> > I was wondering about this point - might it not be just as reasonable
> > for the copied file to *be* an exact image of pg_control? Then a very
> > simple variant of pg_controldata (or maybe even just adding switches to
> > pg_controldata itself) would enable the relevant info to be extracted
>
> We didn't do that so admins could easily read the file contents.
If you use a readable file you will also need a feature for restore (or a tool)
to create an appropriate pg_control file, or are you intending to still require
that pg_control be the first file backed up.
Another possibility would be that the start function writes the readable file and
also copies pg_control.
Andreas