Dear fellow hackers,
Problem: A normal diff of two slightly different schema dump files (pg_dump -s), will not produce a user-friendly diff, as you get all changes in the same file.
Solution: I propose a new option to pg_dump, --split, which dumps each object to a separate file in a user friendly directory structure:
[-f filename] : main dump file, imports each splitted part using \i
[-f filename]-split/[desc]/[tag]/[oid].sql : dump of the oid
Example: If the filename (-f) is "pg.dump", the following directory structure would be created:
$ ./pg_dump -f /crypt/pg.dump --split -F p -s glue
/crypt/pg.dump-split/VIEW/
/crypt/pg.dump-split/TYPE/
/crypt/pg.dump-split/TRIGGER/
/crypt/pg.dump-split/TABLE/
/crypt/pg.dump-split/SEQUENCE/
/crypt/pg.dump-split/SCHEMA/
/crypt/pg.dump-split/PROCEDURAL_LANGUAGE/
/crypt/pg.dump-split/INDEX/
/crypt/pg.dump-split/FUNCTION/
/crypt/pg.dump-split/FK_CONSTRAINT/
/crypt/pg.dump-split/CONSTRAINT/
/crypt/pg.dump-split/AGGREGATE/
In each such directory, one directory per object name is created.
If we would have a function "foobar" with oid "12345" it would be saved to:
/crypt/pg.dump-split/FUNCTION/foobar/12345.sql
In the "pg.dump" plain text file, the files are "linked in" using the "\i" psql command, e.g.:
\i /crypt/pg.dump-split/FUNCTION/foobar/12345.sql
Potential use-case scenarios:
*) Version control your database schema, by exporting it daily (using --split) and commiting the differences.
*) Compare differences of schema dumps created in different points in time. Since objects are stored in separate files, it is easier to see what areas were modified, compared to looking at the diff of two entire schemas.
*) Restore only some objects, based on type (e.g., only the functions) or name (e.g. only fucntions of certain name/names).
I've tested the patch for both the latest HEAD (9.1devel) as well as 8.4.6.
Feedback welcome.
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Best regards,
Joel Jacobson
Glue Finance