wheel <wheel@wheel.not> writes:
> I guess the reason is that the pg system database etc are lodged in the
> hive under \base\, and the system db contains the metadata about the db
> to be restored?
No, the reason why selective restore doesn't work is that all tables in
a database cluster depend on the same commit log (pg_clog) to determine
which rows are valid and which are not. What you were trying to do is
described in the manual (with a warning not to do it) under
backup/restore procedures:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.2/static/backup-file.html
Also, if you would like to know more about the physical layout of the
database contents, it's described here:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.2/static/storage.html
regards, tom lane