On 10/06/2019 13:27, Dave Cramer wrote: > So back to binary output. > > From what I can tell the place to specify binary options would be in the > create publication and or in replication slots? > > The challenge as I see it is that the subscriber would have to be able > to decode binary output. > > Any thoughts on how to handle this? At the moment I'm assuming that this > would only work for subscribers that knew how to handle binary. >
Given that we don't need to write anything extra to WAL on upstream to support binary output, why not just have the request for binary data as an option for the pgoutput and have it chosen dynamically? Then it's the subscriber who asks for binary output via option(s) to START_REPLICATION.
If I understand this correctly this would add something to the CREATE/ALTER SUBSCRIPTION commands in the WITH clause.
Additionally another column would be required for pg_subscription for the binary option.
Does it make sense to add an options column which would just be a comma separated string?
Not that I have future options in mind but seems like something that might come up in the future.