anything less drastic, if you want to ensure
that the database files are consistent and not changing. Don't even
think about doing a partial dump of the $PGDATA tree, either. If you
don't have a pg_log that matches your data files, you've got nothing.
regards, tom lane